In 2025, Ford Racing driver James Deane made history, becoming the first driver in Formula Drift to clinch the championship with a round left to go in the season, earning his fifth Formula Drift title and his second with the RTR Vehicles team.

Hear from him about the season, how he got into drifting, and what it means to drift a Mustang.

You’re the first driver in Formula Drift history to lock the championship up with a round to go. When you look back at your 2025 title run, was there a defining moment — a battle, a track — where you knew this was a standout year?

I think once we beat [Frederic] Aasbo in St. Louis and went on to win the event, we had a very demanding position in the championship from that point on. I just tried to stay very focused and push as hard as possible, all the way until the end.

Eight events, seven podiums, three event wins, and wrapping up the title one round in advance was incredible.

You’ve won championships in multiple cars, but what is it about the Ford Mustang specifically that allows you to push drifting to its absolute limit?

The Ford Mustang is the wildest car I have ever won a championship in.

I feel like it has a bigger presence than any other car on track. It looks amazing, it sounds crazy, and once you unlock its capabilities, you can take it all the way to the top.

Drifting is often described as the “theater of motorsport.” How important is it for Ford, and for you, to showcase Mustang in a sport where emotion, spectacle, and fan connection are so central?

For me, drifting is all about the fans. I think it’s very important to showcase the Ford Mustang and its dominance in the sport of drifting in front of this young and engaged audience. More events are selling out each year, and viewership is growing across all social media platforms.

One of my favorite things to do is sign somebody’s Ford Mustang in the parking lot, which happens at every event. It’s an honor to sign somebody’s brand new car.

What was your first drift car?

My first drift car was a Ford Sierra, and I had quite a few of them. We used them to learn basic car control, doing donuts or figure eights out in the Ireland countryside. It had about 120HP.

This was when I was 13 and 14 years old. I brought my first Ford Sierra to the track where I used to practice in Ireland, and I managed to even do my first few events in the Sierra.

To see it come full circle is incredible for me, driving for Ford Performance in a new Ford Mustang RTR, it's beyond my dreams.

What initially drew you to drifting, and when did you know that you were going to compete professionally?

It really goes back to being a kid around ten years old. We went to rallies with my brothers, and I really enjoyed seeing cars go sideways. We would look at a stage rally map and find the tightest corners on a stage and go there.

A couple of years later, my brother Mike entered the first-ever drift competition in Ireland. He won that first event, and I was there helping him as a 10-year-old kid. I absolutely fell in love with what I was seeing.

When I tried it out for the first time myself, it came to me really naturally. I started competing when I was 15 years old and started to get good results straight away. I grew to pro level in that first year in Ireland and won my first professional event when I was 15. We slowly just built it all off.

What brought you to RTR or to get in the seat of a Ford Mustang in Formula Drift?

We won the first three championships from 2017 to 2019 driving with the Worthouse Drift Team. Then COVID came, and it was too complicated to compete in the U.S. because the whole team was European based.

I remember doing a Q&A when I started my YouTube channel that COVID year, and somebody asked, “If there was any car in Formula Drift that you could drive, what would it be?”

I said, definitely one of the Mustang RTRs because they are just wild, crazy fast, different, and unique. A totally different kind of driving style required to tame the beast.

Vaughn and I started talking in 2020. Over the next couple of years, we just stayed in touch, and everything aligned for 2023 to make that jump and return to Formula Drift driving a Mustang RTR.

How does the atmosphere of Formula Drift compare to other motorsports series you’ve experienced?

The fans and the atmosphere around Formula Drift really drew me to competing in America. When I first experienced Formula Drift, I was always so pumped up by the fan interaction with the drivers, the atmosphere, and how they get behind one driver or another, or the chanting for “one more time” – it just gives such a different energy.

A lot of fans are coming to the track in their Mustang street car, or a JDM car, or whatever their style might be.

You not only have 40 amazing FD cars competing, but you also have hundreds of amazing, creative, cool cars in the car parks. It's really cool to see the whole enthusiast community come together and come out and support what we're all doing.

In my opinion, this sport is really in a great space, and it seems like the future is a lot brighter.

A Message to Ford employees from James Deane

I’m so grateful for the collective passion and dedication from everyone at Ford —one of the only manufacturers left out there that are holding on to cool cars, the V8 world, and getting behind what people want.

People want to have fun; people want to enjoy their cars. What you're engineering into the cars, like the drift brake and all the small things that just make a car a bit more fun for a user to have, is unbelievable.

And, for me, I am honored to be a part of the Ford family.

Kourtney Karr is Motorsports marketing manager at Ford