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Dear D1GP and Affiliates
First and foremost thank you D1GP, you introduced me and a huge percent of the world to the sport of drifting. I watched my first option VHS tape when I was 12 years old, a grainy bootleg of cars sliding around on some kart track that my father brought home from work. It wasn’t till a couple years later I finally was able to a name to the act. An old buddy said to me “hey check out this new sport in Japan” drifting was what they were calling it. Soon after that, I found my self downloading videos off Kazaa and bear share, finding my self in Japanese book stores. Doing anything to get my hands on D1gp…. Needless to say when you guys threw the first event at Irwindale 2003 iirc I was there! And I’m 90% proud to say I haven’t missed an event in southern California since.
But that was then, we are now in 2010. And for the last 3 years we have been given empty promise after empty promise. 2009 was the last straw for some folks. We were given a “pro series” with pro am drivers, and grassroot quality venues(for the most part).Yes you guys did send us several top rank D1 pros, but they ended up raping their US counterparts or threw tissy fits when they were beat by them. And that was a planned schedule. Summer is almost here, the race season is half over and now we are barely getting a 5 round schedule? To be honest, if I was not a die hard/loyal D1 fan I would totally write you guys off. But rather then hating or showing blind support disregarding your late track record I rather give you some points from an outsider looking in on things that need to be addressed before moving further.
Drivers
Where are you guys going to be getting talent to drive in your series? There are 2 sanctioning bodies in the states, one with best pros and the other with the pro am privateers that ran in your series last year. Budgets have already been laid out, competitor series have been scheduled. You must export your own at this point. Who do you guys have ready; of course you got to bring out the usual suspects. Team Orange, Nomuken, and maybe Saito. But please don’t get caught up with the notion you must bring the best of the best to make fans happy. Thanks to the internet we all know they’re a lot of hungry talented drivers in Japan. Guys like Nakamura, Fukuda, and other good D1 drivers that don’t totally dominate the series would be really nice. D1 is about intensity and driving your heart out and those guys bring it. Big respect for the Americans who have gone to Japan to compete this year. Pollard Wang, Hubbinette, and Mordaunt will be good additions to this series. Any love for Europe? American fans have been demanding a return of Fredric Aasbo and James Dean. Either way we need solid competitors that drive their heart out to make this entertaining, we can’t do this with a couple D1 pros and a bunch of local rejects.
Judges and Announcers
For goodness sake bring back Toshi Hayama; he is the first and best english announcer this sport has had. He knows the most about the driver, cars, and the terminology. Pay the guy what ever he wants, he Is worth it IMO. Especially if you bring in KT as a main judge, you need someone who can properly translate. Judges… non Japanese the pickings are kind of slim. Only person who pops in my head who can really judge, currently not doing anything, and is non bias is Calvin Wan. Has ton of experience in general motorsports, and has been in it since the beginning. Please no washed up road racers or nascar guys, they might do a good job but they don’t have enough credibility for the drivers and the fans to respect. And please no drift box, unless it’s only used for reference purposes and not as an actually judging criteria.
Image
In the beginning D1gp was the benchmark for the rules and regulation and overall concept of drifting. While much of the basics are still the same your competitors have tweaked it a little. I’m not going to say one is better then the other but a line definitely needs to be drawn between the two. I hope now going further instead of bragging about being the worlds best, or the original you guys market the “D1 style of drifting”. The formula (no pun intended) still works; if not you guys would be out of business in Japan. Another thing as well, keep in mind USA does not have a MSC like series. People like fun drama free drifting as well. Teams and classes could work with the right marketing and logistics, if you build it…someone is going to come…right?
Television
I’m going to be blunt, if your main goal is to put it on TV and make some money… Just quit right now, unless its prime-time on fox with big names no one is going to watch. I already just flat out avoid Speed Network due to the huge amounts of nascar coverage. Even if there is a good road race on or open wheel(not indy) it’s not on when I’m at home and they never repeat it. This would be good for the Speed 2 channel which a lot of sanctioning bodies are switching over to next year. But again, this isn’t going to make you guys rich. Straight up drifting does not have that cross over star to move in wide units yet. There are no Jordans, Woods, Pastranas, or Liddells yet in USA drifting. And if there Is one on the rise he is not competing in D1 as of right now (Vaughn Gittin JR). Unless you can teach Nomuken so good English and get him hooked up with a celebrity and have TMZ discover a sex tape, you guys don’t have much to work with crossover wise.
Overall I want to see the old fun competitive D1 back in the states. I won’t go as far as saying we need a full championship series from you guys but having one or two events a year is more then enough to make a bit of money and keep the name in our mouths in a positive manner. Things that happen last year, FIX. Understand the American audience is not that stupid, we know when we are getting something watered down and slapped together. Names are just odd sounding words and don’t mean quality anymore. Thank you for what you have given to us over the years, but come correct or please don’t come at all.
Sincerely, Blaze1
First and foremost thank you D1GP, you introduced me and a huge percent of the world to the sport of drifting. I watched my first option VHS tape when I was 12 years old, a grainy bootleg of cars sliding around on some kart track that my father brought home from work. It wasn’t till a couple years later I finally was able to a name to the act. An old buddy said to me “hey check out this new sport in Japan” drifting was what they were calling it. Soon after that, I found my self downloading videos off Kazaa and bear share, finding my self in Japanese book stores. Doing anything to get my hands on D1gp…. Needless to say when you guys threw the first event at Irwindale 2003 iirc I was there! And I’m 90% proud to say I haven’t missed an event in southern California since.
But that was then, we are now in 2010. And for the last 3 years we have been given empty promise after empty promise. 2009 was the last straw for some folks. We were given a “pro series” with pro am drivers, and grassroot quality venues(for the most part).Yes you guys did send us several top rank D1 pros, but they ended up raping their US counterparts or threw tissy fits when they were beat by them. And that was a planned schedule. Summer is almost here, the race season is half over and now we are barely getting a 5 round schedule? To be honest, if I was not a die hard/loyal D1 fan I would totally write you guys off. But rather then hating or showing blind support disregarding your late track record I rather give you some points from an outsider looking in on things that need to be addressed before moving further.
Drivers
Where are you guys going to be getting talent to drive in your series? There are 2 sanctioning bodies in the states, one with best pros and the other with the pro am privateers that ran in your series last year. Budgets have already been laid out, competitor series have been scheduled. You must export your own at this point. Who do you guys have ready; of course you got to bring out the usual suspects. Team Orange, Nomuken, and maybe Saito. But please don’t get caught up with the notion you must bring the best of the best to make fans happy. Thanks to the internet we all know they’re a lot of hungry talented drivers in Japan. Guys like Nakamura, Fukuda, and other good D1 drivers that don’t totally dominate the series would be really nice. D1 is about intensity and driving your heart out and those guys bring it. Big respect for the Americans who have gone to Japan to compete this year. Pollard Wang, Hubbinette, and Mordaunt will be good additions to this series. Any love for Europe? American fans have been demanding a return of Fredric Aasbo and James Dean. Either way we need solid competitors that drive their heart out to make this entertaining, we can’t do this with a couple D1 pros and a bunch of local rejects.
Judges and Announcers
For goodness sake bring back Toshi Hayama; he is the first and best english announcer this sport has had. He knows the most about the driver, cars, and the terminology. Pay the guy what ever he wants, he Is worth it IMO. Especially if you bring in KT as a main judge, you need someone who can properly translate. Judges… non Japanese the pickings are kind of slim. Only person who pops in my head who can really judge, currently not doing anything, and is non bias is Calvin Wan. Has ton of experience in general motorsports, and has been in it since the beginning. Please no washed up road racers or nascar guys, they might do a good job but they don’t have enough credibility for the drivers and the fans to respect. And please no drift box, unless it’s only used for reference purposes and not as an actually judging criteria.
Image
In the beginning D1gp was the benchmark for the rules and regulation and overall concept of drifting. While much of the basics are still the same your competitors have tweaked it a little. I’m not going to say one is better then the other but a line definitely needs to be drawn between the two. I hope now going further instead of bragging about being the worlds best, or the original you guys market the “D1 style of drifting”. The formula (no pun intended) still works; if not you guys would be out of business in Japan. Another thing as well, keep in mind USA does not have a MSC like series. People like fun drama free drifting as well. Teams and classes could work with the right marketing and logistics, if you build it…someone is going to come…right?
Television
I’m going to be blunt, if your main goal is to put it on TV and make some money… Just quit right now, unless its prime-time on fox with big names no one is going to watch. I already just flat out avoid Speed Network due to the huge amounts of nascar coverage. Even if there is a good road race on or open wheel(not indy) it’s not on when I’m at home and they never repeat it. This would be good for the Speed 2 channel which a lot of sanctioning bodies are switching over to next year. But again, this isn’t going to make you guys rich. Straight up drifting does not have that cross over star to move in wide units yet. There are no Jordans, Woods, Pastranas, or Liddells yet in USA drifting. And if there Is one on the rise he is not competing in D1 as of right now (Vaughn Gittin JR). Unless you can teach Nomuken so good English and get him hooked up with a celebrity and have TMZ discover a sex tape, you guys don’t have much to work with crossover wise.
Overall I want to see the old fun competitive D1 back in the states. I won’t go as far as saying we need a full championship series from you guys but having one or two events a year is more then enough to make a bit of money and keep the name in our mouths in a positive manner. Things that happen last year, FIX. Understand the American audience is not that stupid, we know when we are getting something watered down and slapped together. Names are just odd sounding words and don’t mean quality anymore. Thank you for what you have given to us over the years, but come correct or please don’t come at all.
Sincerely, Blaze1