(FEEDBACK) D1 GRAND PRIX - NEW JERSEY - Sep 5th, 2009

[Lord_EJR]

First off, I'd like to say this was a great event. It had a couple mishaps but all in all it was pretty good. I was worried about it because of all the heat I usually read about D1 on this forum. Luckily, it all turned out pretty good in the end. This is a mere spectators pt of view/opinion.

General Stuffs:
The parking was easy and free, soda and food was very reasonable. the car show was really good! Lots of really good looking JDM rides and a couple of ricer cars too. I didnt see the bikini show, I was with my fam and honestly I'm not into bikini contests at these events. Crowd sounded like they loved it tho.

The Pits
Pretty much just the tents where the teams set up. They were really great because we could walk up to the drivers, say whats up, take a pic, and check out their cars. We did this pretty much whenever we wanted without worrying about barriers around the cars or some person saying you cant come back here. All the drivers were in good spirits, especially Daigo, he is so chill its ridiculous. I know some Japanese so I spoke to him a bit. He's the champ but felt like he was just a cool dude hangin out. All other drivers were great as well. Kind of had this care free feeling about it. Lots of families were out to support the up and coming guys which was great to see.

The Competition
I arrived at about 2:30pm. It was the middle of Top 32. Good action for the most part. You could see the huge difference when the J drivers came out. I was really impressed with the non J drivers, they all left their hearts out there and then some! I was happy to see that. The crowd was really into the good drivers. Lots of cheers and joking within the stands made it a good time for everyone. Judging was one of the best ever. Everything was spot on and there wasn't even one 1 more time. I was very pleasantly surprised by this, all of the calls were right on. Not too many of the runs were really that close, perhaps that's the reason for the judging comment. Yet still, good job to judges for calling it the way it really was. Lastly, lots of smoke! The practice runs were lots of fun to watch. We couldn't even see into the track after a while, smoke everywhere from everyone. This event was full of great action for the spectators and I was happy about that because I brought some of my fam to check out drifting and how good it is.

Complaints:

• No Team Orange!??! What happened? The biggest reason I wanted to be there and we get nothing. No explanation at all. Some behind the scenes stuff happen since that last event?
  
  
• During the competition, at times we would have to wait for so long for the next run. We would get bored after a while waiting and waiting. We figured perhaps it was because of the track. After one run the drivers would have a bit of a long drive back to the starting points. Wish we coulda saw more action a little more often.
  
  
• The MC was just a total failure. I would say about 80% of the time he was annoying and really lame. He kept name dropping all these people that he knows like he's so cool. "I know him, and that guy, and I was friends with the other guy, I'm talking to this guy cause we're cool, and I got a text from my other cool friend, etc." At one point the guy starts talking about what he and his brother named their dogs. Some people would shout at him and his response would be "Hey! I have a microphone so I can insult you and everyone will hear it. I can say that because I'm from Jersey, haha." So what? People have accept his lame announcing because he's louder? BS. He didnt know most of the driver names except his homies on the track. Lots of times we'd here "Ok who's out there now?". He even called this event Formula D at one point, then started apologizing like a guy wanting to keep his job. I would've liked him to be more about the competition and not about showing off how cool he thinks he is because he knows every single person in Jersey. Please bring back Toshi or at least get someone that wont talk about himself all day.
  
  
• The microphone kept cutting out at the most important times. It seems the mic would work fine when they guy kept on and on about nonsense but when we wanted to hear about the drivers, announcements, and things of that nature, the mic would always cut out.

So thats my review. I rarely post here but just wanted to share my opinion about this event. I dont know about the other rounds or whats going on behind the scenes, as for todays event, for the most part, it was a success

[N. Chen]

your review was pretty accurate. IMO there should have been a few one more times (Saito vs. Savage and Yoshioka vs. Saito) but other than that I agree on everything you said. The announcer was really annoying, luckily I didn't have to listen to it because I was on track most of the time.

From a media standpoint: There were no media meetings... There were 2 spots were the media could stand (luckily they were great spots.) The video option crew could do whatever they wanted. Some lady from the video option crew tried to take away my tape because they said I couldn't videotape anything even though I had a media pass and there were about 20 other people besides me that had high end prosumer and professional camcorders. She never got my tape.

[Bebop]

Was the vid opt. staff japanese or american?

And dont be suprised at no team orange... I'm kinda suprised nomuken was there. You get fined, instead of paying it... dont show up to the event.

[b_hydra]

(EDIT - This is written from the perspective of one person having been to a number of events and someone new to enjoying the sport. Sorry in advance for a long feedback.)

My friend and I got there around the time the last round of qualifying was going on, so I can't speak to anything before that. While the event was enjoyable, there was a general feeling that it was being run really loosely.

Schedule-wise, there seemed to be a lot of 15 minute delays for no reason. Since people couldn't see the cars staging, it was confusing if someone called a 5 Minutes or they were just waiting. The motorcycle stunt crew managed to come out twice and didn't want to leave the track the 2nd time and let the drifting start. I didn't really enjoy it and the delay didn't help matters.

Its entirely possible the judges vantage point was better than mine, but I agree with N. Chen about the lack of One More Times (the entire day). I think the Saito vs. Savage pairing particularly needed one, as both drivers had situations where they lost drift/corrected in the runs. I will qualify that by saying if during Savage's leading run, he actually caused Saito to correct by a mistake of his own, then the judges moving Saito on makes sense.

My friend and I will add two more votes to the "terrible, awful announcer" feedback. The only thing I liked was when he called it Formula Drift around the final four. Other than that, he demonstrated he didn't have a good knowledge of drifting or the drivers themselves. The feedback that Jarod provides (especially explaining what's going on) is helpful to new fans to understand what's going on. Likewise, during some of the less clear calls (at least at Wall 09), he'd put Tony Angelo or another judge on the mic to explain what they saw. I think this helps at least make it seem less like a random decision if both drivers' runs were spotty in parts. I could complain about lack of family friendly language, but I don't have kids -- others might care, though.

I think there was a bit of a safety concern with a photographer almost having Nomura's Skyline push a K Rail into him, but I'm under the impression he shouldn't have been there to begin with. A few other photographers got a bit of a scare during the Top 16 introductions with a driver doing doughnuts right next to them.

The car show aspect was a pretty nice way to spend time between qualifying and Top 16. There were a fair amount of vendors and things to see and food was reasonable. The pits were easily accessible and seemed to be set up relatively well to accommodate fans walking around and looking at the cars.

[ReDc0aT]

I'll write my review later...

as far as Savage or "Rapper" for some... vs Saito.

Savage's 3rd gear blew out on their practice lap.

Rapper entered first into their first run, rapper was in 4th, where he had been entering in 3rd all weekend. he was coming in and Saito hit him, causing him to come further in then he would have. Not many people noticed the hit. I was Savage's Spotter. I can post up a picture later of Savage's rear quarter panel to show it. Rapper completed the run, Saito Spun.

Second run, Saito led and came into judging zone at an unordinary slow speed causing Savage not to be able to shift up into 4th in time to get any power, while Savage was clutch kicking he spun around the first clipping point.

When they went back to the line up area, Savage got up to the line for the one more time, they told him he lost, he went to complain and the official yelled at him and said to make an official complaint after the event. Savage waited till the end like he was told. Tried to find the officials, they were already packing up at that point and had no agenda to hear him out.

Good event for "Rapper Dan" Savage. Qualified 7th over UENO. Ended 5th overall I believe.

Bah.

[N. Chen]

the v-opt staff was Japanese. If anyone noticed the camera on rappadan's car, it was mine. I have footage of all the runs he did, including the saito one. The camera was pointed down at the hood, but It was obvious he got hit when his rear fender was dislodged.

[Lord_EJR]

...as far as Savage or "Rapper" for some... vs Saito....

I agree with you that this one should've been a one more time. Lots of people wanted it. I was standing all the way up front at the fence and from my point of view it looked like Savage spun at the first clipping point, causing Daigo to spin to avoid contact. Perhaps that's what the Judges saw too, it was pretty dark to see what really happened.

This sounds similar to what happened to Tanaka at Chicago. Good to hear that Savage was a lot more sportsman like about it.

[Cavi Mike]

I spent more time out in the lot because the supposed 'VIP' bleacher's view was horrible and for whatever reason security wouldn't allow me in any other bleachers. Makes total sense. I didn't see ANY action. As soon as the leading car initiated, all I could see was smoke and hear the engines. All view was totally obscured by the smoke screen. Because of this, I didn't take a single picture nor did I even turn on my video camera.

Pretty much all I did was chill out in the lot by my car and watch the Moto-X and Auto-X while listening to the drifting in the background. Honestly though, I was content with that, it reminded me just chilling on the beach listening to the waves roll in.

Biggest note to D1, if I have to pay extra for VIP, let people go wherever they want. I know I would have seen the transition if I could have gone to the bleachers on the other end.

[Slappy]

I paid my $28.99 and sat in General seating and had more fun then the fools that paid for VIP, why? Because NJ has no VIP!..I talked to a few people i knew in VIP seating and they said it was so lame...no kidding.

Anyway, afterwards i heard so many negative comments from people. They were saying "it took 15 minutes between each run"...um, more like maybe 3-4 minutes. They also complained about the lack of J drivers, i had to tell them all the reason being stemmed from the events that took place from D1 Chicago.

I had a blast cheering on my fellow ClubLoose bros and just joking with people in the stands ect.

A list of things I myself had problems with.

1. I didn't like that J driver Diago Sato got a free pass to proceed after a spin and Drift Alliance Ace John Wagner did not.

2. Announcer. I love you Ernie (Mark dont hate me for saying this) and i understand there's a need to fill dead air but having diarrhea of the mouth is very annoying and unnecessary.

3. Drift Box still sux, no matter how much the other dood with the mic tried to pump it up.

4. Music. Turn it the hell off when drifting is going on!

5. Kill the Nopi BS car show and skanks on stage.

6. Take less time to figure out who advances after someone else breaks down...that mess took to long to figure out, not necessary if you have the right people on staff.

7. Most of all, stop asking US what we think YOU should improve on. Round up everyone, lock yourselves in a goddamn room, and dont come out until you guys know what the hell your doing.

[ReDc0aT]

My Replies in Red.

I paid my $28.99 and sat in General seating and had more fun then the fools that paid for VIP, why? Because NJ has no VIP!..I talked to a few people i knew in VIP seating and they said it was so lame...no kidding.

I had a crew pass and I still couldnt sit in the VIP or general admission bleachers. I couldnt get into the empty spotter's tower till tandem began!

Good to have bleachers though. Do agree though that the VIP was way way way worse than the General Admission

Anyway, afterwards i heard so many negative comments from people. They were saying "it took 15 minutes between each run"...um, more like maybe 3-4 minutes.

The road course is a decently long track to go the full way around, much more track around the bend that no one can see. And also, the pit road criss-crossed the straight away for the the opening turn. The only times it felt long to me was during 5 minute rules.

They also complained about the lack of J drivers, i had to tell them all the reason being stemmed from the events that took place from D1 Chicago.

I had a blast cheering on my fellow ClubLoose bros and just joking with people in the stands ect.

A list of things I myself had problems with.

1. I didn't like that J driver Diago Sato got a free pass to proceed after a spin and Drift Alliance Ace John Wagner did not.

It wasn't John Wagner. It was Dan Savage

2. Announcer. I love you Ernie (Mark dont hate me for saying this) and i understand there's a need to fill dead air but having diarrhea of the mouth is very annoying and unnecessary.

Ernie didn't bug me too much this time. He has def improved since the Nopi Demos... I still don't get the secrecy of judging in the US.. The best MC was when Matt Petty was just talking during qualifying in the morning.

Best part of the night for me was when Ernie called it Formula D! hahahahaha I was rolling.


3. Drift Box still sux, no matter how much the other dood with the mic tried to pump it up.

This was my first experience with the infamous drift box. Seems to me that they are using it the best way they can with the decision to use it in judging. I think it's a good tool for a driver to use for practice... not really for competition. It can def be tricked.

4. Music. Turn it the hell off when drifting is going on!
That was annoying. And the Music at the same time coming from the behind the bleachers.

5. Kill the Nopi BS car show and skanks on stage.

I've been to a ton of car shows. and this one wasn't too bad. Hate to break it to you, but its the car shows that really draw the crowd and income into this series...

6. Take less time to figure out who advances after someone else breaks down...that mess took to long to figure out, not necessary if you have the right people on staff.

Matt Petty was the only saving grace to the judging.

7. Most of all, stop asking US what we think YOU should improve on. Round up everyone, lock yourselves in a goddamn room, and dont come out until you guys know what the hell your doing.

I had a good time. My friend Dan, who I spotted for, Qualified 7th or 8th, I can't remember... one spot in front of Ueno. and Finished 5th I believe. Forrest Wang and Saito killed it. The two driver's from Finland killed it. Felt bad for Brian Wilkerson's suspension problem at the beginning of tandem.

[Slappy]

Yea i know Dan...I wasn't referring to the Battle Dan was in, i merely stating that when Saito spun during his tandem, he advanced, and when Wagner spun when he was in tandem with who ever it was, did not..

Yea, i was gutted when i seen them towing Brian off course... :_(

Oh and, Petty saves EVERYTHING!

[YOitzJDM]

I want to see it on tv.

When will it be on TV?

I read a thread that said D1 had the "biggest tv deal in history" but I haven't seen any TV shows. Is my TV broken?

http://www.drifting.com/forums/gener...-drifting.html

[Slappy]

Im sure its not gonna be this year dood, those thing take time.

[courantcom]

Ernie Manansala (NOS Energy Drinks) was the MC for the New Jersey D1 event?

[gigglesnirt]

Im sure its not gonna be this year dood, those thing take time.

But fd has theirs coming out in the same year, even when the season has not finished yet.