The popular discipline’s return will attract the best drift-car drivers from across the sport to compete for the honour of winning a gold medal for their home nation at Circuit Paul Ricard.

Featured as one of the founding disciplines of the first FIA Motorsport Games, drivers from 22 ASNs gathered to compete in the then-named Drifting Cup at Vallelunga in 2019. After two days of intense competition, Dmitriy Illyuk emerged as the inaugural Drifting gold medalist for Team Ukraine. 

Since Drifting was adopted as a recognised discipline in 2017, the FIA has launched the Intercontinental Drifting Cup and worked to develop drifting at national level worldwide, through sporting regulations as well as training for officials and judges.

Born in the 1970s on the mountain roads of Japan, Drifting now returns to headline at the second edition of the Games this October in France. With up to 80 ASNs expected to join the 2022 FIA Motorsport Games, each can enter one driver to compete in their country’s colours.

Koichi Murata, FIA Drifting Commission President, said: “The return of the FIA Motorsport Games, again featuring Drifting, is excellent news. Drifting as a discipline has huge potential and an ever-growing popularity around the world. 

“Over the last couple of years, the focus of the FIA’s Drifting Commission has been on delivering the highest possible standards to drifting competition and supporting the growth of this sport at regional and national levels. For this reason, I’m very much looking forward to this year’s edition of the FIA Motorsport Games, where the results of the work should be seen. The event looks very promising, and I’m confident of strong ASN representation in our discipline.”

The 2022 FIA Motorsport Games Drifting contest will unfold across two days of competition at the Circuit Paul Ricard Driving Centre. The action starts with free practice and qualifying on Friday, 28 October, ahead of the tandem practice, Top 32, and final to decide the gold, silver, and bronze medal winners on Saturday. 

Stars from across national championships are already confirmed to compete in Drifting for the 2022 Games. Those include Latvia’s Nikolass Bertans, Gerson Junginger for Germany, and Nodari Kodua for Georgia. Jakub Przygoński is set to race for Poland, while Portugal has chosen João Vieira as its Drifting representative. 

Entries for the 2022 FIA Motorsport Games are open until Sunday, 25 September via the dedicated FIA registration platform. Competitors wishing to represent their country are encouraged to contact their respective National Sporting Authority, a full list of which can be found here: fia.com/members/member_club/sport-mobility-3/member_club/sport-1 

For further information visit fiamotorsportgames.com