Conor Shanahan is the 2026 Formula Drift Pro champion after the Long Beach finale on 24 October, James Deane wins round 8

Formula Drift closed its 2026 Pro season at Long Beach, California on 23 and 24 October with the Shoreline Showdown, and Conor Shanahan came out of it as champion. The 23 year old Irishman, driving the Red Bull, GT Radial and JYR backed Toyota GT86, finished the year on 224 points. He actually sealed the title before the trophies were handed out, in his Top 32 heat against Jhonnattan Castro, when Castro dropped two tyres outside the track limits in Zone 4 and was eliminated.

The round itself went to James Deane, the five time champion, in his Mustang. Deane ended the season second on 218 points. Conor's brother Jack Shanahan was runner up in the final and third in the championship on 206 points, which meant all three places on the Pro podium went to Irish drivers. Branden Sorensen was fourth on 165 points and Matt Field fifth on 150.

Jack Shanahan's weekend was the neatest piece of work. He arrived as the number one qualifier, which is worth four championship points and a bye through the Top 32, then won three straight tandem battles before spinning in Zone 6 while chasing Deane in the final. He runs an E82 BMW on Kumho Ecsta V730 tyres, and it was his second season in the series with four podiums. Elsewhere, Cole Richards took Rookie of the Year, Ford won the Auto Cup and GT Radial took the Tire Cup for the second year running.

The year a computer started marking the runs

This was the 23rd Formula Drift season, running from 10 April to 24 October, and it is the one that changed how drifting is scored. Formula Drift dropped all tandem qualifying for the Pro class and went back to two run qualifying, using a telemetry system called the Universal Drift Scoring Method, built with the Australian firm Race Data Labs. A roof mounted sensor known as Wally tracks where the car is, how fast it is going, its angle, its braking and whether a tyre has gone off course.

Line and angle, which make up 80 per cent of a Pro qualifying score, are now scored automatically. The remaining 20 per cent, style, still belongs to the three judges. In tandem battles the judges can call up proximity, comparative angle and speed, deceleration and off course data, which matters when the smoke makes a car almost invisible. Race Data Labs' Michael Vernuccio said the company's role "will extend beyond traditional drift telemetry to help evolve the sport into a new era of digital judging". The system debuted at the Long Beach opener on 10 and 11 April. One round, Indianapolis, was cancelled because of weather.

What this means for India

India's drift scene is tiny next to this, but it is on the same path. The first FMSCI backed drifting competition in the country was the JK Tyre Drift Challenge at the Buddh International Circuit in October 2023, judged on line, angle, style and speed by a panel that included Japan's Taniguchi Atsushi. Sanam Sekhon won the D1 class in a Lexus GS 300 with 744 points, ahead of Jugraj Singh Bhurjee on 476, while Mudit Grover took the Open class in a BMW E46 with 700 points. Sekhon later set a Guinness record for the highest altitude drift by a car, at 5,798 metres at Umling La in Ladakh, in October 2025.

The lesson from Long Beach for Indian organisers is that judged motorsport is finally getting measurable. If line and angle can be read off a sensor, a club drift round in India can be scored the same way a Formula Drift round is, without needing a panel of international judges flown in every time.

Sources

• Conor Shanahan is the 2026 Formula Drift Pro champion, Deane wins the final round 8 in Long Beach
• Kumho's Jack Shanahan third in 2026 Formula Drift standings
• Formula Drift partners with Race Data Labs for big competition format changes
• 2026 Formula Drift season
• Sanam Sekhon wins first ever JK Tyre Drift Challenge
• JK Tyre Motorsport media releases