(FEEDBACK) Formula D Irwindale

[hatebbobbarker]

oh yeah the music, jesus, we definitely need more metal most people ignore the DJs anyways, they are useless.SCCA definitely is a double edged sword, they bring a professionalism that i think could add a little bit. I have talked to alot of porsche guys and they love to watch it but they are wary to go to events and deal with all the youth culture.
Dont get me wrong, i love girls that are half naked, but I was glad there was less of it this year.

as for tracks, id just love a full course or two thrown into the mix, the events Ii go to at sears point and irwindale are dissapointingly small.

[Slapshotnerd]

PG - I REALLY want to see these diagrams of tracks. If you need help drawing them up, let me know...

Also, i don't see them reducing any of the safety gear anytime soon. Sucks that you can't afford it all... but i think the solution is to bring in more sponsors who might be able to provide the safety gear at a discount to the drivers, not to reduce the safety gear needed.

Also - those booths and DJ's and such are actually paying money to FD to be there, thus reducing the costs to the drivers and spectators.

I personally want to see FD get bigger, but also taken seriously. If it is not safe for the drivers and the spectators, then there will be no series in this lawsuit-happy nation. We had 3 major crashes this weekend, and all 3 drivers walked away unharmed. I think that goes to show how good the safety equipment is.

[ZoltecRules]

In response to judging disputes, what are the overall opinions of implementing the DriftBox in order to get more accurate measurements??? Just a thought.

[AlexPfeiffer]

Drift box = G A Y

If you cant noticably see an angle difference, then your not drifting hard enough.

[daytona350z]

Drift box = G A Y

If you cant noticably see an angle difference, then your not drifting hard enough.

hehe, i was just about to say that

[my 1 88 u]

Speed Channel - Again, there are alot of things behind the scenes that not everyone knows about and some of it I cannot publicly discuss. But let me tell all of you this. We went to every single network about FD TV. No one except for G4 stepped up. Can the shows get better? Of course. All of this is new for everyone, but everyone is working hard to continue to improve. Speed, they brushed us off. So what do I say to that, too bad, they missed out, G4 believes in FD and believes in drifting, no other network did. Lets all support them for supporting us.

It's funny, I flipped through speedtv and caught nopi tunervision on speed and there was noone in the stands at the drag races.lol

[mav1178]

my only concern with Formula D...

I think I'm going to burn some bridges, but I really don't care since I have given up any intention of ever competing in D1 and Formula D.

How is it that a series sanctioned by SCCA, with all these "professionally done-up cars", can allow these competitions to happen WITHOUT ANY TECHNICAL INSPECTIONS??????

The only event I was at this year was Sonoma, and several of my friends competed in the non-seeded qualifying on Friday. NONE OF THEM EVER HAD THEIR CARS TECH INSPECTED.

Personally I think it is 1) a huge safety risk to everyone at the track, and 2) completely incomprehensible that you can have such an event and not do tech.

It is the equivilant of having an open-track event, and allow each car to just "run" on the track without having them pass tech.

If there was no tech inspection then what was the point of having those elaborate rules at the beginning of the season? Couldn't you just run with a Cusco cage, since it seems like someone else is gambling with your life?

And the most serious problem of all: I have not seen this problem brought up by ANY OF THE DRIVERS in the series, in public or in private. Only when I asked about it did they say "oh yeah there was no tech done".

Last year Mitch was an absolute *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* when it came to teching the cars one by one. This year it seems like everyone somehow fell asleep on the safety issue.

I really don't care for how the series is run, I no longer have any interest in participating (or even spectating) in it, but this safety issue pisses me off, and frankly if I was driving in the series I'd raise all hell.

No tech, no event. Simple as that.

-alex

[bluegas]

Here are my 2cents about some of the issues being discussed...

Tracks - Like Ryan said there is a TON of factors that go into choosing tracks/venues. It is not as easy as some people make it out to be. First, we are at the bottom of the totem pole. Tracks give us dates literally last. Someone mentioned Englishtown; have them call us. I've tried for a year to get them to do something with us, but still nothing. Second, of course we have to choose tracks that hold enough people. No fans at the event, no sponsors, no sponsors, no money for anyone, no money, no events. Third, if we have to choose between parking lot that is within realistic driving distance for fans and racetrack that is in hte boonies, we are going to have to pick parking lot. Also, don't forget Odaiba is basically a parking lot. Finally, Japan has more usable tracks on an island the size of California.

Speed Channel - Again, there are alot of things behind the scenes that not everyone knows about and some of it I cannot publicly discuss. But let me tell all of you this. We went to every single network about FD TV. No one except for G4 stepped up. Can the shows get better? Of course. All of this is new for everyone, but everyone is working hard to continue to improve. Speed, they brushed us off. So what do I say to that, too bad, they missed out, G4 believes in FD and believes in drifting, no other network did. Lets all support them for supporting us.

Sorry man i can't support a channel like G4 that can justify Street Fury and a few other shows as a legit television program. If anything it only proves my point that FD should be on SpeedTV. I do hope at the end of 06 you do reapporch Speed OLN and ESPN because this sport won't grow from G4 television like it can on the other networks. Now that you are coming on the radar the fact that you have Factory teams and even Americans driving I'm willing too bet Speed and the others are willing too sit at the table. (i hope you didnt burn any briges foreveryone sake) yes G4 did a good thing with FD but the way things are going at G4 they maynot even be around in 07. If it comes too taking a little less money too be on a sport channel than G4 in the long runs it will pay off. I promise you not one person in 40 that saw your demo runs ( at Road Tracks)even know what G4 TV is and never will see or watch it because you have a 30min show in 18hour block of television that has nothing doo with racing. but they know ESPN SPEED FOXSPORTS NETAlso fix this so it wont happen again

[my 1 88 u]

plus not everycable service has g4. I have bellsouth and I have to jump through hoops to get friends that have comcast to tape it for me

[TIREKILLER]

Same here. I havnt seen more than like 3 or 4 episodes.

[kumasan616]

...I think I heard of drifting mentioned on SPEED maybe once, and it was an afterthought... this is because it is just getting established and in time, as the series gains noteriety you will likely see it become more mainstream and on channels like SPEED/Fox/etc. I say just support it, get the word out and give it time to grow.

[kidynomite]

G4 is good for the young crowd, drifting is young and nobody really wants to take a big shot with it because it seems like a fad. Slowly people are realizing that it is not a fad and that its getting bigger (this is where changes have to keep being made).

I remember while being at Road America during ALMS, we got to demo on the Briggs & Stratton Go Kart track during the actual raceday on RA for the fans who came to watch the real race. Speed came by wanting to record us demo for TV, but sadly they came a bit too early for us to go out, not sure if they every made it back b/c I was at the event and unable to watch Speed's coverage of it.

One misconception that I found out during our demos was that the older road racing crowd would not understand or like drifting.

Throughout our demo day the stands surrounding the go-kart track were filled with this older generation and they were all having a blast watching us. They have a different level of respect for it than the younger crowd does. To them they understand the difference between oversteer and drift and give loads of respect to us for being able to do it.

Even after the demos while driving our cars around we got a few thanks from this generation, and lots of positive comments that they loved the show we put on.

This older generation though would not be caught dead watching G4TV because its targeted towards the 16 year old male. I am not gonna say I hate the G4 shows though, the only reason I like them is that its the only chance I get at seeing some of the runs that havent already been posted on the internet.

Speed would bring a different crowd, but then you would have to change the whole show, that older generation would be fed up with the music, half naked girls, and all the slang and jokes coming out of J-Rods mouth (we still klove you J-Rod, but I hope you know what I mean)

So although Speed would bring in viewers with money they would not take it serious because it would be like putting HIN coverage on Speed.

ESPN in a way is the middle ground, has some young fans and some old fans, and lots of in the middles. The FD show still wouldnt necessarily fit right. ESPN is about the sport and the sport only.



So I was bored in class and started randomly making layouts for tracks. Now it seems like every FD lot course is just based on who can transition, and defeat the bumps, nothing more. And this is where the urge to pass comes because the courses seem to be somewhat basic.



Here is something I drew up, not to scale whatsoever just a basic thing. One of the most fun things I have ever done was on one of the kart tracks we use and thats connecting a long and narrow straight, there is a reason those words are bold. Its easy to connect any straight if you have the power, but when it comes to narrow and long ones it requires you to strighten out (almost). At the track we use the striaght is long enough to manji through it, or you can take a really late apex, never lift, start straightening out, ride the rumble strips on the outside, dirt drop it to flick you into the turn then lock the fronts cuz its a downhill and its tight.

Anyways thats what I envisioned with that straight that rides along the wall. If you make it narrow enough it won't be a simple floor it as you go around. While drawing it I realized I drew a modified version of Atlanta. It was awesome watching them fly out of the horseshoe (especially calvin wan). But make it straight and throw a wall there (since FD loves walls), for the hell of it make it wing high

Anyways take cues from other real tracks, theres videos all over the internet, make a mock-up of some other real courses, it'll be close but not as fun as the real thing (no elevation changes, banked turns, dirt drops, rumble strips that don't move, etc.)

Sorry for the rediculously long posts.

EDIT:
Oh and about the drift box, that just makes judges lazier, we might as well strap on these things to figure skaters... It might be nice to randomly have at practices just to mess with or if we ever got to the point where we would have a fun competition on who could make the most angle and actually hold it, but I think it would only lead to more and more of the factory sponsored cars to be even more heavily modified for that extra mph, or degree, etc...

[Mike Peters]

...I think I heard of drifting mentioned on SPEED maybe once, and it was an afterthought... this is because it is just getting established and in time, as the series gains noteriety you will likely see it become more mainstream and on channels like SPEED/Fox/etc. I say just support it, get the word out and give it time to grow.

i saw drifting mentioned and even a small feature on it several times on speed a couple weeks ago.


i thank g4 for takign a chance on FD when nobody would, and i think they are doing a great job considering how new they are. BUT nobody gets the channel! the only people i know who get it have a satellite or dish, i dont know ONE person with cable who gets it, and that really really bothers me sometimes. its on "tv" but nobody gets the channel. thats my only real complaint. other than that they are doing a great job considering the short experience, and they are pretty cool guys/girls.

[hatebbobbarker]

if we could get them to watch it and not just read about it, the old road racer crowd would get into it. we dragged a bunch of POC guys to d1 and they went nuts for it, but before that they were like, why would i want to do that?

[Mike Peters]

fwiw espn2 gave in and drifting and will be covering the toyo indy event, and they would like to do more from what i got talking to them, speed has had several little bits on speed explaining what it is and how it is the hottest new motorsport.