2025 Formula Drift Round 3 at Orlando: It’s a Young Man’s Game

Heading into the third round of the 2025 Formula Drift Pro Championship at Orlando Speedworld, the scene was beginning to look a lot like a two-driver race. James Deane and Fredric Aasbo were the top two, swapping their order between them. With rain in the forecast again, the stage was heavily in favor of these two wet track masters but somebody didn’t tell them as they entered the first oval-based track of the season.

Seeded Qualifying

First up was settling the 12 open spots for Round 3 and mostly consisted of the same drivers from Round 2, but the podium was far different. For the first time in 2025, Daigo Saito in the Enjuku Racing Toyota GR86 would finally gain a podium spot in seeded competition. Since third place isn’t contested, he and Tommy Lemaire—in the XPN Chevrolet Corvette—finishing positions would be decided on their points ranking and why Saito is credited with third. However, both drivers add six points to their 2025 championship standings.

The top spots were taken by Jack Shanahan in the Kumho Tire BMW 1-Series and Federico Sceriffo in the Pennzoil Ferrari 599 GTB. While Shanahan is no stranger to a podium, this was the first time that Sceriffo would put the Ferrari into the field in 2025. When the seeding finals were done, Shanahan would just edge out Sceriffo giving the Irishman 12 points and Sceriffo a much needed 9 points towards his 2025 season.

Other drivers gaining three points were Dan Burkett, Derek Madison, and Rudy Hansen while Ryan Litteral, Andy Hateley, Nick Noback, and Austin Matta all didn’t receive points but qualified for the show. The lone driver to miss round three was Connor O’Sullivan as he was the odd man out and he and Matta just had the opposite experience versus round two.

Sorry for the Brief Interruption

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Huge Improvements and History, All in One Round

After their spectacular performance in round two, expectations were high that James Deane in the Autozone Ford Mustang RTR and Fredric Aasbo in the Rockstar Energy Drift Toyota GR Supra would once again dominate the round. Unfortunately, Deane’s exit came in Top 16 when he faced off against Rome Charpentier in the Garagistic BMW 1-Series. Rome came out swinging in his run against Deane and put his BMW right on the door of the RTR on the first outside zone. Deane had a great transition through “Power Alley,” the straight between the first outer on the bank and second outer on the inner oval. But that gap was quickly filled up again by Rome right at the tail end of the outer zone and at the finish. When Rome took his lead run, Deane didn’t look like his characteristic self as he lost ground on initiation on the bank but made it back up before the end of the first outer zone. Through Power Alley, Rome started a gap against the Mustang and Deane just couldn’t recover proximity and that helped give Charpentier the win.

This early exit meant that Deane would only gain 10 points in the round, but he’s currently second in points at 100 thanks to his performance in the previous two rounds. Charpentier would face off against Matt Field in the Borla Performance Chevrolet Corvette in the Great Eight after Field took out Dan Burkette in the RAD Performance Toyota Supra and Adam LZ in the Drift HQ BMW 3-series. Field would also take out Charpentier on his way to the Final Four.

Jhonnattan Castro and his Metaldom Toyota GR86 have been steadily improving thanks to changes made between round one and two, going from a Top 16 exit to a Fourth Place finish at Road Atlanta. It looks like additional changes have been found and this round has been his best since entering Formula Drift in 2012. After defeating Ryan Litteral, Ken Gushi, and Branden Sorensen, Castro would face off against Matt Field in the Final Four. Field didn’t make it easy for Castro as they went to a One More Time (OMT) before giving Castro the victory and his entry into the Finals.

This finish would credit Field with fourth place as he would be knocked off the podium thanks to Aurimas “Odi” Bakchis in the Feal Suspension Nissan 240SX having been seeded higher than Field. Regardless of who won between Odi and Hiroya, Field was guaranteed a Fourth Place finish as both drivers on the right side of the bracket were higher seeded than him. Odi took out Andy Hateley, Simen Olsen, and Chris Forsberg in his run to the final podium step.

Before Odi could be credited for Third Place, he needed to run against Hiroya Minowa in the Enjuku Racing Toyota GT86 in the finals. The 15-year-old phenom was seeded in seventh place and started his run to the finals with Dmitriy Brutskiy, Conor Shanahan, and eventually faced off against the points leader, Fredric Aasbo. With Aasbo leading first, Minowa put his GT86 near the door of GR Supra of Aasbo on the first outer zone. Coming out of the Power Alley, Minowa pulled right up to the door of Aasbo and just tapping the door this time coming out of the second outer and into the finish. With this run, Hiroya Minowa put everyone on notice that he’s ready to bring a real fight to his Formula Drift season.

On Minowa’s lead run, Aasbo quickly closed proximity to the younger driver on the first outer zone, but Hiroya just started to pull a gap by the first clipping point of the Power Alley. Much like Deane, Aasbo couldn’t keep up once that gap opened and Minowa powered his way to a victory and set his right rear tire on fire by the end of the run. With his Great Eight exit, Aasbo only secured 20 points and only 10 more than Deane, just barely keeping Aasbo in the lead of the 2025 Championship with 110 points. After this amazing run against Aasbo, Minowa would get his victory against Odi with a unanimous decision.

A Spectacular Final Round

And now we were on track to have a first-time winner at Orlando Speedworld. While he’s been in the series since 2012, Castro has yet to podium in his career and even if he loses, it will be his best finish in his 13-year career. Minowa, however, had several podium finishes in his rookie season in 2024. I keep calling him a phenom, but the kid has the record of a champion and don’t be surprised if he ends up being a contender for the 2025 Formula Drift championship. Regardless, this Final was a fight between two very hungry drivers that are looking to get their first 2025 win in both the season and at Orlando Speedworld. With a Fourth Place seeding, Castro would lead in their first run.

It was a bit of a false start as a cone was knocked down by Castro at the start gate. With a quick reset, Castro went into the bank tight to the wall along outer zone one but Minowa wasn’t fare behind. Through the transition of the Power Alley and Minowa keep right on the bumper and back to the door of Castro and stayed there as, once again, Minowa’s right rear tire lit up.

Swapping places, Minowa started by running his bumper against the wall while Castro struggled to get up to it on the first outer zone. This would give the early advantage to the young driver as high tire would once again catch fire into the Power Alley, but Castro didn’t give up and pulled wheel-to-wheel at the front clipping point. By the time both drivers transitioned to the inner oval, Minowa pulled a two-car gap against Castro and remained that far ahead to finish his run. That was all it took to give Minowa the win and become the youngest winner in Formula Drift history. We shouldn’t count out Castro’s effort, at the same time, as he has pulled off an amazing turnaround in just three rounds. Much like Minowa, don’t be surprised to see another podium for Castro in the very near future.

For now, however, Minowa is proving his benefactors right as he trails Fredric Aasbo by just 30 points for the 2025 Championship and sits in third place. Equally far behind is Jhonnattan Castro as he moves up to fourth place. Odi Bakchis rounds out the top five in points but tied with the former two drivers. With a victory and high placements in the previous two rounds, Toyota holds the lead in the Auto Cup with 200 points. Nissan trails back by only 28 points in second and BMW is sitting in third at 70 points behind. For the Tire Cup, Kenda remains in the lead thanks to its higher finishes overall from the previous two rounds with a total of 202 points. GT Radial is currently second and trailing by only 22 points and Nitto Tire sits in third only 32 points behind Kenda. Kumho Tire is fourth with only 61 points in total.

The next round of the 2025 Formula Drift Championship is at the former dragstrip that’s now a drifting complex known as Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. This takes place June 19th through the 20th with tickets on sale now.