We’re Halfway There: The 2025 Formula Drift Season, Thus Far

With Old Bridge Township Raceway approaching, the 2025 Formula Drift season has officially entered its halfway point. To see how it’s shaping up, we spoke to current points leader, Fredric Aasbo in the Rockstar Energy Toyota GR Supra, and Formula Drift judge, Reese Marin, to get their thoughts from their unique perspectives.

Before the start of the 2025 season, Fredric Aasbo was seen as one of the potential championship favorites coming into the first round. “At this level of competition,” said Reese Marin, one of the two permanent judges for this season, “I would say that Aasbo, James Dean and Aurimas ‘Odi’ Bakchis are currently guys that get brought up but there’s a lot of young talent that I think is on the come up and I’m looking forward to see how it all unfolds.”

The only catch for Aasbo is that he hadn’t won Long Beach since 2018. That didn’t deter him from going into the first round of the 2025 season with some confidence. “Long Beach is the event where we get to see how we measure up against the field after the off-season,” Aasbo said, “It’s where people have been working on their cars and driving and we don't know exactly what they're bringing to the season. We always go in with the best package we can and hope to be competitive.” And competitive he was, striking first but not before getting into a One More Time battle against James Deane—driver of the Autozone Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5D—in the finals. “James and I have known each other for a long time,” he said, “and we enjoy battling each other. I think that brings out the best driving from both of us because we both know there’s no holding back.”

I asked Reese if everyone’s performance, especially the One More Time finals at Long Beach changed his mind on who was on top in his mind. “No,” he replied, “I would say the one more time battles that we’ve seen with Frederick and James just goes to show you that at this level of competition, it’s literally neck and neck and it comes down to who is going to make more of the small errors that accumulate to a loss.”

Round Two at Road Atlanta threw one of the first curve balls in the 2025 season thanks to rain just before and during the finals. Even so, it seemed that Deane and Aasbo just couldn’t be phased out of their competitiveness and performance. Even so, facing Deane once again, he had to do something to change his game plan, right? “I don’t think of it as “having” to face James Deane,” Aasbo replied, “I think of it as ‘getting’ to face James Deane. Whenever the bracket stacks up that way, we know it’s going to be a very fun fight and we’ll both be driving at 100 percent commitment.”

While it didn’t go his way, Aasbo and Deane remained tied heading into the third round at Orlando Speed World, surely even Reese could feel that this was going to be an Aasbo and Deane fight to the end, right? Not exactly, and that comes thanks to his own experience with DriftIndy, “I know sometimes it’s very easy to say that someone could potentially have a dominant year,” he replied, “but over the years DriftIndy has showed me that there is a little bit of luck that goes into this and, at any event, at any given time, it could be anybody’s game.”

Turns out we would all be thrown for a loop by Florida’s weather and the first permanent oval for the 2025 season. First, James Deane was knocked out in the Top 16 while Aasbo was able to make it as far as the Great Eight before facing the youngest winner in Formula Drift history, Hiroya Minowa in the Enjuku Racing Toyota GR86. The kid has been proving that he’s a future champion and shouldn’t be taken lightly, which even Aasbo agreed with by saying, “We learn from every battle and it’s exciting to have a new talent like Hiroya working his way through the ranks. We know he works very hard to improve his skills, and his talent and work ethic inspire us to work just as hard and try new things to continually up our game.”

After looking at the results from Orlando Speed World, Reese’s options on how the season has been going hasn’t changed, despite the early knockouts by Deane and Aasbo. “Like I said,” Reese replied, “with this sport it’s anyone’s game and sometimes the most unlikely competitor can take it to the top.” However, he did conclude that Castro and Minowa would be the targets for everyone at Old Bridge Township Raceway in Englishtown, New Jersey. “They have the momentum from being on the podium at the last round and that confidence is a huge benefactor going into this round in New Jersey,” Reese explained.

For Aasbo, however, there isn’t a target on anyone’s back in particular going forward to Englishtown or the next four rounds afterwards, “The championship will go to the team that does the best this year to bring a consistently competitive package to the track,” he replied, “All we can do is focus on that: working well together as a team.” If this were another racing series, the thought of a teammate defeating you while in the middle of a close championship is a hard one to swallow for them. In some unfortunate cases, this has led to a dreaded term: “team orders.” Fortunately, Aasbo and Papadakis Racing teammate, Ryan Tuerck in the RainX Toyota Corolla GR, don’t believe in laying down even for a teammate in a championship battle. “No matter the stakes,” replied Aasbo, “Papadakis Racing doesn’t believe in team orders. It’s always a fair fight when Ryan and I line up against each other.”

While Englishtown is on everyone’s mind, there is a round coming up that Reese is looking forward to. It’s not World Wide Technology Raceway in Saint Louis, Missouri, nor will it be Evergreen Speedway or Utah. “To be completely honest,” he replied, “this season I’m looking forward to the last round because it’s going to be a new layout and I believe that is just exciting and will put everyone on an even playing field for that round.”

That’s also a round that could play into the hands of experienced drivers who have time behind the wheel of their vehicles. It will also play in the hands of drivers who regularly compete in widely changing tracks across the world like both Aasbo and Deane do. That means it’s very likely that those two drivers will face each other again and Aasbo knows what’s at stake. “When you’re lining up against a four-time champion,” said Aasbo, “you know you’ve got to leave it all on the track.”

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