The Red Bull Drifting World Championship is a non-championship

all-star An all-star team is a group of people all having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and has been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry. Sports "All-star" as a sport ...

drifting contest sponsored by

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks created and owned by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With a market share of 43%, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2020, and the third most valuable soft drink brand, behind Coca-Cola and ...

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and hosted by

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and Slipstream Global Marketing, the organizers behind

Formula D Formula DRIFT (also known as Formula D or FD) is an American drifting series, and was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that introduced D1 Grand Prix to the ...

. The event took place at the

Port of Long Beach The Port of Long Beach, administered as the Harbor Department of the City of Long Beach, is a container port in the United States, which adjoins Port of Los Angeles. Acting as a major gateway for US–Asian trade, the port occupies of land wi ...

Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

on November 15–16, 2008. Announced prior to the

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

Formula D round on July 14, at $50,000, it boasts of the largest prize money in a drifting contest and the largest TV production for a drift contest. The inaugural event was won by

Rhys Millen Rhys Rodney Millen (born 6 September 1972) is a New Zealand-born racing driver. Nephew of IMSA GTS driver Steve Millen, son of Rodney and older brother of Ryan, is one of the America's top competitors in drifting. Prior to that he was a to ...

, incidentally sponsored by Red Bull, taking home $25,000.

Criteria for eligibility

As there are 32 places for the event, drivers from all over the world are given a place should they meet these following criteria: *Finish at the Top 16 in the Formula D points table *Become the championship winner at these following oversea drifting events listed below, should that not happen, they are eligible to take up any available runner up spot should it be offered to them. ** D1NZ (

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

) **Drift Mania Canadian Championship (

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

) **Drift Australia (

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

) ** European Drift Championship (

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

) **International Drift Series (

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

) **Pro Drift European Series (

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) **Nordic Drifting Championship (

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

) **

D1 Grand Prix The , abbreviated as D1GP and subtitled ''Professional Drift'', is a production car drifting series from Japan. After several years of hosting amateur drifting contests, Daijiro Inada, founder of '' Option'' magazine and Tokyo Auto Salon, and ...

(

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

) ** NZ Drift Series (

) *Have been D1GP title holder in the past years *Have won the exhibition Formula D Singapore event

Venue

Taking place on lot of newly laided up asphalt on

, in a course known as "Pier S". The entire venue had to be built from scratch, however temporary. Altogether, the venue in all, accounting for three grandstands, borrowed from those of the

Long Beach Grand Prix The Grand Prix of Long Beach (known as Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach since 2019 for naming rights reasons) is an IndyCar Series race held on a street circuit in Downtown Long Beach, downtown Long Beach, California. It was the premier race on the ...

and the 2,000 seating for VIP and sponsor are designed to accommodate up to 25,000 spectators. The course length is , with another to allow for a rolling start with six corners outlined by a Red Bull sign. Drivers who had driven on the track are said to be capable of reaching during test runs.

List of invited drivers

With the exception of Formula D, each series are allocated two entries, including D1GP, who following negotiation, were given six invites When negotiation broke down, D1 drivers were discouraged from taking invites, therefore they were approached directly by the FD management to find out that they invited entrants, the former D1GP champions in particular, had to decline their entries for the reason of scheduling conflicts. Kumakubo declined his as he was due to take part in a drift demo in

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, Kazama, despite no longer involved in the series, declined because of schedule clash. Former D1GP judge, competitor and

Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is the top level of ...

driver, Orido was forced to decline his invitation as he was competing in the WTCC Guia Race at

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on the same weekend, as was fellow judge and returning competitor Taniguchi, was taking part in a Super Taikyu race in Japan. Other than that, and 2003 champion, Imamura declined his as he was unable to attend, the 2007 champion Kawabata declined his entry, but it was revealed that "

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates t ...

" led them to decline. Saito, who originally accepted his entry, was forced to decline his entry for the same reason, although it was rumored that he placed two cars in a container to make its way to the event. Millen backed this claim of the organisation's bullying tactic during an interview Only one FD driver, Tuerck, declined for budgetary reason as he is lacking a title sponsor, funding could not stretch for the event, therefore Mohan took his place. Santos, Bolger and Ruiterman made up the rest of the available slot.

Qualifying

Knockout stage

Notes

References

External links

Official Red Bull siteOfficial Formula D site
{{Red Bull Formula D Drifting World Championship