(PREDICTION CONTEST) "$50 STORE CREDIT" - FORMULA DRIFT Long Beach, April 8-9th, 2011

[deadpirate]

i believe that EOS will prove that statement wrong bebop.

all of erics issues this year were vehicle related. that car never ran properly until long beach...then it caught fire.
yet in prodrift, first round out eos wins.


dean kearney was battling an incompent team that insisted on using hariguchi suspension settings for a driver that isnt hariguchi. once that got sorted out, the motor blew up.

kearney had a rough year, but i think once he finds his groove you will see he is a better driver than you give him credit for

[my 1 88 u]

I don't know... I smell fish

Aasbo is cool, I cant wait to see him. Same goes for Dean but he doesn't have a confirmed ride. Dmac is unstoppable in the right car, the sky seemed a bit over engineered. But Kearney and EOS.... I think they might need to go back to their native countries and get back to the drawing boards. Everything cant be blamed on car setup....

While there are guys like Yamanaka, Ueo, Okubo, Yoshioka, Takatori, Yamamoto, and now Miki who are proven drivers with podiums being left in the dust. Nishida is like the perfect Japanese import (speaks perfect english) and he barely got a ride for this year. It seems as if talent and experience are worth even less in the series now and its darn frustrating!

I wonder why it's so hard for Japanese drivers? I think the current D1 situation would make it ripe for their top guys to jump ship to FD but nobody will pick them up.

[Slapshotnerd]

I wonder why it's so hard for Japanese drivers? I think the current D1 situation would make it ripe for their top guys to jump ship to FD but nobody will pick them up.

It seems pretty simple - US Sponsors don't want the hassle or cost of bringing a Japanese driver in. You have to budget at least $10k per year in airfare costs, where as that cost for a Socal driver is around $1500. That alone is likely enough to discourage a Japanese driver, on top of the fact that most of them aren't fluent enough in English to be good spokesmen for their product.

A lot of sponsors are also asking their drivers to make appearances outside of the FD schedule, which again is hard for non-US drivers. Plus there are plenty of competent American drivers to chose from for sponsorship...

[Bebop]

i believe that EOS will prove that statement wrong bebop.

kearney had a rough year, but i think once he finds his groove you will see he is a better driver than you give him credit for

I hope they can, especially EOS. No excuses if he fails next year.

Gotta remember, I'm a statistics guy... I look at what drivers have done not what they potentially could do. Now if Mad Mike doesn't come back I will have alot of respect for him. He showed up and drove his best, gave a show for the crowd, represented his sponsors well, learned and went back home hopefully a improved driver.

I don't know about everyone else, but I want FD to be filled with potential champions. Every weekend any driver can take it, if your not gunning for the championship give the crowd a good show(make them remember you). If your doing neither quite frankly your just taking up a slot. And if a driver is happy about that....ehhhh, I wouldn't sponsor him. The "I'm just happy to be here" line is gracious but old, not enough drivers saying "I just want to win" or "I just want to make some fans".

I wonder why it's so hard for Japanese drivers? I think the current D1 situation would make it ripe for their top guys to jump ship to FD but nobody will pick them up.

The current D1 situation isn't as bad as people are making it out to be. I could honestly say 75% of what was wrong with the series the last 2 years is now gone (KT and Dai, and Scheduling). Don't be surprised if most of the old superstars are back next year. But even with that being said, Yoshioka who speaks decent English and has a FD win under his belt has moved to So Cal.... think we will see him in FD in 2011? The biggest thing is communication and travel cost, but what can you tell a driver that does all the communication and travel logistics for you?

[ASD Team]

Dmac is unstoppable in the right car, the sky seemed a bit over engineered.

By that I guess you mean we couldn't figure out how to make the car work?

I put a C-note on D-Mac disagreeing with you.

[my 1 88 u]

It seems pretty simple - US Sponsors don't want the hassle or cost of bringing a Japanese driver in. You have to budget at least $10k per year in airfare costs, where as that cost for a Socal driver is around $1500. That alone is likely enough to discourage a Japanese driver, on top of the fact that most of them aren't fluent enough in English to be good spokesmen for their product.

A lot of sponsors are also asking their drivers to make appearances outside of the FD schedule, which again is hard for non-US drivers. Plus there are plenty of competent American drivers to chose from for sponsorship...

Competent American drivers doesn't equal best in the word. If American teams are becoming reluctant to sponser top Japanese drivers then what can Formula D do to court Japanese teams to run in the series?

[Slapshotnerd]

Competent American drivers doesn't equal best in the word. If American teams are becoming reluctant to sponser top Japanese drivers then what can Formula D do to court Japanese teams to run in the series?

nothing. It's not Formula D's obligation to get ANYONE to be able to compete here. They produce the most competitive series in the world, and the proof is in the pudding. Drivers from around the world are doing whatever it takes to compete here, and sourcing their own sponsorships. Did FD help Mad Mike or Freddy Aasbo with the NFS sponsorship? nope. Did FD help D-mac land the Falken gig? Nope. Did FD help Dean Kearney with the V-leds deal? nope. Did FD help EOS with Rockstar, Hankook, or Gardella? nope. All those drivers landed those sponsorships on their own accords. FD has honored the licenses of all of these drivers to help them drive here, which is the same thing they have done for previous D1 drivers (Miki, Yamanaka, Takatori, Orido, Yoshioka, etc). That's all FD has to do is allow them to run IF they find sponsorship. Everyone else has worked hard for sponsorship, if a Japanese driver can't afford to come, that's not FD's obligation or fault.

Each driver is given equal opportunity and equal access to negotiate their own sponsorship. If Sponsors don't want to sponsor a driver because they don't like the color of their eyes, the way they do their hair, or the brand of deodorant they wear, that's their obligation. FD can't change that.

[my 1 88 u]

Just a hypothetical. If Formula D hired a Japanese speaking laison that could communicate with Japanese teams and sponsors, would that increase Japanese participation?

[Bebop]

By that I guess you mean we couldn't figure out how to make the car work?

Nope

Saying the car worked too well. Or are you saying those random spins we saw over the pass two seasons were his fault?

[Slapshotnerd]

Just a hypothetical. If Formula D hired a Japanese speaking laison that could communicate with Japanese teams and sponsors, would that increase Japanese participation?

They have 2 - Ken Gushi and Taka Aono.

All the interviews on FD TV were translated by one of those 2

[Bebop]

I think he means a more broader ambassador/mediator for the Japanese teams/drivers. Not a couple of guys that have their own program to direct that just translate. I could see something like that working out...other organizations do that. But yeah, at the end of the day its not FD responsibility to get these teams sponsored and competition ready.

[Slapshotnerd]

Nishida does a lot of translating too.

I don't think the problem is finding a way to facilitate the Japanese drivers coming over here. miki / takatori / yamanaka / dai / others are all strong ambassadors for FD in Japan. Miki / Gushi / Nishida all went to one of the FD Asia rounds. I think it boils down to dollars and cents (or Yen). If money weren't an object, I'm sure we'd have 10 J drivers at every round.

[Bebop]

I don't consider someone who is trying to get a good deal for him self a good ambassador/mediator but ehh.

Its definitely dollars and cents, but I got a bit of a hunch its who you know and who you made friends with and NOT how good your results were and how many fans you made. I remember a few years back Jasper Performance threw a test day that ultimately got Conrad Grunewald a seat in the RMR built supra and earned Quoc Ly support with his S13. That was probably the most coolest honest way that a drift team ever sought out talent. Why don't other teams do this? Even if a potential driver is bringing $ponsors, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get him behind wheel first?

Hopefully one day the sport will get more popular and gain serious stable fans who will start to recognize and call out the backwards way this sport recruits and keeps its talent. And when I say serious and stable fans, I'm not talking about the ones who financially benefit off the growth of this sport. No offense to anyone that makes a living around this sport we love, but I question ones honest opinion when they are shaking hands a sippin beers with the talent that is in question. But I wouldn't knock someone for not biting the hand that feeds them.

[wesismyhero]

I think this has alot to do with the "youth" of the American drift scene and the rise of good Pro-Am series. A few years ago, there was hardly any Pro-Am series to speak of. It was easier to bring in a good, experienced driver from another country than throw a virtually unknown, unexperienced driver in a car. Now that the "cream of the crop" is starting to rise and be noticed in the Pro-am series, it is easier to find a driver here at home.

[Bebop]

it is easier to find a driver here at home.

Ehhh not really, most of the guys who are coming from the domestic pro am are running their own program. While these international champions lobby for a ride with a USA base team....without making a single pass on US soil yet. Aasbo and Mad Mike were the only two international drivers who brought their program/team here last year....and I heard James Dean was essentially renting the falken S15. I would like more of these international guys to run their own vehicles over here for at least a season before putting their hands out.