What Is The Redbull Drift Series?

Over the last few years, Red Bull has become synonymous with drifting, but why is that?

Red Bull have put their name to many events involving everything from extreme mountain biking and soapbox racing to flying machines, cliff diving and snowboarding. Clearly, Red Bull has a penchant for fast-paced sports so it’s not too much of a surprise that drifting made its way on to their list.

Red Bull Car Park Drift

In 2008, their first Red Bull Car Park Drift event was held in Lebanon and gave underground drifters a chance to test their skills. Returning in 2018 for the finals, Red Bull then moved the event to Turkey in 2019.

Red Bull Drifting World Championship

California hosted the Red Bull-sponsored Drifting World Championship in late 2008. This was a star-studded event that had the biggest TV production and offered the largest prize money for a drifting contest at the time.

Red Bull Drift Shifters

Along with creator ‘Mad Mike’, Red Bull also put on a unique drifting event called ‘Drift Shifters’. The idea of this contest was to address the fact that judges’ scores had always been subjective, so a new high-tech approach was introduced instead.

Drivers had to demonstrate precision to score points as they navigated around a series of speed and proximity sensors placed along a custom track. This scoring system soon lead to the event being known as High Octane Pin Ball!

Originally set up in Auckland in 2012, the contest has been held in major cities around the world including Liverpool, UK in 2018 and crowds love being able to get so close to the action.

Red Bull Drift Shifters brings in thousands of spectators who flock to watch the best drifters in the world take on such a big, loud and adrenaline-fuelled event. Mike even went up against drivers from the USA, Japan and Australia when the contest returned to Auckland in 2014 and was delighted to be crowned the winner.

Drift Masters European Championship

Red Bull (Media House) has recently partnered with Drift Masters European Championship – Europe’s premier competitive drifting series – which is taken around the world to incredible locations such as Ireland, Austria, France, Germany, Poland and Latvia.