Fredric Aasbø håper å øke sin ledelse i Formula Drift nå som mesterskapet besøker St. Louis denne helgen. Les mer i denne pressemeldingen på engelsk.
Rockstar Energy Drink driver Fredric Aasbo is looking to extend his Formula Drift points lead this weekend in St. Louis. As the season heads into its second half, the three-time champion tops the standings and sits 20 points ahead of his closest challenger, James Deane.
Both titans of the sport, Aasbo and Deane own seven of the past 10 Formula Drift championship titles between them. Aasbo finished third in St. Louis last year and is a favorite to return to the podium this weekend. His last win in St. Louis came in 2021, and he has a strong podium placement record at the track, with three wins, two seconds, and one third-place result since the World Wide Technology Raceway stop joined the calendar in 2018.
Teammate Ryan Tuerck heads into competition this weekend looking for a turn of fortunes after battling bad luck in the opening rounds of the championship. The driver has a good record at the St. Louis track, having claimed a podium spot there four times since he joined the Papadakis Racing team in 2020.
This weekend’s schedule is packed with action, as both the top-level Pro and the Pro-Spec support series are competing at the event. With both drivers pre-qualified into the main event based on the strength of their previous performance this year, competition begins for the Papadakis Racing Toyota team on Saturday with the Pro round of 32 at 3:15 p.m. Central time. Top 16 competition begins at 8 p.m. All battles will be broadcast live on www.formulad.com/live.
Norwegian driver Aasbo has won three Formula Drift titles since joining the Papadakis Racing Toyota team in 2011, earning his first series championship in 2015, as well as back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022. The Rockstar Energy Toyota GR Supra driver has a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most winning driver in Formula Drift, having now achieved 20 No. 1 finishes in the premier USA series and 100-plus podium finishes on three continents over the past decade of global competition. In 2024, he finished third in the championship chase.
Tuerck, who hails from New Hampshire, is a Formula Drift title contender in the Rain-X Toyota GR Corolla. His down-home charm, commitment to the sport’s grassroots, and talent in front of the camera have brought him a social fanbase of 1.7 million followers. His build legacy includes the Celica GT411, the Stout, and the Formula Supra, and started with the viral Toyota GT4586 build released in 2016. That inventive first project inspired the genre of build content online when he paired a Toyota GT86 with a Ferrari 458 engine to generate some 70 million digital impressions. He joined the Papadakis Racing team in 2020 and is a fan favorite for his go-big or go-home commitment to competition.
Outside of formal competition, both team drivers are coming off of a busy few weeks. Aasbo is flying into the United States following an exciting weekend at the storied Gatebil festival at home in Norway, while Tuerck made a fan favorite appearance in the Toyota Stout at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and a week earlier made a trip to Chicago for the NASCAR weekend where he ran laps in the East Coast Car at a special event in support of his Toyota teammates on the 23XI Michael Jordan-Denny Hamlin NASCAR team.
Based in Carson, California, the Papadakis Racing team began drifting in 2004 and is the most winning in Formula Drift history, earning the 2022, 2021 and 2015 championship titles with driver Aasbo, as well as back-to-back championships with driver Tanner Foust in 2007 and 2008. Partner Toyota has won the manufacturer’s cup nine times since 2014. Team owner Stephan Papadakis is a legend of sport-compact racing who began building his reputation in the 1990s in drag racing. The team has recently expanded of its capabilities outside of racing, delivering prototyping and engineering services for select industrial clients under the Papadakis Engineering banner.
Drifting is a high-skill, high-powered motorsport with an emphasis on car control. In the Formula Drift series, drivers compete in knockout heats on a closed course, sliding sideways in trials judged on speed and style. With origins in Japan, the sport has rapidly grown to one of the most popular youth-oriented motorsports in the world. Here in the United States, Formula Drift officially launched in 2004 and its national schedule of eight events routinely host capacity crowds, while live-streamed multi-platform broadcasts attract millions of online viewers.