Shoreline Showdown is a Bye Run to the 2025 Formula Drift Season

With Irwindale Speedway gone, a new home was made for the final round of the Formula Drift 2025 season. For the first time, the professional slideways drivers would return to where they started with the Shoreline Showdown in Long Beach. But, without the Long Beach Grand Prix, would the city’s residents welcome a standalone motorsports event? From the size of the crowd, it certainly did and they were treated to a rare finish: a newcomer taking home the victory.

A Rookie Winner

Despite the pressure and unlikelihood, Jack Shanahan in the Kumho Tire BMW 1-Series would take the overall victory at Shoreline Showdown. That victory was far from an easy path as he would face off against Daniel Stuke in the MspeK Performance Nissan S14.9 240SX. Both drivers met once with Shanahan victorious in that battle, but Jack would prove to be the victor again with a consistent run and getting the unanimous vote by the judges.

In Top 16, Shanahan and Adam LZ in the Drift HQ BMW E36 3-Series Coupe would face off but the run would end in disaster for LZ. Into the first turn, LZ entered as he normally would, but the right rear of the car drifted too far into the outer zone, resulting in Adam hitting the wall. This instantly stopped Adam’s drift and, with Jack not able to do anything, Shanahan ended up hitting LZ. Adam’s car was too damaged from the initial impact, but Jack’s 1 Series was intact enough to drive back to the pits and take a bye-run into the Great Eight.

Next up for Shanahan was Norwegian driver, Simen Olsen in the Kenda Tires Toyota GR Supra. While the great fans from Norway would cheer along Olsen and Aasbo, it was just wasn’t enough to topple the luck of the Irish as Shanahan would get the victory thanks to a far more consistent drive in both his lead and follow runs. He would also face off against Ryan Tuerck in the RainX Toyota GR Corolla. During his follow run, Tuerck would end up hitting Shanahan and led to the Irishman getting the victory against a Formula Drift veteran. This would have set up a huge finale between the impressive young driver, Hiroya Minowa, in the Enjuku Racing Toyota FRS. Unfortunately, the VR38DETT engine showed signs of trouble after besting James Deane in the Final Four.

With a five-minute call made, the Jerry Yang Racing team tried to get the FRS revived and were nearly successful. While they beat the clock and Minowa was able to get to the burnout box, the engine expired just before he could get to the start gate. This gave Shanahan the victory and the 2025 Rookie of the Year Honors by finishing sixth in points, 58 points ahead of Connor O’Sullivan.

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Minowa and LZ Top 5 Points Finish Explained

Minowa’s heartbreak shouldn’t overshadow what he was nearly able to succeed at. As he progressed towards the Finals, Hiroya was in a points comeback to try and secure second in the season. Unfortunately, only a win would have placed him high enough and fellow GT Radial Driver, Matt Field in the Borla Performance Chevrolet C7 Corvette would end up just 20 points ahead, finishing in second place, and Aasbo 10 points ahead and in third at the end of the 2025 season.

This put Minowa in fourth place and tied with Adam LZ in points, but Minowa will be credited as ahead thanks to a higher round average finish thanks to having more Great Eight endings. Adam would end up with three Top 16s, one Great Eight, three Final Fours, and one Final in 2025 versus Minowa’s two Top 16s, four Great Eights, and two Finals.

There Was a Points Battle at Long Beach, But The Champion Was Crowned at Utah

The Pro Championship had been decided back in Utah after James Deane in the Auto Zone Ford Mustang RTR locked it after Fredric Aasbo in the Rockstar Energy Toyota GR Supra was knocked out in Top 32 competition for the second round in a row. This instantly put Deane 90 points ahead of Aasbo and, consequently, dropped the Norwegian to fourth in points. The fight would now be for second place as Hiroya Minowa, Adam LZ, and Matt Field were all within striking distance going into the final round. Another end-of-year battle was brewing as Jack Shanahan, Connor O’Sullivan, Tommy Lemaire, and Austin Matta were still slugging it out to be the 2025 Rookie of the Year. Jack was Top 16 in points after Utah but only ahead of O’Sullivan by 25 points, meaning that race was tight going into the Shoreline Showdown.

Smoke Proved to be a Problem

One of the unforeseen issues of running Shoreline Showdown was the lack of visibility, particularly as the sun set and drivers with more wheel speed were able to smoke their tires far more. This artificial cloud made visibility hard not only for drivers—a constant challenge for follow drivers, particularly—but also for fans and light winds weren’t helping clear it out. As the course did come back on itself before the finish, tire smoke lingered in the air and blocked the view of the finish. Hopefully, when Formula Drift comes back to Long Beach for round eight, this configuration will be tweaked to reduce that issue. Else, it will ruin the show for fans if there isn’t any wind to help clear the course. Otherwise, it seemed like a huge success that Formula Drift needed to make Long Beach a more permanent home for the final in the future.

Early Fan Favorite Victory

One of the 12 drivers that would earn their way into the final round was Ryan Litteral, driver of the Sonoco Fuels Nissan S14 240SX. Joining him were other Formula Drift Veterans like Ken Gushi, Vaughn Gittin, Jr, Dan Burkett, and Andy Hately. With four very competent drivers in the field, it was going to be a challenge for Litteral, but he was able to overcome the odds and beat Ken Gushi in the Greddy Performance Toyota GR86. Rounding out the podium was Vaughn Gittin, Jr, in the Monster Energy Ford Mustang RTR and hot off the official announcement of Ford factory-built 2026 Mustang EcoBoost RTR. Rookie of the Year contender, Connor O’Sullivan in the US Army BMW E46 3-Series Coupe would place fourth, closing that battle to just 19 points between himself and Jack Shanahan.

A Call to Bring Back Qualifying

During the 2025 Formula Drift Awards Banquet that happens the Sunday after the final round, James Deane ended his championship acceptance speech with the following: “Bring back qualifying.” The reason it was changed was to speed up a Formula Drift weekend and introduced a seeding format based on finishing position from the previous round. The sentiment to bring back qualifying has been echoed by fans as many feel like it gives those who ranked higher in the previous round the advantage. It also removes a bit of the randomness that qualifying can bring to a Top 32 competition. Formula Drift has already promised that 2026 will bring about changes to the championship, so we’ll need to keep a close eye on developments as we progress to the next season.