NEW DRIFT SERIES; WDC World Drift Championships

[Tys240]

Holy crap, check this out:

World Drift Championships

Seems like Formula D and D1GP might be in trouble if Primedia is getting involved.

[zdss14]

if this is true then it has gone to far, you cant have 3 people competing to be the top drift leauge,either it will destroy the sport, or one league will come out the victor, i hope the latter.

[Hollywood]

more drifting events is always good for the sport. problem is there are only a hand full of teams that can compeat on a national level, it takes money. we (Cartunes) spend about $5K every time we go to an event. and then you run the risk of having competitions to close together or even on the same day.
so good and bad

[Hubert Young]

Wow, this is crazy... how are they going to get drivers if some of the dates conflict with the Formula D schedule? 2005 will be really interesting for the drift scene. It looks to me that whether drifting will stay popular depend on how well these events are put together. I have doubts about this WDC being the top notch drifting series here in the US by hosting 9 rounds in its inaugural season. Unless they offer support for teams, I doubt teams would have enough resources to make all 9 rounds. Without all the front running teams and familiar faces making it to all events, they would have a hard time creating the excitment to the fans. But who knows, let's wait and see. Money can resolve a lot of the issues I raised. Corporate involvement is good IMO but drifting might be growing way too fast for the general public to appreciate the sport. Nonetheless, I hope for the best for the drift scene here!

[my 1 88 u]

IGN Cars learned that WDC will try to shake things up with something called the Control Box. Marked on the first straightaway before a J-turn, the first vehicle will enter the designated area and have to ensure that the second driver is in the control box before he exits the area. The sanctioning body hopes that this will prevent more powerful cars from taking advantage of quick acceleration and keep tandem battles within feet, not yards.

[NismoSigma]

New York, New York July 22, 23
:O JOY! 1 thing I dont get though, if its a WORLD drift champ. why are all the courses in USA?


PS- If primedia is involved, expect to see alot of adverts on drifting in theyre magazines (Super street, spo com car, etc). This can either spell disaster or oodles of goodness for people!

[driftersil80]

HECK YA PHOENIX! OMG IM SOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!! YAAAAYYY!!!!

[Octagon]

Okay. Let's look at some of the reasons why this is an idiotic idea.

#1 - Number of Pro Teams: I may not be Mr. Doriftu Expert, but I know that the number of American teams is limited to a few dozen. That's not enough to share between two series. Case in point, AGTC versus Trans-Am. You have an AGTC race on the same date as a Trans-Am race, you're going to have about 11 cars at the Trans-Am race even if AGTC has a smaller purse just because the AGTC rules are more favorable to a wider range of cars.

The teams will support the rules that most favor them, and one series will always get the shaft unless serious money is up for grabs.

#2 - Lack of Major Series Support: SCCA has been around since the days of Lance Reventlow, Briggs Cunningham, and Max Borkowski. SCCA remembers when Dan Gurney was an up and coming rookie. They KNOW how to run an event. Primedia may have the coffers, but having the know-how to keep a competition series running is a whole different matter. And if you want to know just how well Primedia puts together an event, look no further than the misguided Hot Rod Magazine World's Fastest Street Car series, also under the guise of the NMCA.

#3 - (already brought up but worth repeating) Manufacturer and Aftermarket Support: Pontiac and Dodge have already staked their bed in Formula Drift. Many aftermarket companies are also already bearing the weight of Formula Drift teams' budgets. There are only so many companies interested in drifting at the moment, and we're talking few thousand dollar deals if the teams are lucky. Massive investments go into these cars, and there isn't a lot of money on the table to gain. A big purse sure would help, but not if winning only barely covers the winning team's weekend. Not to mention one good wreck can sideline a team for weeks, and that's a team that's not going to take money home.

#4 - Exposure: Let's face it. The events aren't on TV. The results are primarily found in tuner mags and internet articles. The sport is still scoffed at by the motorsport establishment, and four or ten events a year (unless they're ALMS or Grand Am sized) are not going to be very appealing to broadcasters. WDC isn't coming in to try and clean up the mess of an ailing sanctioning body (like, say, the ALMS did for IMSA in the mid 90's), they're getting in on the groundfloor like Formula Drift and are going to have all the same building blocks as FD. Drifting in the States is in its formulative years. It's not established. Dang it, we've only got four pro events downpat for the whole of our professional sanctioning history.

Now is the wrong time for WDC. Yes, Formula Drift had some issues in its first season. But it's walk before you run. WDC is trying to run before the sport is crawling.

[Craftsman]

Well, SEMA will reveal all. You guys know this... Wow. This is a shocker though.

[FC_RAUL]

PHOENIX

[Ghost of Duluth]

Let's look at one major reason that this is a lame idea.

The Control Box. How about we just call that the "Crash Box" or the "No control box". This is probably one of the weirdest idea's that I have ever heard. Not only is it going to throw the lead car off by having to jam on the brakes to let the follower catch up, but it will also throw off the follower when he instincively hits the brakes when he sees lights. This will cause more than one pile up I assure you. This once again confirms my fears that the American style of Drifting is going to be a "Crash em up Derby" free for all where you are basically expected to make contact. One key point of judging is judging the drivers skill in closing the gap in an underpowered car. The "Crash Box" takes that key element away.

Now add to that the amount of filler that they are trying to squeeze in such as, but not limited too, Sound contest, Bikini crap, Autocross event, Car show and the 90 other things they are trying to get done and you have one big 3 ring circus with every type of Import Thing-ama-bob trying competing for exposure.
Drifting will never and I repeat NEVER stand on it's own 2 feet if it is never given it's own event. A car show and maybe a bikini contest are evils that have to be tolerated, but adding all of the other stuff.....they may as well call it the Nopi World Nationals. A travelling version of the ever popular circus that is known as Nopi.

As I said before, until someone is willing to give Drifting a Drifting event, this will quite possibly require a loss of money somewhere, Drifting will stay an exhibitionary sport until the day it fizzles out and people move on to the next big thing. It's no wonder that the Japanese judges think we are a bunch of idiots. Don't think so? watch the D1 2004 on JDM Option 6. They have a running commentary on the American drivers that includes everything from making fun of their names to all out laughing at them. Couple that with them not even watching judged runs at most of the events because of them playing with the eye-candy that is running all around and you have why the American Drifting scene is a joke to the Japanese.

Things need to change.

[tonesdef]

Competion is always a good thing thats what breeds the best. And if you don't think so your an idiot. There are 3 differnt sport comepact drag racing associations and now there is a nother one up and coming. Same thing with drifting D1 may rule from what we think is japan but i have been hearing the BMI series is more popular than D1.


the main reason for the 50 bagilon differnt things to do is

A) Americans have the attention span of monkeys on speed. We get bored fast and looking at something else will keep us around and the crowd numbers up
B) Launching something that has just started by incorparating some already known things is a good thing .

I agree that the auto x idea is *Censored**Censored**Censored* but the show car part will always be there. There are grass root movements like DD and DA that only show case drifting and if you want a car show walk the parking lot. But for right now to keep drifting growing you have to attatch it to something. But IMO drifting has grown too fast to soon and will go the way of drag racing were no one really gives a hoot in 2 years. Hopefully i'm wrong. But one thing that needs to be changed in FD is that they should be street legal not a lemans *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored*ing viper with a big *Censored**Censored**Censored* corp budget behind it and an *Censored**Censored**Censored* clown for a driver gayness.

[Driftday]

"As I said before, until someone is willing to give Drifting a Drifting event, this will quite possibly require a loss of money somewhere...."

Should I take offense to your comment?

www.Driftday.com

Naoki "that someone" Kobayashi
Drift Association

[Octagon]

Big corporate budget and skilled ice racer of a driver are staying, the Speed World Challenge legal, but as of yet not ACO homologated Viper Competition Coupe is out for next year.

In case you haven't noticed, drifting costs money. Big corporations have money. And no big corporation is more willing to spend money on motorsports than a car manufacturer, especially one with as long and productive a competition history as DaimlerChrysler.

Would you be as upset if Nissan put together a factory drift effort using Infiniti G35 coupes?

[Ghost of Duluth]

Should I take offense to your comment?

And why would you take any offense to my comment? What you guys do is great and is leaps and bounds ahead of the others in my opinion. The only problem that I see is that you are basically resigned to the West Coast other than a couple events in Illinois and Texas.