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New Rules, Rumors, and Truths, By Justin Banner
If there is one thing for certain every year, things have to change. Someone finds an advantage or several, sanctioning bodies find new safety measures and ways to enforce rules, the uninformed find new rumors to spread and things to hate on. On November 15, 2010, Formula Drift introduced the new rule changes for the 2011 season and weeks prior had given a press conference on some new ideas and new events that will be on the 2011 agenda. However, even before that, at Irwindale, rumors began on what changes the guys at Formula Drift were making.
As I attended the finale at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, CA, I heard two rumors that stuck out the most. The first rumor was the tire to horsepower and weight ratio, which would have limited how wide a tire you could use depending on the ratio calculated from your horsepower and weight. Many classes in the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) use a similar rule, but instead of limiting your tire size, it put you into different classes. This works really well when you want a close series without limiting creativity that’s missing in many racing series. A great example is the Performance Touring Series which has classes, going from PTF to PTA, based on a modification points and Power to Weight ratio. You get so many points to stay in a class so long as you don’t exceed the Power to Weight ratio for the class. It’s a great series to get into if you’ve got a drift car or Time Attack car that you also want to race wheel to wheel with, in my personal opinion.
The second rumor was the no swap unless the engine and chassis were from the same manufacture. This rumor keeps getting kicked around at the end of every Formula Drift season. This rule was in place for the short lived D1 USA series, but that rule was eventually ignored by the end of the season with LS1 S13s and S14s coming in the end of that season. Personally, the thought of this rule is only for the thickheaded, super-ultra, JDM Hardcore that still sticks around despite saying they won’t and is a rather foolish and un-creative solution to the “V8 Problem.” Thankfully, only one of these rumors proved to be somewhat true, but more on that later.
After Vaughn Gittin, Jr. was crowned 2010 Formula Drift Champion, next on the itinerary was SEMA. Here, Formula Drift made an announcement on six separate items: hats, who will be handling calendars and fan guides for 2011, who would be handling Formula Drift Magazine, the official announcement of the United Arab Emeriates event at Yas Marina Circuit, when the Formula Drift 2011 would air on and the channel, and an event at Brazil.
First, Formula Drift will be getting a quarterly magazine done by the same guys who do Racer Magazine, which in the past has been a great read, but I haven’t picked up an issue in a year or two. It had great in depth articles on Formula One, Prototype, NASCAR, and other touring cars. It was definitely the magazine for the fan that loves to see what makes a race car a race car without an engineering degree, so I have high hopes on this one.
The next announcement was about the UAE event at Yas Marina Circuit. This is going to be a very visually stimulating event, considering how flashy and modern Yas Marina is. If you haven’t seen Formula One race there at night, you’re missing a sight. LED lights over the track and the Yas Marina Hotel that change colors, LED sign boards that can cleanly be read and change smoothly, and the Ferrari World of Abu Dabi attraction next door with the fastest roller coaster in the world named Formula Rossa (that has a top speed of 150 MPH)! The full circuit is 3.45 miles long and has 5 configurations that can be utilized. What’s unknown, still, is which configuration Formula Drift will use. The most visually spectacular one would be the South configuration, which would include the hotel and marina. The most spectator friendly would probably be the Handling configuration, with 10 turns (including a 180 degree turn that leads to the main straight on the full circuit) and has the best seating from the looks of the diagrams. We’ll have to see once all the driver announcements are made. And for those of us who can’t make it, the event will be on the Livestream and it will be judged.
When these announcements were made, many fans and media (including myself for a period) were disappointed at the lack of the full 2011 schedule and rulebook. While the schedule is still being ironed out at the time of writing this, the rule book was released just a few weeks after SEMA. This is when the rumors I heard while at Irwindale would be proved or become dust in the wind. The engine limitation was not implemented, again and you can pretty much bet that this will never be implemented, ever, but will get rumored for next year, again. However, the tire rule was somewhat true, but instead of a power to weight ratio, there will be weight classes and tire limits per class. Right away there was conspiracy stirring up and to further the confusion, most blogs were only posting the first portion of the rules that just contained the weights and sizes, but nothing about the ballast and how the rules were to be enforced and with no rule book for the fans to look at, many assumed there would be no way to enforce these rules. In fact there are, and I got in contact with Tony Angelo, Technical Manager and Judge for Formula Drift, to discuss some points that came up regarding weight, tire measurements and ballast.
“As the rule clearly states that cars can be registered and weighed before any event, but can not change weight classes during an event,” Tony stated about how weight classes will work. “Teams can add or remove weight of their cars between events if they desire to get into a different weight class.” When it comes to ballast, “Ballast is anything that is added to the car that doesn't perform a function necessary to enable the car to perform on the track. What we are most concerned about is keeping the cars in their weight class and running their appropriate tire size. Ballast is limited to 100lbs to enable people to direct the build of their cars towards a certain class, and use a safe amount of ballast if necessary.” I brought up the use of stereo equipment for ballast and Tony stated, “As stereo equipment is in no way necessary to a car in it's capacity to drift, I guess we could consider that ballast. It would have to be approved for safety, and fastened to the car securely, and in a place that is dictated by the rules.” Ballast is also limited to the driver’s compartment between the front of the rear wheels and the firewall, so there will be a limit on where ballast is placed as well.
Tire size and enforcement is also a concern for fan, team, and drivers alike, but Formula Drift already has a plan in place, “We are currently working on the templates,” Tony Angelo continued, “We will release them in a tech bulletin, and they will be simple templates that teams can print out, and glue to cardboard and be able to measure their own setups quite easily. We will make a few sets of measuring sticks for Formula D use out of plastic, or aluminum, as our devices will see alot of use next year.” This is very similar to how many off road sanctions measure tires for compliance, including RallyCar in its Rallycross series. It’s a simple template the tire has to fit into, nothing fancy. As to tire pressures that will be used for measurements, “There will be no set pressure, as we are going to measure the tires on track, and teams are free to run whatever pressure they would like, as long as the tires still comply, it's acceptable to Formula D.”
Despite this, many drivers are still worried about budgets and the relation to tire sizes and testing. One driver commented out of anonymity, “The tire size classing is very interesting and suspension set up will be more crucial than ever before for a good result. More testing or having a chassis specialist on the team will be a priority, meaning a need for a bigger budget. If a driver with a car weight at about 2400lbs and running like 295s did not do any testing for the new rule, it will hurt them, but those teams are usually well funded and have the right staff to maximize what they have.” For most fans, this will probably point straight to Falken tire drivers, but Hankook will be looking to make a run with new drivers Chris Forsburg, Rhys Millen (including his Pikes Peak and Rallycross cars), and Ken Gushi along with Tanner Foust and Conrad Grunewald. No word on Robbie Nishida or Eric O’Sullivan as of this writing.
So, what will 2011 hold with the weight classes? I don’t foresee much change, I think Dai Yoshihara will have an excellent year with probably one of the best, if not the best, chassis gurus, Mike Kojima, being on his team. With ASD behind him, Vaughn will make it a tough year for anyone to try and become the 2011 champion, though. Tanner’s major change from V8 to I4 will be interesting, as this will be one of the more drastic changes because of the weight classing rule. The new drivers for Hankook will make this a tire war with Falken instead of a battle, so expect things to heat up in the tire market and new tires to be introduced for 2011 to maximize on the tire limitations.
Lastly, expect 2011 to be a fun year, despite what guys are going V8 or not and the tire class rules. It’s not going to matter what engine or tire size you use, it’s up to the driver, team, and supporters that will make a champion for 2011 and beyond. Drifting is still the sport of skill, be it chassis building or driver and you won’t take that away no matter what rule gets enforced in the sport.
As I attended the finale at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, CA, I heard two rumors that stuck out the most. The first rumor was the tire to horsepower and weight ratio, which would have limited how wide a tire you could use depending on the ratio calculated from your horsepower and weight. Many classes in the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) use a similar rule, but instead of limiting your tire size, it put you into different classes. This works really well when you want a close series without limiting creativity that’s missing in many racing series. A great example is the Performance Touring Series which has classes, going from PTF to PTA, based on a modification points and Power to Weight ratio. You get so many points to stay in a class so long as you don’t exceed the Power to Weight ratio for the class. It’s a great series to get into if you’ve got a drift car or Time Attack car that you also want to race wheel to wheel with, in my personal opinion.
The second rumor was the no swap unless the engine and chassis were from the same manufacture. This rumor keeps getting kicked around at the end of every Formula Drift season. This rule was in place for the short lived D1 USA series, but that rule was eventually ignored by the end of the season with LS1 S13s and S14s coming in the end of that season. Personally, the thought of this rule is only for the thickheaded, super-ultra, JDM Hardcore that still sticks around despite saying they won’t and is a rather foolish and un-creative solution to the “V8 Problem.” Thankfully, only one of these rumors proved to be somewhat true, but more on that later.
After Vaughn Gittin, Jr. was crowned 2010 Formula Drift Champion, next on the itinerary was SEMA. Here, Formula Drift made an announcement on six separate items: hats, who will be handling calendars and fan guides for 2011, who would be handling Formula Drift Magazine, the official announcement of the United Arab Emeriates event at Yas Marina Circuit, when the Formula Drift 2011 would air on and the channel, and an event at Brazil.
First, Formula Drift will be getting a quarterly magazine done by the same guys who do Racer Magazine, which in the past has been a great read, but I haven’t picked up an issue in a year or two. It had great in depth articles on Formula One, Prototype, NASCAR, and other touring cars. It was definitely the magazine for the fan that loves to see what makes a race car a race car without an engineering degree, so I have high hopes on this one.
The next announcement was about the UAE event at Yas Marina Circuit. This is going to be a very visually stimulating event, considering how flashy and modern Yas Marina is. If you haven’t seen Formula One race there at night, you’re missing a sight. LED lights over the track and the Yas Marina Hotel that change colors, LED sign boards that can cleanly be read and change smoothly, and the Ferrari World of Abu Dabi attraction next door with the fastest roller coaster in the world named Formula Rossa (that has a top speed of 150 MPH)! The full circuit is 3.45 miles long and has 5 configurations that can be utilized. What’s unknown, still, is which configuration Formula Drift will use. The most visually spectacular one would be the South configuration, which would include the hotel and marina. The most spectator friendly would probably be the Handling configuration, with 10 turns (including a 180 degree turn that leads to the main straight on the full circuit) and has the best seating from the looks of the diagrams. We’ll have to see once all the driver announcements are made. And for those of us who can’t make it, the event will be on the Livestream and it will be judged.
When these announcements were made, many fans and media (including myself for a period) were disappointed at the lack of the full 2011 schedule and rulebook. While the schedule is still being ironed out at the time of writing this, the rule book was released just a few weeks after SEMA. This is when the rumors I heard while at Irwindale would be proved or become dust in the wind. The engine limitation was not implemented, again and you can pretty much bet that this will never be implemented, ever, but will get rumored for next year, again. However, the tire rule was somewhat true, but instead of a power to weight ratio, there will be weight classes and tire limits per class. Right away there was conspiracy stirring up and to further the confusion, most blogs were only posting the first portion of the rules that just contained the weights and sizes, but nothing about the ballast and how the rules were to be enforced and with no rule book for the fans to look at, many assumed there would be no way to enforce these rules. In fact there are, and I got in contact with Tony Angelo, Technical Manager and Judge for Formula Drift, to discuss some points that came up regarding weight, tire measurements and ballast.
“As the rule clearly states that cars can be registered and weighed before any event, but can not change weight classes during an event,” Tony stated about how weight classes will work. “Teams can add or remove weight of their cars between events if they desire to get into a different weight class.” When it comes to ballast, “Ballast is anything that is added to the car that doesn't perform a function necessary to enable the car to perform on the track. What we are most concerned about is keeping the cars in their weight class and running their appropriate tire size. Ballast is limited to 100lbs to enable people to direct the build of their cars towards a certain class, and use a safe amount of ballast if necessary.” I brought up the use of stereo equipment for ballast and Tony stated, “As stereo equipment is in no way necessary to a car in it's capacity to drift, I guess we could consider that ballast. It would have to be approved for safety, and fastened to the car securely, and in a place that is dictated by the rules.” Ballast is also limited to the driver’s compartment between the front of the rear wheels and the firewall, so there will be a limit on where ballast is placed as well.
Tire size and enforcement is also a concern for fan, team, and drivers alike, but Formula Drift already has a plan in place, “We are currently working on the templates,” Tony Angelo continued, “We will release them in a tech bulletin, and they will be simple templates that teams can print out, and glue to cardboard and be able to measure their own setups quite easily. We will make a few sets of measuring sticks for Formula D use out of plastic, or aluminum, as our devices will see alot of use next year.” This is very similar to how many off road sanctions measure tires for compliance, including RallyCar in its Rallycross series. It’s a simple template the tire has to fit into, nothing fancy. As to tire pressures that will be used for measurements, “There will be no set pressure, as we are going to measure the tires on track, and teams are free to run whatever pressure they would like, as long as the tires still comply, it's acceptable to Formula D.”
Despite this, many drivers are still worried about budgets and the relation to tire sizes and testing. One driver commented out of anonymity, “The tire size classing is very interesting and suspension set up will be more crucial than ever before for a good result. More testing or having a chassis specialist on the team will be a priority, meaning a need for a bigger budget. If a driver with a car weight at about 2400lbs and running like 295s did not do any testing for the new rule, it will hurt them, but those teams are usually well funded and have the right staff to maximize what they have.” For most fans, this will probably point straight to Falken tire drivers, but Hankook will be looking to make a run with new drivers Chris Forsburg, Rhys Millen (including his Pikes Peak and Rallycross cars), and Ken Gushi along with Tanner Foust and Conrad Grunewald. No word on Robbie Nishida or Eric O’Sullivan as of this writing.
So, what will 2011 hold with the weight classes? I don’t foresee much change, I think Dai Yoshihara will have an excellent year with probably one of the best, if not the best, chassis gurus, Mike Kojima, being on his team. With ASD behind him, Vaughn will make it a tough year for anyone to try and become the 2011 champion, though. Tanner’s major change from V8 to I4 will be interesting, as this will be one of the more drastic changes because of the weight classing rule. The new drivers for Hankook will make this a tire war with Falken instead of a battle, so expect things to heat up in the tire market and new tires to be introduced for 2011 to maximize on the tire limitations.
Lastly, expect 2011 to be a fun year, despite what guys are going V8 or not and the tire class rules. It’s not going to matter what engine or tire size you use, it’s up to the driver, team, and supporters that will make a champion for 2011 and beyond. Drifting is still the sport of skill, be it chassis building or driver and you won’t take that away no matter what rule gets enforced in the sport.
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