D1NZ Moves To Control Tyre Brands in 2025

Announced this week was a massive shift for the New Zealand D1NZ Drifting Series - with the Pro Championship class moving to Control Tyre Brands in 2025 and beyond.

The series aims to level out the playing field in the pro drift class and secure the future of the sport.

There is plenty of talk internationally among competitors, organizers, motorsport officials and fans around the types of tires now available for drifting competition - with significant differences in grip levels and compounds now available on the global market.

D1NZ’s teams in pit-lane have been discussing tire rules with various officials behind closed doors for a while now, and while nothing major has changed to the tire rules over the last few years, the series has finally drawn a line heading into the 2025 season.

While full details are yet to be released - the D1NZ Series will run it’s Pro-Championship class on a Control List of 265 Semi-Slick Tires. Manufacturers looking to have their tire brands in competition will need to go through a significant testing and approval process before joining the series.

As announced via a ‘Thursday Thunder’ post on D1NZ’s Social media; Team DSR’s Dave Steedman will continue to run a Tri-Ace tire in competition, which suggests the manufacturer is already on the short-list.

The Pro-Championship class as of 2024 was able to run up to a 265mm wide semi-slick tyre on the rear wheels - with a pitlane ‘gentleman’s agreement’ on treadwear.

That agreement has since fallen away amongst competitors as new tires have hit the market in recent years, arguably offering remarkable differences in grip and compound - creating large debates about competitive fairness and how rulesets are shaped.

Notably, while tire discussions were happening, the 2024 season saw officials remove the ‘Minimum Tire Pressure’ regulation in favor of a new ‘Tire De-Bead’ rule, though it remains to be seen whether this will be reinstated or further reviewed.

As far as we know, the D1NZ Pro-SPORT Class will still remain with its current rule-set, with competitors able to run up to a 235mm Radial (Street) Tire, with no semi slicks or nitrous oxide permitted.

The question now remains; what tire manufacturers and brands will we see on the final Control Tire list in 2025, and how will this affect competition?