LZ World Tour 2025
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The Breakdown
The LZ World Tour made its first of three stops in 2025 this past weekend. Tickets were sold out before both day's festivities began at the legendary drift road course at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. Fans and spectators came from all over the country to see Adam LZ and his friends battle it out in a weekend full of fuel induced fun. Walking through the pits you could find legendary cars and even people well known in the industry. We dive into all that here on Wrecked.
Image courtesy of Chuck Murray
The Influencer Olympics
When asked what the LZ World Tour was, Adam LZ said "The LZ World Tour is an invitational drift competition with emphasis on the show for the spectators. We strive to create a very welcoming 'first drift event' for those that are new to drifting with loads of entertainment and a jam packed schedule. Fan favorites include 'fantasy battles' that may not occur with a typical bracket, as well as exhibition laps from cars you would never see in a traditional competition."
And he was absolutely right about that. Fans that attended the World Tour as their first drift event may be disappointed to learn that a tandem battle between a boat and a McLaren GT3 car are not a common occurrence.
Image courtesy of Chuck Murray
Former Hoonigan and current Nappy Boy Automotive mastermind, Hertrech (Hert) Eugene Jr, gave us his thoughts on the World Tour. "LZ has really figured out this event platform. He gets the Youtube community together and all these fans come, obviously to see LZ, but he brings us along for the ride because they all watch LZ, Jimmy [Oakes], myself, Front Street boys, I can imagine the sensory overload that a lot of these people feel."
"They support a lot of us in a lot of ways, whether its through merch or watching our videos, and so to go to one place to see all your favorite creators at once is a huge deal. So, shout-out to LZ for that. Its like a little ecosystem. LZ is a big fish in a little pond and he likes to share the wealth with everyone. The event structure is amazing, you have two chances to show out, you have a Friday practice, a Saturday qualifying, a bottom 16 if you don't make top 16 in qualifying, and then you have to earn your way into the big show. And then Sunday is where everyone dukes it out. You get a lot of seat time you get the competitive feel but its still really fun because its just all your friends, its really cool to see what this has become."
Image courtesy of Chuck Murray
2023 Formula Drift Pro Champion Cheslea Denofa had this to say when asked about how the World Tour competition differs from Formula Drift. "I bring a lot of what I've learned chassis-wise from FD into this, because we're running a very different chassis, different car. There's definitely better cars out there. So i spend probably more time making sure my car is right for me, not even the battles. It's a lot more relaxed. We obviously still want to win and the focus is there and its important. There's a lot of fans watching. There will be a lot of fans watching the content that gets posted online before, after and during the race, so to me its really not all that much different except there's not a championship you're fighting for which makes it my favorite, because the championship is what ruins the driving long term for me."
Image courtesy of Chuck Murray
Celebrity Appearances
Image courtesy of Chuck Murray
Aside from the large field of Youtubers in attendence, a few other big names also made appaearances. T-Pain joined the action as an entry in competition with his beloved Boss S14 named Pickle Rick. Hoonigan Co-Founder Brian Scotto was spotted roaming the pits checking out all the amazing builds in the car show, and mingling with fans throughout the weekend. Hollywood actor and fellow car enthusiast Sung Kang, better known in this community as Han, was out talking with spectators and signing autographs and was even seen picking up parts track side and hanging out in the media boxes. Even some famous cars showed their paint during the weekend including a Nismo 400R R33 GT-R and a beautiful orange Veilside RX-7 were parked up for people to see.
Image courtesy of Chuck Murray
The Winners
In the end, and after two long days of battles and aggressive driving, a winner had to be decided. In the end the victor was FDF owner Josiah Fallaise took the top spot with his C6 Corvette. Formula Drift Pro Spec rookie Lee Yearwood took second in his RB30 powered S15. Luke Fink took home the bronze Kansei using a mixture of Grant Anderson's E36 and Danny Domenech's 945garage C6 Corvette. The LZ World Tour continues on to it's next round at Taupo Motorsport Park in New Zealand on May 3rd and 4th, 2025.
Image courtesy of Chuck Murray
