The Formula DRIFT stop at Evergreen Speedway has been on the calendar since 2006, and in every one of those 21 years it has run in daylight. This year it ran at night. Round 6 of the 2026 PRO season, held on Saturday August 22 in Monroe, Washington under new floodlighting, was billed as the "Throwdown" and it delivered the closest tandem action of the season.

Going in, five-time and reigning champion James Deane was the story. He came into Seattle leading the standings, took top qualifier with a perfect drift-angle score of 87.8 points on his final run, and looked set to extend a comfortable margin. Behind him, Aurimas Bakchis sat second, Jack Shanahan third, and younger brother Conor Shanahan a distant fifth after an inconsistent first half. Fredric Aasbo, the three-time champion, had drifted to seventh and looked closer to a bystander than a contender. Everyone expected Deane to run away with it.

None of that survived contact with the 5/8-mile bank. Bakchis retired in the Top 32 when his Subaru BRZ dropped its engine. Deane went out in the Top 16, transitioning late into Matt Field's chase and missing Zone 3, a mistake I have not seen him make in years. Conor Shanahan then produced the run of the night in the Final 4 against Branden Sorensen: four consecutive runs at 100% proximity, measured by the Race Data Labs UDSM telemetry system, meaning both drivers stayed within two feet of each other for the entire course. In the Final he beat Aasbo on fewer faults. Jack Shanahan was fifth after over-rotating in Zone 5.

Evergreen is the fastest layout on the schedule. Drivers enter the banking above 100 mph and drag the outside line for what is arguably the longest full-throttle drift zone in the world, then transition through the power alley into infield clips. Under lights, with cooler air, tires held grip longer and the top drivers ran closer than usual. Working in PPF, I notice the small stuff: front bumpers and arches on these cars carry visible bank-stone chipping every season, and the top teams protect their prep panels with the same impact-rated urethane films our shops fit to daily-driven supercars.

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Wessen Char is UPPF’s petrolhead who still mourns the loss of Saab (and drove her 9-5 NG till 2025). She travels between US and Europe to cover auto events. She acknowledges the chic tech of EVs but wonders if the inexorable move to everything digital is ultimately all-better. Analogue had more soul somehow :)

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