Drift Indy Street League has sought to bring together some of the best drivers and coolest cars in the midwest to battle it out in a contest of style and skill for several seasons now. With the leaderboard wiped clean for 2024, newcomers and oldheads alike had the opportunity to earn some hardware and, most importantly, bragging rights.
Needless to say, a formula like that produced some killer battles over the course of the three-round season. With nearly 100 battles completed between 49 drivers, we were treated to some killer matchups. From underdog upsets to heavy hitter head-to-heads, let’s take a look back at some of this season’s best battles:
Vance Kearns VS Kyle Antonovich, Round 1
Starting off strong with an exciting matchup from Round 1 between Vance Kearns and Kyle Antonovich, two drivers that are no stranger to the DISL podium. Both guys put down heaters on both laps, but Kyle's slightly more solid, slightly more aggressive chase run gave him the dub.
Cash Staub VS Colten Terrell, Round 1
With the benefit of hindsight, it's wild to look back at this battle and realize that we were watching the king of DISL Volumes 1-10, Colty, battling it out with the future overall winner of the 2024 DISL season. It should come as a surprise to no one that it turned out to be a killer matchup.
Alex Dane VS Kyle Antonovich, Round 1
Alex Dane's showing at Round 1 was one of the standout underdog performances of the season. Knocking off a three-time podium finisher in Kyle Antonovich is no small feat.
Sam Cornewell VS Justin Medina, Round 1
Sam showing off his signature balls-to-the-wall aggressive driving style dragging the wall on initiation, something not many drivers can accomplish in this layout. Justin, always dangerous in the chase, did a stellar job mirroring Sam, but had a couple rough spots in his lead run. They went OMT, and Sam managed to open up a gap in his lead run and then was glued to Justin's door in his chase, sending himself to the semifinals.
Roy Outcalt VS Sam Cornewell
Two of the day’s most consistent, most exciting drivers found themselves matched up in the first battle of the semifinals. In their first run, we see Roy pulling out all the stops to stay on Sam’s door. Their transition into the final turn couldn’t have been any tighter. The chase runs really made the difference in this one, as Sam couldn’t quite match Roy’s angle and ended up chopping a few turns, sacrificing too much angle to try and regain his proximity.
Cash Staub VS Roy Outcalt, Round 1
Roy took that same attitude into the finals and his battle with Cash. Facing an absolutely killer lead run from Cash and his Foxbody Mustang, Roy kept the proximity up but straightened coming off the bank. With Cash at an advantage going into their second run, Roy put down a heater of a lead lap and gapped the Foxbody. It seemed like not many people caught Roy’s earlier straighten, the commentators and Cash included. After a lightning-fast tire swap from Cash, they went one-more-time.
The next two runs went a lot like the first two, but without the straighten from Roy. He sealed the deal on a dominant performance that saw him take home the gold in the first DISL round of the season.
For Round Two, the DISL crew travelled up to Wisconsin’s rollercoaster of love: USAir. Running a never-before-seen, very technical layout at a track that only a handful of our drivers had driven before made for some really interesting matchups.
Cash Staub VS Vance Kearns, Round 2
One of the best battles of the Top 32 came from the matchup between Cash Staub and Vance Kearns. Cash showed early on in the comp that he understood what the judges were looking for, not sacrificing the proper line in exchange for proximity through the tricky hammerhead like quite a few folks were doing. Vance put on a killer performance, too, and it’s a shame that he had to come up against the round’s eventual champ so early. He likely would’ve advanced and made a deep run had the seeding been kinder to him.
Colten Terrell VS Adam Day, Round 2
I opted to include this battle from the top 16 largely because of how sick the initiations are from both drivers. We saw plenty of different techniques when it came to that tight hairpin at the end of the long straight, but both of these guys threw big flicks into the decel zone that were super exciting to watch, especially Adam’s in his lead run.
Justin Medina VS Cash Staub, Round 2
Two super entertaining, super stylish drivers that were killing that tricky layout coming up against each other promised to be a good one, and these shredders didn’t disappoint. They both put down really followable lead runs, hitting their zones and facilitating two similarly solid chase runs that led to a OMT call. Unfortunately for Medina, he threw in just a little too much angle coming out of the hammerhead and parked it during his chase run. Cash finished out the lap strong and had another good chase run, putting him through to the semifinals for the second straight event.
Sam Cornewell VS Steven Fishel, Round 2
Our first battle of the semifinals saw two very differently-styled S-chassis pitted against one another, each piloted by one of the weekend’s most consistent drivers. Sam, much like in Round One, showed off his aggressive, confident driving style, putting his Sil80 in all the right places. Steven had a killer lead but just lacked some of the proximity in his chase that Sam was able to manage.
Kyle Antonovich VS Britt Kaukeinen, Round 3
Moving on to Round Three, we start off with a battle that was, at its heart, a fight over who had the best off-brand 69 for their number. Britt got in earlier with registration and snagged 069, while Kyle had to settle for 690. Nice-ish. They’re both great drivers, so the battle was fun to watch, too. With Kyle leading first, Britt did a killer job matching his angle and keeping pace with him in the chase. Swapping positions, Britt opened up a bit of a gap on Kyle through the first half of the course. Kyle was eventually able to close it and finished the lap on Britt’s door, but it wasn’t enough.
Sam Cornewell VS Jeremiah Reyes, Round 3
Securing the 15th qualifying spot saw then-17-year-old Jeremiah matched up with overall second-seeded Sam Cornewell. Jeremiah is a solid driver, but until Round 3 he had never been super competitive when it came to DISL. Coming up against Sam, though, he hit another level. Both drivers were incredibly locked in, putting down killer lap after killer lap and forcing two One-More-Time battles. Derek King radioed to grid to pass on the message that one of them needed to do something special to make a winner more obvious after a second set of too-close-to-call battles. Jeremiah did enough to earn the nod, advancing to the top 16.
Cash Staub VS Clint Stotts, Round 3
This matchup in the Top 16 was one of those that you just knew would have at least one OMT called. Cash and Clint turn tons of laps together every season, and Cash even credits Clint with being a huge part of why he’s such a killer driver nowadays. You really got the vibe that these two had a couple of big ‘ol smiles inside those helmets through all four runs.
Josh Estey VS Roy Outcalt, Round 3
Josh and Roy are both drivers that leave it all out on the track every lap. Neither one of them was a stranger to the DISL podium, either, and this battle had the vibe that they both had the confidence to find their way to some hardware again. Their first run, with Roy leading and Josh in the chase, was one of the most exciting of the whole weekend.
Cash Staub VS Joey Ritter, Round 3
After defeating one member of Team Shade, Cash found himself up against another in the next round. Joey applied plenty of pressure behind Cash’s lead, but Cash was laser-focused and did the same when they swapped places. Another matchup between two crazy consistent, crazy talented drivers of course produced another OMT. The second half of the matchup was equally exciting and nearly equally tight, but Cash did enough to get the nod.
Roy Outcalt VS Colten Terrell, Round 3
With Cash and Alek Morelock matched up for the final, the battle for third between Roy and Colty got underway. Leading first, Roy and his E46 managed to open up a decent gap on the 1JZ-powered 240. Colty closed it by the end of the lap, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Roy’s aggressive chase run that saw him glued to his teammate’s door. For the second time this season, Roy secured his place on the podium.
2024 was a great season for DISL, with a ton of standout performances from new drivers and veterans alike. With the addition of Drift Indy Grand Prix this season, the competition in both series promises to be even more competitive and exciting. Round One for both DISL and DIGP kicks off at Kil-kare Raceway in just a couple days, April 18 and 19.