Damir Idiyatulin
Drift legend · Russia
A blue and white Fresh Racing Supra with 950 hp and a perfect qualifying lap.
A Krasnoyarsk driver with nine RDS GP stage wins and more perfect qualifying runs than anyone in the series, Damir Idiyatulin has finished runner-up in the championship without ever taking the title.
Idiyatulin was born in Krasnoyarsk in 1991 and came to drifting around 2014, after which, by his own account, every other hobby disappeared. He won the Grand Final of the Russian Drift Series at Krasnoyarsk in 2016 and finished second at the 2015 Super Drift Battle, then built a career inside the Fresh team, appearing in the RDS GP top division from 2019.
His best season came in 2024, when he won stages 2, 3 and 7 and finished second overall with 1,125 points behind Artem Shabanov, while Fresh Racing took the team title. He is known as the king of qualifying, with the most 100-point runs of any RDS GP driver, and in 2024 he became the first driver to win two stages on the reverse layouts of two different tracks.
He has never been champion, with third place in 2020, 2022 and 2026 as his other podium seasons. A heavy crash at Sochi in 2022 and an openly low-profile attitude to media shaped his image: his line is that he came to race, not to chase popularity. In 2026 he won the VTB Final at Moscow Raceway and Fresh Racing again took the team title.
At a glance
- Role: RDS GP runner-up; the series' king of qualifying
- Region: Russia
Career highlights
- 2016: Grand Final RDS winner. Won the Grand Final at the Red Ring in Krasnoyarsk.
- 2020: RDS GP third overall. Won stage 5 and the RDS Moscow Cup in a Toyota Altezza in Fresh Auto Drift colours.
- 2024: RDS GP runner-up. Three stage wins and 1,125 points; Fresh Racing team champions.
- 2025: RDS Winter Cup winner. Won both qualifying and the pairs; also third at the Cup of Russia.
- 2026: VTB Final winner. Won the last stage at Moscow Raceway and finished third overall with 746 points.
Signature cars
- Toyota Supra A80, Fresh Racing #9 (2023 to 2026)
- Toyota Altezza (2019 to 2022)
Video
Source: RDS GP driver profile