Professional Drifting as a Mainstream Motorsport
http://news.drift.com/articles/31/1/Professional-Drifting-as-a-Mainstream-Motorsport/Professional-Drifting-as-a-Mainstream-Motorsport.html
Aaron Ekinaka
By Aaron Ekinaka
Published on 08/12/2006
Recently, D1 Professional Drift USA teamed up with the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA sport compact) to bring together two very different forms of motor sports competition at one event.
This pairing of different racing disciplines is becoming more common...
This pairing of different racing disciplines is becoming more common...
Professional Drifting as a Mainstream Motorsport
Discuss This Article
Recently, D1 Grand Prix USA teamed up with the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA sport compact) to deliver two completely different competitive motor sports events at one venue. While pairing various racing disciplines becomes more common, this particular one demonstrated that drifting as a motor sport is increasing in popularity in the US.
Spectators in Las Vegas, NV received an incredible entertainment experience. When the Japanese and Americans took a break from fighting it out sideways on a track prepared for drifting, these fans watched drag racing, a motor sport some may consider on the opposite side of the competitive racing spectrum as drifting.
Hiro Sumida - D1 Drag and Drift - Las Vegas, Nevada
The event’s itinerary was was simple. First, watch the qualifying round of drag racing, then the qualifying round of drifting. Next, the elimination round of drag racing heated up, and then drifting returned for its elimination round. This back-to-back event allowed drag racing fans to experience a drifting event and fans of drifting to experience a drag event; something either one might not have done had the events had been held independent of the other. One thing is for sure, the feeling of exhilaration is the same whether generated by experiencing the thunderous power of dragsters tearing down the strip or watching the nail biting, tandem drift battles on the drift course.
Rhys Millen - Formula D at the Long Beach Grand Prix
This is not the first time the promoters of drifting hooked up with other professional racing competitions. For example, earlier this year the Long Beach Grand Prix (CART) held a drift exhibition with Formula D’s top drivers showing off their tire smoking skills. At that event, people in the stands who never heard drifting suddenly found themselves on their feet cheering and yelling like drift maniacs when they saw the drift cars going sideways with copious amounts of smoke peeling awy from their tires! For me, it was strangely rewarding to witness these people embrace drifting the first time they experienced it first-hand.
Recently, D1 Grand Prix USA teamed up with the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA sport compact) to deliver two completely different competitive motor sports events at one venue. While pairing various racing disciplines becomes more common, this particular one demonstrated that drifting as a motor sport is increasing in popularity in the US.
Spectators in Las Vegas, NV received an incredible entertainment experience. When the Japanese and Americans took a break from fighting it out sideways on a track prepared for drifting, these fans watched drag racing, a motor sport some may consider on the opposite side of the competitive racing spectrum as drifting.
Hiro Sumida - D1 Drag and Drift - Las Vegas, Nevada
The event’s itinerary was was simple. First, watch the qualifying round of drag racing, then the qualifying round of drifting. Next, the elimination round of drag racing heated up, and then drifting returned for its elimination round. This back-to-back event allowed drag racing fans to experience a drifting event and fans of drifting to experience a drag event; something either one might not have done had the events had been held independent of the other. One thing is for sure, the feeling of exhilaration is the same whether generated by experiencing the thunderous power of dragsters tearing down the strip or watching the nail biting, tandem drift battles on the drift course.
Rhys Millen - Formula D at the Long Beach Grand Prix
This is not the first time the promoters of drifting hooked up with other professional racing competitions. For example, earlier this year the Long Beach Grand Prix (CART) held a drift exhibition with Formula D’s top drivers showing off their tire smoking skills. At that event, people in the stands who never heard drifting suddenly found themselves on their feet cheering and yelling like drift maniacs when they saw the drift cars going sideways with copious amounts of smoke peeling awy from their tires! For me, it was strangely rewarding to witness these people embrace drifting the first time they experienced it first-hand.
Professional Drifting as a Mainstream Motorsport - Continued
On August 31st at Irwindale Speedway, D1 will kick it up a notch by teaming up with NASCAR and challenging Nextel Cup stars, such as Kasey Kahne, Bill Elliott, and other professional stock car drivers, to drive sideways along with the world’s best drift drivers. To think, a sport once dominated by high-reving precision tuned Japanese imports is now being shared with America’s heartland racing heroes.
What does all of this mean to the sport of professional drift? It certainly means big exposure. ESPN2, for example, provided national television coverage of the D1 “Drag and Drift” event in Las Vegas, which was later broadcasted into millions of homes only weeks later.
Drag racing, only steps away from the drift course.
ESPN recently picked up rally racing for this years X Games 12, recognizing another non-mainstream competitive event as worthy of coverage. A specialty competition once only able to be viewed by the insiders of the sport, professional drifting could well be on its way to being classified as a mainstream racing activity in the near future. It also might not be too unrealistic to envision drifting as an event in an upcoming X Games (X-Games promoters, drifting would be equally if not more successful than rallying!).
Professional drifting will only need to piggyback on established forms of racing (CART, NASCAR, NHRA) for a limited amount of time to come. Drifting offers too many aspects of racing that people love, billowing smoke from incredible burnouts, high powered cars skidding parallel to each other only inches apart, and high speed crashes that one could not script for a movie. If enough people continue to discover and enjoy this skilled motor sport as the result of these hybrid events, as I believe they will with the right kind of promoters backing it, it should not be long before names like Yasuyuki Kazama and Samuel Hubinette will be in your local newspaper’s sports section.
To contribute to a discussion about drift being paired up with mainstream motorsport events, click here.
What does all of this mean to the sport of professional drift? It certainly means big exposure. ESPN2, for example, provided national television coverage of the D1 “Drag and Drift” event in Las Vegas, which was later broadcasted into millions of homes only weeks later.
Drag racing, only steps away from the drift course.
ESPN recently picked up rally racing for this years X Games 12, recognizing another non-mainstream competitive event as worthy of coverage. A specialty competition once only able to be viewed by the insiders of the sport, professional drifting could well be on its way to being classified as a mainstream racing activity in the near future. It also might not be too unrealistic to envision drifting as an event in an upcoming X Games (X-Games promoters, drifting would be equally if not more successful than rallying!).
Professional drifting will only need to piggyback on established forms of racing (CART, NASCAR, NHRA) for a limited amount of time to come. Drifting offers too many aspects of racing that people love, billowing smoke from incredible burnouts, high powered cars skidding parallel to each other only inches apart, and high speed crashes that one could not script for a movie. If enough people continue to discover and enjoy this skilled motor sport as the result of these hybrid events, as I believe they will with the right kind of promoters backing it, it should not be long before names like Yasuyuki Kazama and Samuel Hubinette will be in your local newspaper’s sports section.
To contribute to a discussion about drift being paired up with mainstream motorsport events, click here.