Style and Skill in Spades at DISL Round One

With the first round of both their Street League and Grand Prix series, Drift Indy has once again proven that you don’t have to sacrifice style for competitive driving. Complete with a new layout and close to 80 drivers, Xenia, Ohio’s Darana Raceway once again played host to some of the best driving talent in the Midwest for DI’s first competition round of the season.

For those unfamiliar with the series, they both follow the same basic format and ethos. Staff consider both driving experience and car styling in driver applications, and tire rules capping width at 245 and setting a minimum treadwear of 300 keep the playing field relatively level. DISL, in its current form, has been around since 2020. As the driver roster developed over the years, several standout competitors with higher-level builds started to crop up and DIGP was created as the next level within the same formula. 

Layouts in the series tend toward the technical side, allowing the judges to push the drivers not to get too comfortable at their current level. For this first event of the season, they unveiled a never-before-seen layout after years of tweaking and adjusting their classic course. This fresh look was, on its face, a reverse of the traditional setup. Looking deeper, though, you realized it was quite different from its predecessor. 

A run-up along the bank toward the start/finish straight into a tight “chute” along the wall in front of the grandstands saw drivers fielding a variety of entry methods to set them up for a sweeper before heading back along the bank and into the infield. The most exciting entries by far came from those among the field that gave ‘er a good old-fashioned huck, ending up about perpendicular to the wall. Carrying enough speed through the initiation proved to be vital to setting up correctly for the rest of the run.

Practice on Friday took place in near-perfect weather, but the same couldn’t be said for Saturday. Heavy rain in the morning meant DISL prelims went down on a very wet track. With over 50 drivers trying to qualify for a spot in the Top 32, by the time the last few took their two judged runs, track conditions were vastly different than they’d been for the earlier competitors. Standing puddles, patchy drying sections and muddy inner clips all made it something of a toss-up. In the end, only 30 drivers managed to put together at least one clean run to qualify for the main event. 

Last year’s DISL season saw a battle at the top of the table between rookie Paul Tuttle and Drift Indy fixture Rodney Blankenship that saw the newcomer edge out his older foe to take home the championship. Tuttle wasn’t in attendance for this season’s first round, but Blankenship looked confident behind the wheel of his New Edge Mustang, qualifying fifth. Brandon Salinaz, piloting his very clean 1JZ-powered S13 coupe, took the top spot in qualifying with two solid runs.

Despite the track being in much better shape by the time the Top 32 kicked off, the effect of the weather on the comp still made its mark. With no fully dry laps in practice or qualifying, several drivers came into their battles too gripped up. Otherwise consistent drivers made some uncharacteristic mistakes, and there were a few mechanical disqualifications that ended tight battles prematurely. Others started out sloppy before going to a One More Time, after which the drivers usually cleaned things up. 

By the time the Top 16 rolled around, it still felt like it was a toss up for who’d be taking home some hardware. At one end of the spectrum of experience were tried and true DISL veterans like Clint Stotts and Brian Waggoner, while newcomers like Layne Wallace and Noah Lenox looked just as comfortable, if not more, under the pressure of the competition.

Stotts, no stranger to the DISL podium, very nearly went out in his Top 16 matchup with series rookie Jabbar Ramos. He was saved from elimination by a suspension issue that had Ramos’ Z’s front wheels as wall-eyed as Steve Buscemi in Mr. Deeds. That result put him through to the quarterfinals and a battle with a very confident-looking Tyler Terrell.

Wallace and Lenox found themselves facing off in the quarterfinals, each behind the wheel of one of the round’s cleanest, most simply-styled builds. Wallace’s consistently aggressive entries had earned him points with the judges all weekend long, and despite an impressive chase run from Lenox, Wallace and his E36 sedan advanced to a semifinal battle with Angelo Mosjna. Mosjna was on his own impressive run, his deepest in a round since an exit in the Top 32 at last season’s first round. Word in the pits was that Mosjna, freshly a dad, was heading back and forth to the hospital all weekend. Those chunky New Balances they give you when you become a father must’ve let him push the skinny pedal just that much further.

Wallace, undeterred by Mosjna’s new dad glow, maintained his form and put down two more solid runs and got the nod once again. Stotts, having overcome Terrell and his LS-swapped 350Z, squared off against another Z, this time driven by Neil Dellaria. Dellaria had a solid 2025 DISL campaign that saw him finish in the Top 10 and looks dangerous this season. Stotts looked more like himself at this late stage in the competition, though, opening a gap against Dellaria in his lead run and showing impressive proximity in his chase.

The DISL final battle came down to the grizzled vet in Stotts versus the rookie on an absolute heater in Wallace, while the third place matchup saw two 350Zs throwing down, piloted by Dellaria and Mosjna. Undeterred by the knowledge that Mosjna has had sex before, Dellaria displayed the impressive chase performance that he had lacked in his battle with Stotts. Combined with a solid lead run, it was enough to earn Dellaria his first ever DISL hardware.

With Stotts leading first, Wallace did an impressive job of staying tucked in close behind the little Miata. With their positions reversed, Stotts had trouble matching the performance. He fell a little behind swinging through the infield, chopping a line and plowing over an inner clip. It was enough for the judges to weigh in the rookie’s favor.

The DISL podium was announced first, with rookie Wallace taking home the gold, Stotts the silver and Dellaria the bronze.

“I’m in disbelief… I was happy just to qualify, and then I just kept on going,” Wallace said. “I just tried to stay consistent on the entries and to hit the same mark every time. And then in the follow, if they got away from me a little bit, I just tried to pick the right spots to catch up when I could. I felt a little outgunned… Just kept it to the floor the whole time.”

Because of his qualifying position, Stotts is leading the series in overall points after the first round, with a couple months’ gap until the second round. That’ll be held alongside the second round of DIGP August 15-16 at Michigan’s M1 Concourse.