WORLD DRIFT CHAMPIONSHIPS (WDC) vs. FORMULA DRIFT (FD)

[AlexPfeiffer]

After talking with a few people, its seems kinda evident that we need to put some things up for conversation, and discuss the pros and cons between the different series and what is going in general.


My biggest complain is this,
In the history of racing, when ever a form of racing became split and had 2 instead of 1 headlineing series, it was bad for all, including the fans. A couple examples of this was Indy car turning into IRL and Cart. Imsa turning into Grand Am and American Le mans. Battle of the Imports into Nopi Nationals and IDRC.

Its ok to have a feeder series to support the up and comming drivers but they way it stands as of right now, WDC and FD will be competeing series for the US market. Drift showoff and dday comps are good starting competitions, then you have D1 which is going international and holds the title for being the top drift series and will probably remain that way.

I'll leave it open for discussion from here, but please dont post unless you are planning on entering one of these comps this year.

[OH240SE]

How can we combine the 2 series so many more of us can attend?

"FormulaD: World Drift Championships"


Split it up kinda like football with the National League and the American League??? West and East or something, i dunno.
Too expensive to drive to california for each event from ohio...

[Drift For Food]

True, I can't see two series trying to do the same thing working. I know it happens a lot, and it does offer the benifit of two completely seperate organizations with their own independent goals, regulations, and events(offering a greater range of locations for fans). However, simplicity is nice and easier to follow than a hailstorm of small oranizations all trying to compete for the public's attention and money.

I can see it working well in only one way. If the different oranizations worked on completely different levels, think ameture versus pro here, then it could work. One could be a starting point for those aspiring to be the next drift kings. It would offer lower class cars with limitations on chassis modifications and power outputs and even sophisticiation of the electronics. It would be less costly to get into as well.

Then you have the pro league where everything goes and winner takes all. This would include major advertizing and major events, the superbowl of drifting, maybe bad analogy.

Anyways, I could see two completely different organizations operating these series well. They could be independent of each other yet interact with each other for the common goal.

[NextBoost]

One will turn in to the "The One" lol, well one will survive the other will not better hope the better of the two survives and don't *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* when drifting is turned in to the nopi fiasco.

D1 should set up a US series and a Europe series and have the best of Japan US Europe in a sort of race of champions at the end of it all. Real drifting through the season then an all out world event, a huge show.

[AlexPfeiffer]

One of the problems is that if there is 2 series, there really isnt enough professional teams yet to supply both. So it hurts the overall show that the fans will get.

Another thing to mension is judging. Since WDC is new and they have no prefessional drifters in there crew, their head judge is a road racer with very minimal drift experience. Their judging system isnt baised as much on style. But more a criteria. They will have 3 judges, one rates speed, one rates line, and one angle. Then all 3 will have a style score and the style score is averaged between the 3 judges.

For FD, they are changing their judging in that they are getting the import mags involved in that the mags editors will decide who will judge. And they are spreading it out to more judges, say around 5 or so, this is for less bias decisions.

Right now, i dont like ether of these forms. I only trust in decisions made by drifters and not someone who thinks they know what drifting is supposed to be.

[Hubert Young]

Originally posted by AlexPfeiffer
Right now, i dont like ether of these forms. I only trust in decisions made by drifters and not someone who thinks they know what drifting is supposed to be.

Agree... but it is tough to find drifters who does not want to be part of the game and be the judge... Being a judge sucks when you see all your friends out there playing and you are stuck at the judging stand.

FD vs WDC is a disaster as the above posts have pointed out already. What they are doing is diluting the talents and the teams at this nurturing stage of drifting. And I wonder if it is coincident or accident that there are 4 out of 10 WDC events conflicting with FD events. How about FD round 5 in Chicago and WDC round 8 in Chicago/Milwaukee?! They got to do something about it.

I heard from the grapevine that most teams are actually considering running WDC as priority over FD because there is more prize money and more events. With that, I wonder if there will be an influx of good Japanese drifters or even D1 drivers in WDC.

It is sad to see what's going on now between the two series. FD is the pioneer of a professional drifting series in America and now WDC just wants to come in with loads of cash and tries to steal away what FD and us the drifters have worked so hard to accomplish. Oh well, what can I say, this is the typical downside of capitalism. The guy with the most cash wins. What can I say!?

[CRASHDRIVE]

Originally posted by AlexPfeiffer
I only trust in decisions made by drifters and not someone who thinks they know what drifting is supposed to be.

Wow, i though i'll never do this. But, I like your quote.

Suggestion:
Why not have an "unwritten agreement" between FD & WDC (much like the old 280hp limits; among Japanese Car manufacturers).

1 will be the pinacle series while the other is below that.

I just hope that both series have the fans in mind vs their profit (i don't want to start anything but it does come down to this you know).

I would like to hear atleast 1 representative of both series to this discussion (can anyone invite a representative from both to post to this thread?).

[BooZTT]

Originally posted by motdyn_s14
It is sad to see what's going on now between the two series. FD is the pioneer of a professional drifting series in America and now WDC just wants to come in with loads of cash and tries to steal away what FD and us the drifters have worked so hard to accomplish. Oh well, what can I say, this is the typical downside of capitalism. The guy with the most cash wins. What can I say!?

I agree with Hubert on this one as well. FD has done so much for our sport and given us the opportunity to put it on a larger scale..WDC is just trying to steal the steam from FD (with overlapping events dates) and to me that's plain dirty. FD knows where my loyalties sit.

[LOVMUFN]

When you start getting into the area where money makes the rules, it just kinda becomes sad. You can't ask for some rediculasly idealistic person to come in and unite all of the drifting universe so that all the people and serises can go skipping hand in hand in a field of tulips.


The main reason it is going to be SO hard to get one dominating series in the US that gets all the drivers, all the spectators, and all the sponsors that are worth having is because there are a lot of rich people that like to try stuff. What I mean by that is, you end up with some guy with a minimal amount of driving skill that is way overconfident + his huge income + redily available parts + enough decent shops to shake his wallet at = an ok driver that has a super powered 4 wheel smoke machine that does a hugemungusly long burn out with minimal angle and speed. With those people, anyone can start a 'pro' series with Joe Cool and Robot GPS Andy as the judges and it will draw a crowd, because, for some reason, there is a great number of people that like watching 650HP cars doing hugemungusly long burnouts with a ton of smoke.

Yes, that is a little exaggerated, but I don't think at all OVER exaggerated. I would like to see at least one series in the US that has its heart in the right place, or the one with it closest to it survive because that one will more than likely still be around after drifting is out of the spotlight as the coolest thing in the world to a lot of people. A series that is in it with money in its eyes $_$, will most likely book it once there is not a lot more to be made in it.

[AlexPfeiffer]

The money aspect is another thing i wanted to bring up. Yes WDC is paying more for winning, and may even transport your car. I feel they are trying to buy drivers and teams.

As one of the drivers that last year payed for myself to go drift at the competitions I understand that money is tight and anything that you get back, get free, or get sponcered helps out alot. And i really wouldnt have been able to afford any more events.

The money WDC is offering might not offset the cost of having to run more events. Yes they say that only 6 of the events will count towards the seasonal standings, and that could be benifitial to the smaller teams. But it also gives the big teams an edge since they can run all 10 events and 4 of their bad scores will be droped.

And the money WDC is offering i dont think actually helps the pro teams all too much. The "pro" teams run off sponcership money and they need alot more then a few grand to help offset thier costs to run.

[slide]

Alex said it and I for for agree, the introduction of multiple sanctioning bodies KILLS the sport. Whatever sport it is, the fans and teams and sponsors are FORCED to choice which way they will go. I mean drifting is still new and we are all learning more and more each day about it how, and how we can make it better. Disrupting this growth with big dollar signs and misc add-ins only distract ALL of us in regards to what we are doing and why. That is the fact of the matter. Import drag racing is the best example, and you guys should see it. Remeber when it first hit, and everyone was out there racing and all the top drivers were together for the best competition....that was hot, then big companies started throwin there weight around to have there own series and everyone, (fans, racers, teams, shops, sponsors) got seperated. That left us with no attendance at certain events, no fan loyalty to any event or racing team, lopsided competition where this local kid races like Papadakis, and most of the big racers from the past are like nowhere to be found. I love what we have, drifting has an awesome enviornment and the people involved are amazing, Alex is awesome, Tony Angelo my boy...period, Andy Yen, Calvin Wan, JR, CHRIS F, Casper, Gush, Sage, Hampton, Hubert, Ernie, Rhys, Hiroo, Taka, Moto, everyone is awesome and we are all growing together. That is awesome, imagine football if the NFL had like 5 competitors start up when it did, nobody would know where to go, and time spent deciding would kill the interest of all parties involved fans, teams, owners, yea. Formula D is great in my book, and i think it would be awesome to grow with it and see where WE all can take it. Sure WDC is putting up more money, and I know that money would make it easier for alot of people, but Im gonna say something that alot of people might not agree with....... Not everything that glitters is gold....what I mean by that is this, taken the money now is not always the best thing to do. If you look at it in this light you might understand a little better. If you had to choose between taking $5,000.00 right now to help you race for an upstart company that was also fresh on the seen would you take that over a chance to race for a little less money in a series that is accredited and has backing from accredited racing organizations and ultimately has the potential to get you into levels of racing that can pay you crazy amounts down the line?
When you look at it in that way it makes a difference, and we all have to remember that without us the racers, teams and fans the sancationing bodies would not last, if we do it together we all get rewarded, if we split up it will tear everything apart......just my thoughts.

[j.r.]

Alex good work on bringing this to the open public as some of you know this has been discussed amongst most of the drivers since the announcing of WDC.

There is no doubt in my mind that having 2 series battling to be "The ONE" could be tragic to our sport. And I think that 90% of the drivers agree with that.

What we need is 1 Top level series here in the US and 1 or 2 "feeder series" for up and coming talent which I remind everyone are just as important if not more important than "Professional Drivers".

As far as WDC VS FD. I was teleconferenced in on the WDC driver meeting a few months ago. As alex mentiond to sum it up the "head judge" has a very distorted view of what drifting is and really put a bad taste in most everyone that was at that meetings mouth. FD's new judging scheme would not have been my first pick but I think it will be good.

Wdc does not have enough concrete sponsors at the moment which is why everything is "tenative" they cant commit or say how many drivers they can help with transport and even how many drivers will be "invited" because they have no clue how much money they are going to get from sponsors and everything they have in the works is dependant on driver comitment in which as far as I know they have very few drivers if any that are willing to walk away from Formula D and jump into a new series that is a small part of a huge event without seeing what it is about.

FormulaD has committted sponsors for support some new and some who were happy with last year as far as i know, A television deal and a sucessful introductory year behind them. Not to mention they truly care about the sport and listen to all the drivers opinions and make adjustments accordingly to suit everything reasonable. FD is also a"Drift Event" with some cars on display and a few other small things to do during downtime but the main focus is the Drifting which is what the drivers are there to do and what the everyone comes to see.


I could probably throw up multiple other pros and cons but if everyone takes a open minded look into both events and not let contingency sway a driver from one series to another the pros and cons are obvious regarding having 2 series in general as well as regarding each series.

What are our choices regarding the 2 series?

Well we can sit back and let the 2 series Battle and have an outcome like all the other series that have split.

We can choose to participate in only one series and let the other one fail.

We can offer the ultimadum for the 2 to try to work together.

The best Idea i think is.......
Since WDC is offering transport to help out those that need it maybe WDC could be the feeder series for the whole "world" they could help all the up and coming drivers from all over the world but have no sponsors and no money to get to events and shape them into amazing drivers ready to go to the next level which would be as it stands now Formula D.


All in all us the drivers "Pro" and "ametuer" (God i hate saying that) Have the power to decide what the outcome of this and the general outcome of drifting in America will be and if we all use our head and our love for DRIFTING with out other things interfering things will be just fine now and far into the future.

I would love to just drive and not worry about stuff like this but I think me and everyone else care waaaaay too much about this sport and we are smart enough to learn from others mistakes to let a rerun of a mistake happen to drifting.....

Drivers Please post your opinion!!!


LAter,

JR

[ALI]

I watched open wheel racing in America literally fall apart with the split up creating Champ Car and IRL....I thought for sure drifting would be my outlet! Guess not . . . I've spent the past year getting ready for the 05 season in FD, and having the WDC thing come up just gets to me because in all honesty it's just going to divert media coverage. It's amazing how it's already become all about the money before any of drivers are even a stage where they can be drivers full time(paid)! How the hell did that happen!?

What I don't understand is how so many drivers have a problem with there being two series, yet many of you guys have signed up with WDC? Including you Alex?

According to their website they have all the drivers listed that will participate next year.

http://www.harddrivelive.com/events/

If a driver has an issue with there being two series, I can't understand why they would support them both.

[j.r.]

Alot of those names i think were just put there. why and under whos consent I have no Idea..because I know I have not committed to WDCnor signed anything even vaguely saying i was considering. And I know for fact multiple others on that list have not either.......that is not appreciated and will be handled....thanks for pointing that out

[AlexPfeiffer]

That drivers list is Bull $h it!! And i hope their sponcers dont belive that we plan on competing at all the events. What i signed was an intention of intent form which stated that we may compete or may not. And now they are using our names to say they have the drivers on there side, which they dont.

When i signed it, i thought it would be cool to go and run maybe a couple of the events in my ae86. That way i can have fun in my own car again rather then driving someone elses always. But now that they are using my name to get money for their series, and taking advantage of the fact that we were openminded enough to hear them out and see how they do things, now i want nothing to do with WDC if they cant get their things going without droping names like posers do. "I know this guy, and i know that guy", that is just making them look bad, and i hope their sponcers see realize that they dont have our support.