Stafford Motor Speedway is a short oval in the woods of Connecticut, and for one weekend in June it fills with tyre smoke. We were in the grandstand for Round 4 of the 2026 Formula DRIFT PRO championship, from the afternoon sun to the final battles under the lights.
The result
The competition ran on Saturday 20 June 2026. James Deane won in the Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD, his first win of the season. Behind him came the Shanahan brothers, Jack in a BMW E82 and Conor in a Toyota GT86: the first podium in Formula DRIFT history made up entirely of Irish drivers. Dylan Hughes was the top qualifier.
| Position | Driver | Car |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Deane (IRL) | Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD |
| 2 | Jack Shanahan (IRL) | BMW E82 |
| 3 | Conor Shanahan (IRL) | Toyota GT86 |
| 4 | Ben Hobson (USA) | Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD |
| Top 8 | Dylan Hughes (USA) | |
| Top 8 | Branden Sorensen (USA) | |
| Top 8 | Ryan Tuerck (USA) | |
| Top 8 | Aurimas Bakchis (LTU) |
After the round, Deane led the championship on 149 points from Bakchis on 127, Sorensen on 107, Jack Shanahan on 106 and Conor Shanahan on 105 (preliminary points, pending official confirmation).
Sources: Formula DRIFT: Round 4 results and RACER: Deane wins Formula DRIFT Round 4 at Stafford.
Mustangs on top
Our Instagram caption from that weekend asked who would have thought Mustangs would become the drift missiles of the future. The numbers back it up: two Mustang RTRs in the Top 4, with Deane's car carrying the O'Reilly and Pennzoil colours. Deane is already a five-time Formula DRIFT champion, with titles in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2024 and 2025, and Stafford put him back in front of the 2026 fight.
Source: Wikipedia: James Deane).
From the grandstand
The thing video never quite captures is how close a short oval puts you to the cars. At Stafford the grandstands sit close to the racing line, so every tandem passes near the crowd and the smoke rolls straight into the seats. By the night session, the floodlights were shining through a cloud that never really cleared.
For drifting on the other side of the world, see D1GP at Ebisu 2025, and for a day with a drift champion at home, our visit to Daigo Saito's Fat Five Racing.
Photos: One Breath Pictures.
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