Formula DRIFT 2025 Final – Irwindale’s Game-Changing Replacement

Ryan Sage discusses Formula DRIFT’s bold plans to replace the ‘House of Drift’ with something special that the fans never saw coming.

• The 2025 season brings a significant change with Irwindale Speedway’s absence
• It’s the first time in 22 years the FD championship won’t conclude at the ‘House of Drift’
• New venue will be custom-built using public roads in Southern California on October 17-18
• Official announcement and final details coming at Long Beach on April 4-5

The 2025 Formula DRIFT season is bringing major changes that’ll shake up over two decades of tradition.

For the first time since the series began, the championship won’t conclude at Irwindale Speedway this year, after the legendary ‘House of Drift’ permanently closed its gates last year.

Every PRO Championship in FD history has been decided at Irwindale, and the drivers and long-time fans are sad it’ll be no more.

Since November last year, we’ve heard very little about the replacement location for the final, with FD only saying that “Talks with officials for the replacement Southern California venue are well underway.”

That silence has finally been broken, and here’s what we know.

Ryan Sage drops some big hints on what to expect

Formula DRIFT president Ryan Sage recently appeared on “The Outerzone” Podcast to discuss the upcoming season with Jacob Gettins.

While the entire podcast covers various topics about the 2025 season, you can skip to around 1:41:30 if you’re eager to see what Ryan says about Irwindale’s replacement.

Given that it’s over two hours long, we’ll dive into the main details.

What he reveals suggests that Formula DRIFT is taking a massive gamble to create something unique for the final round…

It won’t be a “typical” drifting venue

Besides the loss of the House of Drift, the 2024 Formula DRIFT calendar is an exact copy-paste of previous seasons, and it’s great to see something changing (even if we wish it didn’t have to be Irwindale!)

According to Sage, this isn’t a typical venue that can simply be rented for a drifting event. Instead, fans will be delighted to hear they’re building something from scratch that will incorporate public roads.

Sage described the undertaking as “extreme” and acknowledged the significant financial risk involved.

The fact that FD sees this much work as “necessary” to replace Irwindale speaks volumes about the House of Drift’s significance.

They’re keen to keep the ‘House of Drift’ vibes alive

The main reason for the undertaking was the difficulty of finding an existing venue in Southern California that could replicate Irwindale’s legendary atmosphere.

After exploring various options, the FD team connected with a local group that showed real enthusiasm about creating something special.

Sage emphasized that they wanted to maintain the SoCal location for the finale, keeping that part of the tradition intact even if the venue itself is completely new.

The new location will be announced at Long Beach

We won’t have to wait much longer for further details, as the official announcement will come during the season opener at Long Beach on April 4-5.

Despite very few venue changes in recent years, it’s great to see them finally taking risks to continue raising the bar.

Europe’s Drift Masters series has converted entire national stadiums for their finals, and it’s great to see FD finally making similarly ambitious plans.

The season’s opening round is set to be immediately exciting as two of the biggest fresh entries for 2025 will battle it out in the Seeding 16.

Unfortunately, after being forced to cancel his plans, we’ll no longer get to see Aussie drifter Luke Fink in FD this year.

However, in his Formula DRIFT debut, Ireland’s Jack Shanahan is up against Formula DRIFT legend Daigo Saito, who returns after a 10-year absence!

Click the image below to view how the Seeding 16 and Main Event Top 32 battles look:

There’s now just ONE WEEK to go until the action gets underway!

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Photography credits

We thank the following entities for the use of their photography:

Larry Chen | Formula DRIFT

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