The Drift Indy Community celebrated the conclusion of DI’s twentieth season with a party and awards ceremony this past weekend at the Saint Shack in downtown Indianapolis. The season saw the introduction of Drift Indy Grand Prix, a killer season of Drift Indy Street League, a trip to Detroit during the legendary Woodward Dream Cruise and a whole hell of a lot of laps turned at Kil-kare, renamed Darana Raceway mid-way through the year.
Each season, the DI staff vote on a list of awards honoring some of the most impressive folks from the year. From individual performances to season-long runs, the best media and midwest legends, here are this year’s award winners:
- DIGP First Place: Roy Outcalt
- DIGP Second Place: Britt Kaukeinen
- DIGP Third Place: Josh Estey
- DISL First Place: Paul Tuttle
- DISL Second Place: Rodney Blankenship
- DISL Third Place: Justin Keith
- Rookie of the Year: Dvaunte Johnson
- Most Stylish: JP Hunnicutt
- Best Tandem Buddies: Jon Lewis & Ty Keller
- Top Gunner: Mike Steele
- Consistent Award: Richard Zogiopoulos
- Most Improved Award: Tommy Coldwaters
- Best DIGP Performance: Britt Kaukeinen
- Best DISL Performance: Miles Harrelson
- DK Award Round 1 (Drift Kings): Justin Bailey
- DK Award Round 2 (Drift Kings): Zane Rohrbacher
- DK Award Round 3 (Drift Kings): Justin Keith
- Best Drift Indy Team: Dayton Boyz
- Drift Indy Top Media Award: Andrew Haring
- Midwest 2025 Hall of Fame: Clinton Florczyk
The inaugural season of DIGP was, of course, one of the year’s biggest stories. After years of cultivating style and skill among the drivers in the DISL field, the DIGP roster represented some of the best examples of that ethos. As it turns out, you can have both highly competitive, exciting driving AND good looking cars. Who knew?
After an impressive performance in DISL in 2024 that saw him finish third overall, Roy Outcalt looked strong coming into the DIGP season. After qualifying first at Round One and going on to finish fifth in the main event, he was in a competitive spot on the leaderboard when we headed up to the M1 Concourse for the second round. Despite a shaky qualifying performance in the motor city, he fought through a stacked Top 16 to secure the gold at our only field trip of the season. Round Three took place during No Star Bash and saw the judges throw the field a curveball in the form of a layout that hasn’t been run in quite some time. A few DISL drivers got bumped up, too, just so the DIGP fellas wouldn’t get too comfy. An eighth-place finish was enough to secure Roy the season’s top spot with a single-point lead over Britt Kaukeinen.
Britt and Roy were joined at the top of the leaderboard by Josh Estey, with Britt and Josh cementing their spots with podium finishes at the final round. Each of the three fought hard to earn those spots, and they and the rest of the roster produced some of the most exciting and competitive driving of any series in the US. This year’s Top Gunner award went to a driver that gave each of those three a run for their money. Mike Steele finished just two points behind his Bobby’s Crew teammate, Estey, but the way he drove at each round made him one of the series favorites. He’ll no doubt come into the 2026 season pushing even harder to make it to the top of the leaderboard.
Turning to DISL, this season’s three rounds continued to deliver the style and skill that fans and drivers alike have come to expect from the series. With some of past seasons’ heaviest hitters bumped up to DIGP, the doors were wide open for new talent to stake their claim. Enter Paul Tuttle, an east coast dude whose first-ever competition event was Round One. Coincidentally, it was also his first-ever win at a drift comp. He followed that up with a third-place finish at M1 for Round Two and a fifth-place finish at Round Three to earn himself enough points to secure the top spot for the season. The consistency and cool-headedness that earned him the title of DISL champ were made all the more impressive by it being his rookie season. He was joined atop the leaderboard by Rodney Blankenship in second place and Justin Keith in third, two drivers with very different style but more than enough skill.
Between Roy winning DIGP and Rodney coming in second in DISL, it was a big year for Dayton-area drivers. It was only right, then, for the Dayton Boys to keep it going with a win at the Drift Indy Teams event. While that alone didn’t win them the season’s best team award, it certainly didn’t hurt. Each and every one of them is a shredder and they absolutely know how to party both on and off the track. Their rides are painstakingly styled to a very high standard and have been for years. As a whole, they took home the best team of the season. Individually, JP Hunnicutt earned himself the most stylish award for his smoke machine of a New Edge Mustang. It’s a head-turner every time it comes out on track, and his dedication to building a machine that not only slides good, but looks damn good doing it, too.
Going from old heads to newcomers, one rookie driver really stood out to the staff this year. The grid workers especially were impressed with how much Dvaunte Johnson improved as the year went on. He made tons of progress behind the wheel of his E36 ‘vert, and if he can keep that pace up he’ll be a handful in DISL in no time. He and this year’s Mr. Consistent Award winner Richard Zogiopoulos make the most of every lap they put down, and that’s really saying something considering the amount of laps you turn when you barely ever miss an event.
While they didn’t make it down to as many events at Kil-kare/Darana this season as they have in the past, Fort Wayne’s Team Breaking are a welcome addition to any driver list. When they did grace us with their presence this year, two of the team’s members stood out for their cohesive style and driving. This season’s Tandem Buddies award went to Jon Lewis and Ty Keller. Any time their blue 240 hatches were out on track together, they were putting on a show.
Capturing all these dudes’ killer performances and bringing them to your social media feeds is an important task, and the DI community is fortunate enough to have some really talented media guys and gals. In 2023, we introduced the Top Media award as a way to honor one particularly hardworking, dedicated and creative individual. This season’s winner is Andrew Haring, a photographer and occasional drone pilot that spent countless hours shooting and editing this season, barely missing an event. One piece of his media that stands out in particular were his overhead drone shots from Round Two, which you can check out here.
This year’s inductee into the Midwest Drifting Hall of Fame is a Drift Indy OG and Indianapolis local. Clinton Florczyk was one of the first drivers back in the day to come up in the DI ecosystem and then go have success in comps elsewhere around the country. His dedication to the motorsport and the community, especially in the early days, was important to shaping what DI has become today. It’s been a little while since he made it out to an event, but he’s still very active in Facebook’s many drift circles. Here’s to hoping we get him and his FC RX7 out to an event in 2026!
Since 2005, Drift Indy has been working to make US drifting the best that it can be. From our early days to the first No Star Bash, Midwest Drift Union and Street Life Tour to the birth of DISL and, earlier this year, DIGP, we’re proud to have spent 20 years bringing the motorsport we love to the people of the midwest and beyond. We’ll continue to push the boundaries of what grassroots drifting can be in 2026. Keep an eye out for the season schedule to drop soon! We’ll see you at Opening Day.
