Türkiye Drift Şampiyonası comes to Gaziantep for the first time. Press coverage of the Round 2 announcement.
Less than 24 hours. Sunday, 24 May 2026, Gazi Pisti at Gaziantep Orta Doğu Fuar Merkezi opens its surface to the second round of two national championships: Türkiye Drift Şampiyonası (TDŞ) and TOSFED Drift Kupası (TDK), in front of a city that has never seen a drift event of this scale.
A FIRST FOR GAZİANTEP, A FIRST FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP
For more than a decade the Turkish drift calendar has split its weekends between İstanbul Park, İzmir Körfez Yarış Pisti and Eskişehir TOSFED Karting Pisti. Tomorrow it adds a new entry. Hosted by Gaziantep Büyükşehir Belediyesi in partnership with Drift Otomobil Spor Kulübü, the round brings 24 invited drivers, 20 professional judges and a full live broadcast crew to a circuit the championship has never raced on before.
WHAT IS ON THE LINE
Round 1 at İstanbul Park set the stage. In TDŞ, 12-year-old Rüzgar Okman took the trophy and the series lead. In TDK, Sinam Gazi climbed from fourth in qualifying to the top of the podium. Both arrive in Gaziantep as championship leaders on a brand new surface, and an unfamiliar tarmac is one of the few things that can rearrange a drift standings table in a single weekend.
SUNDAY'S SCHEDULE
📅 Date: Sunday, 24 May 2026
📍 Venue: Gazi Pisti, Orta Doğu Fuar Merkezi, Gaziantep
🕙 10:00, practice runs and warm-up
🕧 12:30, paddock opens to spectators (driver and car access)
🏁 15:30, elimination battles begin (TDŞ + TDK)
🏆 Evening, podium ceremonies for both championships
OFFICIALS AND BROADCAST
Senior international judges Haydar Özdemir, Hüseyin Kar and Melih Şahin will officiate the weekend. The event is delivered with the support of Spor Toto, ICRYPEX, HT Spor and Power App, with full live coverage on the broadcast partners. Bookmark apexmasters.com/live-stream for the official feed and live timing on race day.
FREE TICKETS, STILL OPEN
Admission is free. If you have not registered yet, head to ticket.apexmasters.com, enter your name, phone and email, and a QR-coded ticket lands in your inbox in seconds. Show the QR on your phone at the gate; no print required.
WHY THIS WEEKEND MATTERS
Drift is a discipline that travels. New cities, new surfaces and new audiences are how it grows. Round 2 in Gaziantep is the championship's first visit to a city of two million in Türkiye's south, a region with a young, motorsport-curious audience and no prior national-level drift round to anchor it. What happens on the tyre walls of Gazi Pisti tomorrow afternoon will shape whether Gaziantep stays on the calendar in 2027 and beyond.
See you trackside. The clock is under 24 hours.
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