(FEEDBACK) Formula D Irwindale

[Slapshotnerd]

I totally agree about the switching to SPEED, I have been puzzled since I heard that G4 would be covering...There is nothing wrong with G4, I watch it all the time.Its a video game/electronics channel and drifting doesnt exactly fit into that. I think it would just be better for the sport if it was covered by SPEED. They would probably provide a better coverage, because they are used to covering motorsports.There would not be this trial and error stuff that its going through. The show would be longer, showing everything instead of just highlights from the qualifying and what not. Im sure there is a contract and we will never see it on SPEED.Although I do like how it is an actual show also, and not just showing the events and then its over. It adds a more entertainment element, especially since there are not events every weekend. IDK, there is one 1 cent(im a cheap bastard)

you have to work your way up the ladder. You don't just get on ESPN primetime the first year.

G4 was willing to work with it, and I think they've done a fantastic job. It's my understanding that the G4 deal is signed through the end of the 2006 season, so there won't be a switch until then at the earliest. But at least we HAVE a TV deal!

maybe a feeder series like drift showoff, that comes into town a few weeks before the real event. this would get qualifying out of the way weeks in advance, and leave lots of practice time the day before the event for everyone. you can save money by having the feeder series in a parking lot that is less expensive, and bring in less walls, media, employees, ect. plus, it would be a really fun drift day like the drift showoff series, but on a more competitive level.

make all the judges drivers, and get rid of the magazine judges. this might not help make everyone happy, but it should improve the sport.

From what I hear, a feeder series is in the works. But having an event in a parking lot to qualify drivers won't really work. It needs to be on the SAME TRACK as where they race at. Irwindale is a high speed / high horsepower track, and having an event in a parking lot with a bunch of cones where the fastest cars are only going 50 mph doesn't compare to what happens on a banked turn at Irwindale. Also, securing each track twice for each event (once for qualifying, once for the competition) is twice as expensive, if not moreso for not only the organizers, but the drivers. Imagine transporting the car + team + pit out to each event twice... heck, many of the teams didn't even make the full schedule as it is! Making them come out a couple of weeks before the main event is just going to thin out the teams that much more, and I don't think anybody wants that.

as for judging - know any drivers that want to judge? cuz I don't! Heck, Seigo turned in his judging card to drive again this year!! I'm sure Jim and Ryan would love to have an entourage of fully-qualified former pro drivers who are up in the stands judging. But until we have people who are willing to give up the keys to driving in order to judging, we have to go with those who are willing to give up their responsibilities at the event (whether it's driving, shooting pictures / writing about it, managing a team, or otherwise) and use them as judges.

[hatebbobbarker]

-What did you like?
organization was great, liked the change in track layout, thankfully none of that weak passing happened at irwindale. (its drifting, not passing)
-What could be improved?
just work on timing, as someone alluded to 5minutes= 15 minutes
-Event Schedule
was good, just have a more official schedule for each event.
-Access to drivers
great, never had any problem with this, and everyone seemed to keep clear when cars headed in and out of pits
-Suggestions for the 06 season
no one likes j-rod, its not a secret, get rid of him. perhaps one of those magazine guys would do better, or multiple guys doing commentary. Everytime he shouted 1.2.3. send it I cringed, the guy is trying WAY too hard, and it doesnt seem like he has any idea what good angle is. Seriously he is the worst thing about formula D.

[daytona350z]

irwindale was good. not too many complaints about it except those obnoxious nitto balloon things. its so annoying to have peple behind you hit those things. gave me a headache.

-Suggestions for the 06 season
no one likes j-rod, its not a secret, get rid of him. perhaps one of those magazine guys would do better, or multiple guys doing commentary. Everytime he shouted 1.2.3. send it I cringed, the guy is trying WAY too hard, and it doesnt seem like he has any idea what good angle is. Seriously he is the worst thing about formula D.

*dont wanna offend j-rod as i know hes trying his best*...but...i agree as well. "j-rod" is just trying way to hard to sound appealing to the audience.
not to offend him or anything, but it sounds like he thinks we're supid. he announces what is on the big tv as if no one can see or hear for themselves...ie: "circut city comercial on the big tv" i know it has to do with sponsors, but it seems he runs out of things to say, so he says that...over and over and over agian... it doesnt help that he buries himself with the crowd by trying to get them to participate. we just look at him and sit there, we dont wanna listen. to him, we wanna see some action. plus, when the crowd doest respond to you, you'd think he stop jabbering on, but that doesnt happen at all.

i remember watching some g4 tv stuff. all i hear is "taka with no angle...taka needs more angle...taka has no angle..." humm, i htink we got that the first time. now i dunno about him judging the angle, but thats a whole different story. o and please dont "send it" sounds corny and no one responds to it.

now i know we cant get an announcer like toshi, but please do something about the current one.

[D1 DRIFTER]

i was impressed with Fd over all a few things kinda killed tho A) j-rod nice guy but damn he gets annoying (sry dude) maybe a little less talking as we all know when he was like : are you with my irwindale!? everyone just sat there ... ie meaning to much talking! we GO to see drifting not listen to music or a guy act like hes a driver himself and know his lines ans shizzle! hahaha well i totally agree with the feeder seris a month or so before i think its a great idea over all good event!

[_PG_]

Toshi is just as annoying as an announcer. In Japan D1, Suzuki is also an annoying announcer. They kinda all are, who cares. They all try their best and can't please everyone. Take it with a grain of salt.

Jarod, keep on rock rockin man. Its like everyone brings their whole complaint on Formula D down on you.

[gnat]

Well, I had a blast. It was a lot of fun, as always. I was a little shocked at how much more commercial it has become, but I guess I can't complain. If the extra money paid for that big tv on the track then it was all worth it. I thought there were a couple of runs that deserved "one more time" as we like to say but, ehh, its a judged event and I certainly would hate to have to choose with all the talent that's out there. I don't expect to agree every time, but I won't presume that my opinion is the only correct choice. The pits seemed kind of oddly spaced, some sections were total chaos, then 100 feet away there's a lonely little booth and nobody wants to brave the heat to get there. Ok, so I guess I have a few gripes. I don't think misters would've made much difference, it was HOT and that's that. But my overall experience was a positive one. My throat hurt the next day from cheering so much so it couldn't have been too bad.

btw, I like the G4 show (if you ask me, the FormulaD show is putting that channel on the map). Sure it could use a little tinkering here and there but it's only been on one season! I'll be watching no matter what, I don't know of any other drifting shows and you can only watch the DVD collection so many times..

..so there's my 2cents

[daytona350z]

Toshi is just as annoying as an announcer. In Japan D1, Suzuki is also an annoying announcer. They kinda all are, who cares. They all try their best and can't please everyone. Take it with a grain of salt.

Jarod, keep on rock rockin man. Its like everyone brings their whole complaint on Formula D down on you.

yea but the difference is that toshi and suzuki actually know what they are talking about. not to mention that toshi has the ability to pronounce taka's name correctly

[ZoltecRules]

Sorry to go this way but I'm sick of people raggin on J-Rod.

First of all, if you can think of someone better in the announcer position just say so! This isn't like professional sports where you have commentary by people with 20 years of experience in the sport. Almost everyone that knows drifting and can speak english fluently is driving!

Second of all, J-Rod is doing twice the work of any sports announcer. He both has to make commentary for TV (explain what is going on) and pump up the crowd. That in itself is hard enough.

Third of all Drifting is extremely hard thing to comment on while its happening. In a matter of seconds you are seeing almost 15 things going on as the car takes the curve. If it were me I would sit there and say "Ummmmmm, that was good"

I know this is a tired cliche but "Do you think you can better up there?"

[_PG_]

yea but the difference is that toshi and suzuki actually know what they are talking about. not to mention that toshi has the ability to pronounce taka's name correctly

Oh yeah I love going to D1 and being injected with my daily dose of "JDM SCENE".


"Now moving on to the Tsuisou Rounds of drifting. 'Tsuisou' is the Japanese word for Twin Drift. In these rounds, drivers will be head to head blah blah blah..."

NO S@*#$

Then after the top 16...

"Moving on to the top 8 Tsuisou, or Twin Drift, round of competition. Tsuisou battles blah blah blah blah..."


Just cause Toshie can speak Japanese doesn't mean that he knows what he is talking about. In fact, neither does Suzuki really.

Have you ever heard either of them say "Wow the way he braked from high speed and didn't upset the car is the sign of an OG Motherf*#^$@er.."

Or "And using the side-brake to extend, he brings the drift ALL THE WAY out to the edge of the track. Now that is a hard thing to master, once the driver lets off of the side brake, the car wants to grip, so timing and experience are important etc etc..."

Answer: NO!! They don't KNOW. Just like Formula D judges (they might as well all be announcers) (besides those who drift aka Utsumi). I'm not saying that FD judges don't know ANYTHING about drifting... I understand they've been around for a while and they've seen drifting a lot. But have they DONE IT DONE IT... Like ran mountain passes, drifted on the track banging off of 3rd/4th gear? Locked up the front brakes coming into a corner and then getting on the gas fast enough to sustain the same angle and speed, just with some flair and style??? I mean you don't need judges to sit there and judge Speed, Line, Angle. That can easily be done electronically... there, no more discrepancy. Judges sould be knowledgeable to the point where execution and technique and circumstance is accounted for, style, progressiveness, flare, etc etc. When they know how to do what is being done, and can understand how and why the driver does everything, then they can judge and more fairly make an EDUCATED decision.



So.... yeah. What were we talking about. Oh. Announcers.

[Drift Brick]

Answer: NO!! They don't KNOW. Just like Formula D judges (they might as well all be announcers) (besides those who drift aka Utsumi). I'm not saying that FD judges don't know ANYTHING about drifting... I understand they've been around for a while and they've seen drifting a lot. But have they DONE IT DONE IT... Like ran mountain passes, drifted on the track banging off of 3rd/4th gear? Locked up the front brakes coming into a corner and then getting on the gas fast enough to sustain the same angle and speed, just with some flair and style??? I mean you don't need judges to sit there and judge Speed, Line, Angle. That can easily be done electronically... there, no more discrepancy. Judges sould be knowledgeable to the point where execution and technique and circumstance is accounted for, style, progressiveness, flare, etc etc. When they know how to do what is being done, and can understand how and why the driver does everything, then they can judge and more fairly make an EDUCATED decision.

^ what he said.

Anyone been to a baseball game recently? what do the announcers there say? NOTHING. "now up to bat #so an so SOME GUY!" *crowd cheers, game commences*.

thats all. We dont need mroe than that to get pumped up. If anything, the announcer should relay the judge's decision, why it was made, and thats it. none of this "what do you guys think?" BS.

the crowd can recognise a good run. its easy to tell when someone gets really close to the wall and brings it back while maintaining their line, hitting the apex, and managing angle and speed. It looks insane, and people recognise that, and they cheer.

but then, Im a minimalist, so who knows.

Keep j-rod for "play by play" on the TV show or whatever, but for the fans that are attnding... you dont need that. People will cheer when their favorite driver comes out. people will cheer good runs. sometimes, people will cheer bad runs.

and while Im here. I thought that maintaining a close distance to the other guy in tandem battles was part of the deal. more important, perhaps, than actually running a "qualifying" type of run. Forsberg was 2 miles back, and rhys never spun on the second run. There, I said it.

rhys got robbed.

this kind of judging is not only unfair and frustrating, its bad for the sport. I cant tell you how many times Ive brought new people to eventss or had them watc Formula D tv with me. they always get confused about the judging. I explain to them Line, angle and speed, and they get that, and the closeness factor, and they get that, but when the actual judging takes place, theyre confused. Because it makes no damn sense.

[akuma S14]

Parking lots and make-shift courses don't compare to something like Ebisu Circuit, ya know...

that is the best point yet! How can you call this a professional series when it is run in P-lots 50% of the time...... nobody thinks gutters in the course is cool. I don't want to pay almost 2k to transport my car the Chicago/Houston/etc. to run in a god damn parking lot. Somebody is getting paid to figure this out..... figure it out then.
+ Actually cover what the judges are loking for in all drivers meetings. How can you qualify if the D.M. consists of "thanks for coming out and be safe". How about it FD?

[aaronlosey]

From what I hear, a feeder series is in the works. But having an event in a parking lot to qualify drivers won't really work. It needs to be on the SAME TRACK as where they race at. Irwindale is a high speed / high horsepower track, and having an event in a parking lot with a bunch of cones where the fastest cars are only going 50 mph doesn't compare to what happens on a banked turn at Irwindale. Also, securing each track twice for each event (once for qualifying, once for the competition) is twice as expensive, if not moreso for not only the organizers, but the drivers. Imagine transporting the car + team + pit out to each event twice... heck, many of the teams didn't even make the full schedule as it is! Making them come out a couple of weeks before the main event is just going to thin out the teams that much more, and I don't think anybody wants that.

you forget half the fd tracks are parking lots. and down in texas, we have drift days in parking lots that let us see around 90mph in a stock z, less in a ka car, more in something that can pick up speed fast. just this weekend i was drifting at the top of third manjing down a straight away after the first corner. parking lots can have lots of space to pick up speed.

as to finding more judges who can drive, there are plenty of them out there, most of them just don't speak english. i don't believe they lack the ability to find judges that can drive, i think they just want to get magazine press, and they secure it by making the magazine people judges or vip. thats fine, but they can't even accurately write about drifting in their mags, let alone judge.

[Adam Barker]

Don't listen to the hype Jrod. Listen, get me up there with you. We'll handle it together. I've announced at a gajillion drift events. We'll be like Cagney and Lacey. I'll set em up, you knock em down. Let me know what you think.

[J-Rod]

Here I am to defend myself to all the negativity and all the "core" drifters.
I apolgize if you find me "Annoying" or repetative but there are thousands of other fans that aren't as "core" as you that need to hear the break down of each run and also enjoy the entertainment value of Formula Drift on top of the competition level.


If you noticed I was bummed and ready to run along woit you guys yet we have alot of logistics with the event from SCCA holding the cars, G4 Producing a TV Show, Cars breaking down and more.

I really enjoy what I do and am sorry for those of you that don't like me.
I love Toshi he's great but were Formula D NOT D1.

Let me know how you think I could do better as I will be MC'ing next year as well.

Suggestions/Criticism not negativity is encouraged.

I do alot more for Formula Drift than anybody knows so if you think I don't know what I'm talking about ASK ANY DRIVER about me and how I help the sport on top of just talking all day for 8 hours.

I will help you if you give me the chance, get to know me and introduce yourself next time you'll see I'm just like you.

Peace,
Thanks,

[_PG_]

and while Im here. I thought that maintaining a close distance to the other guy in tandem battles was part of the deal. more important, perhaps, than actually running a "qualifying" type of run. Forsberg was 2 miles back, and rhys never spun on the second run. There, I said it.

rhys got robbed.

Well i dunno if this is the place to discuss it, but consider when the drifts were initiated.... Everyone was initiating at the beginning or in Chris's case BEFORE the bank. Once the finals came around, Rhys Drag Raced the bank and kicked it out right at the end, giving him a big gap on Chris. Even though there was gap, chris closed the distance on the run. I dunno where the judging starts, and if its ok to disregard the bank when you have a powerful GTO, but whatever. Chris's car was on fire and he never let off the gas. On sheer impact and Heavy Metal, Chris negated any advantage Rhys may have had, if any.

On the 2nd run, Rhys maintained almost no angle and tucked low on the bank just driving to match Forsberg's speed and line, he got close but then he botched it and swug way too much angle and way too slow almost stopping at points and lost ground.

Kinda like... ehh, One More time cause nobody was a clear winner. Rest is history,


Either way, i don't think there are any hard feelings, everyone raided my boardshorts and went over to Rhys's house yesterday for a pool party, i don't think there is any bad blood...




But back to the original point... There should be some consideration taken here. How much power does Rhys have? Forsberg's S15 is barely 360-370 and all season has been the fastest entry speed. Rhys' car makes way more and he can't event start drifting the same time Chris does? I mean c'mon. I guess Chris could have played copycat and had no angle, just follow Rhys in a drag race around the bank.... but Rhys isn't in a Corolla, why do soemthing lame like that. Whatever, he won the whole fricken series, celebrate that.