Photo from last year’s Streets of Long Beach competition held the week before the Toyota Grand Prix each year. Photo by Larry Chen courtesy of Formula D.

For nearly a decade, Long Beach-based Formula DRIFT racing series has collaborated with the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach to bring motorsports fans an entirely different form of racing entertainment. The weekend before the world-famous IndyCar event takes place on the Shoreline’s city streets, Formula DRIFT international swath of drivers fishtail around turns, kick up a lot of tire smoke and compete in the series’ first event of each season: “Streets of Long Beach.”

Then, during the weekend of the Grand Prix, Formula DRIFT hosts daytime exhibitions designed to showcase the burgeoning motorsport that combines traditional racing adrenaline with extreme sports judging. For 2013, however, Formula DRIFT—the first professional drifting series outside of Japan—announced that it will be converting the exhibition into a competition and will be moving the event into evening hours, becoming the weekend’s first-ever night races.

Formula DRIFT co-founder Ryan Sage calls the newly created Formula DRIFT Super Drift Challenge, which will take place starting at 7PM April 19 and 20 on the eastern end of the race circuit, “the refresher version of the Team DRIFT event always held during Grand Prix weekend…the 2.0.”

The Formula DRIFT Super Drift Challenge will not replace the stand-alone Streets of Long Beach event the week prior, but is expected to feature 16 of the sport’s top cars and drivers including 2012 Formula DRIFT champion Daigo Saito, 2011 champion Daijiro Yoshihara plus Frederic Aasbo, Aurimas Bakchis, Michael Essa, Conrad Grunewald, Ken Gushi, Tyler McQuarrie, Robbie Nishida, Justin Pawlak, Matt Powers and others to be announced.

Friday’s action will include practice and qualifying runs, while Saturday will see the teams compete for a $25,000 prize. On Sunday, the Super Drift Challenge cars will drift the entire race circuit after the featured IZOD IndyCar Series race.

“We are excited to change up the drifting action during the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend from an exhibition show to a competition. By doing this we will be able to showcase the true form of competition drifting to the Grand Prix fans,” said Jim Liaw, president and co-founder of Formula DRIFT. “The icing on the cake comes in the form of night time drifting on the streets. We are truly honored to be the first series to be competing on the streets of Long Beach at night.”

For more information about Formula DRIFT or to buy tickets, go to FormulaD.com