Overview Formula Fixed races brakeless fixed-gear bikes in five-minute elimination heats on short, closed circuits, laid out so the whole race can be seen from one spot. It runs two fields, Defined (Women+) and Expansive (Men+), and grew out of bike-messenger street culture; founder James Grady co-founded Mission Crit, a fixed-gear criterium. Qualifiers in 2025 set the field for its first Pro Series, and for 2026 the series scheduled a three-night Short Track World Series at K1 Speed in Las Vegas, with 48 rostered athletes and points carried across the three nights to crown one winner per field. The Deviate Group runs it. On site The racing fits inside kart tracks and closed crit courses. At the 2025 Western Qualifier the short track ran on a Monday evening at K1 Speed in South San Francisco, where an overflow crowd watched through the windows from the sidewalk, and the crit races ran at the Oakland Grand Prix in Livermore. Courses are built for drone, POV and broadcast cameras, and the Las Vegas nights were set to livestream on Instagram. Audience The field and the crowd come from the same scenes: bike messengers, criterium racers, BMX and cyclocross riders. The series describes fixed-gear culture as closer to skate culture than to road cycling, with custom bike builds and fashion part of it, and says it is younger, more multicultural and more gender-diverse than any other cycling discipline. Between races fans follow on Instagram, YouTube and a Strava club. Talent and Influencers The 2025 Western Qualifier crowned Devin Armstrong of Oakland and Chelsea Wolfe of San Diego in the short track, Josef Nelson and Aiyana Taylor in the crit, and Quin Kennedy of Seattle and Joy Bloser of Houston as overall points champions. The 2026 partner guide also profiled Luke Fetzer, a U23 national crit champion; Alec Briggs of London, a four-time short track champion; Brittany O'Neal, then a Brooklyn professor of African-American studies; and Melissa Martucci, a San Diego chemistry teacher and former LA28 track program athlete. Track record The 2024 pilot event sold $145,000 in partnerships, which the series values at $470,000 in advertising equivalent. For Kraft Heinz Away From Home it ran a messenger-style scavenger hunt to Heinz-verified restaurants across Strava and Instagram; the series reports 7 million impressions and 143% of the activation goal with no paid media. Rapha's race-weekend kickoff at its Santa Monica store, with live screen printing by the rider Rosie Le, drew 300 customers the series says would not otherwise have come. Brand presence Partners come in at three levels, from a light-touch entry for testing one market to a lead position with exclusive placement. Past activations have been built into the race: a Red Bull DJ booth on the course, custom chrome foam fingers for the crowd and a lap counter made from Knog bike lights. The series shoots every race for its own channels, athlete accounts and creator networks, and hands partners the clips, photos and creator content.