Formula DRIFT’s weekend at Indianapolis Raceway Park produced both a historic first and an unwanted one, with 14-year-old Camren Sorensen becoming the youngest winner in series history in PROSPEC Round 3 before a severe storm forced the cancellation of PRO Round 5, the first canceled round in the series’ 23-year history. Indianapolis Raceway Park is the second of three new tracks on the 2026 calendar, and the series paved sections of the course ahead of the event to improve the layout for drivers and fans.
Sorensen’s path to the PROSPEC win ran through Kelsey Rowlings in the Top 32, a bye run in the Top 16, and a Top 8 victory over his sister Amanda Sorensen after her BMW lost its supercharger drive belt. Jerry Johnson’s Corvette then developed power steering trouble in the Top 4, and Sorensen edged rookie Jason Webb’s Ford Mustang Convertible in the final on a split decision, with two of the three judges ruling Sorensen made fewer mistakes in the chase position. The 50-point win moved Sorensen from sixth to third in the championship, 10 points behind leader Dmitriy Brutskiy, who finished third on the day. The PROSPEC title will be decided at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on September 24 to 26.
In PRO qualifying, Jack Shanahan set the pace with a score of 84.63 in his BMW, ahead of Matt Field at 83.55 and Aurimas Bakchis at 82.7, while championship leader James Deane qualified fourth at 82.53. The Top 32 competition was more than half complete when heavy rain and two lightning strikes forced the evacuation of the grandstands, and the storm dumped an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 gallons of water on the racing surface and paddock. Track staff, local vendors, and the local fire department ran pumps for more than five hours, but the rain returned and the round was canceled at 11 PM.
Under the Formula DRIFT rulebook, qualifying points from Round 5 stand, but no competition points will be awarded for the incomplete Top 32, and the Round 5 qualifying order will set the ranking for Round 6 qualifying. The PRO Championship resumes at Evergreen Speedway on August 21 to 22, then heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Round 7 on September 24 to 26, where the PROSPEC Championship will crown its 2026 champion in Final Round 4.
