Passion – it’s the common element that binds different generations of automotive enthusiasts. So whether it’s slammed, chopped, Pebble Beach Concours, stance, WRC, NASCAR, JDM or Formula 1 – as long as you have a passion for it, it’s always right. While I love anything and everything car related, drifting is in my blood and – much to my delight – has become a worldwide phenomenon amongst a rabid generation of car nuts.
When I recently missed a round of Formula Drift, you know I must have had a good reason – and I did. Instead of being trackside to watch cars going sideways, I was bedside to watch the birth of my first child. That little pause in the action, so to speak, gave me a new appreciation for what the FD paddock has to offer. Let me explain…
Continue reading [COVERAGE] FD Texas: Light At The End Of The Tunnel by Larry Chen
With unpredictable weather leading up to the Top 16 show, the track was a mix of all sorts of driving surfaces, never being consistent due to a rainstorm that rolled in hours before, and the continuous spitting from the clouds as the night moved on. What worked in dry qualifying the night before, was obviously not going to work in competition. We know that most of our readers don’t want to sit through a 2 hour long replay full of commercials and track delays, so we break down all the action Cliff Note’s style, or “TLDR – Too Long Didn’t Read” style, for our attention span challenged friends. We have something in common.
Many years ago, Southern California had plenty of legal places to race. A few of those places were Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale, Lions Drag Strip in Wilmington, Carlsbad Raceway in Carlsbad, Brotherhood Raceway on Terminal Island, and even a really cool track most of us never had a chance to see, Riverside Raceway. Some of you might even remember Ascot in Gardena, but that memory is almost reserved exclusively for old timers, lol. Many of these were closed and gone before drifting became popular, but we the people who live the drift life have suffered our own losses over the past 10 years. “I
Due of the lack of available local motorsport venues, street drifting has become as popular as street racing was back when the first Fast and the Furious movie was released. As cool as it may seem in the media, street drifting isn’t considered an acceptable form of seat time on the professional and amateur level, but the availability of industrial backroads in the LA area have drivers who have never been to an organized event, looking like experienced ProAm drivers.
To gain seat time and experience going sideways, one has to drive far out of the LA area to attend a Just Drift event at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, right outside Lancaster, CA. For those looking to get more, Vegas Drift holds regular events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The cost and time of traveling to and from, sometimes isn’t an option for most looking to get seat time. Sometimes a driver would like to get off work for the day, and go drifting. Traveling just doesn’t make sense to the average guy.
We are excited that Formula Drift has teamed up with Irwindale Event Center to bring the LA area a great opportunity to drift at The House of Drift. On select Thursday evenings, the oval that FD Round 7 runs every October, plays host to Thursday Night Drift. Everybody is invited to drive, from first time drifters, to pros looking to hone their skills on the FD layout. It is definitely worth noting that FD staff who come out to run this event, are doing so because they love drifting.
At $100 to drive, Formula Drift will tech your car, give you a chance to show your skill by running a simple layout, put you in a run group, and let you drift all night. You get to interact with Formula Drift staff in a relaxed environment, learn more about your car and what professional drift organizations are looking for in terms of build, safety, and driving, and most importantly, hang out and have a good time. The best thing about all of the above, is that you don’t have to drive hundreds or thousands of miles to do it.
Spectators pay $10, which gets you a seat in the grandstands, and an opportunity to enjoy a California sunset while watching some drifting. For an additional $5, you can make your way over to the drag strip and enjoy some straight line racing too. Such a great opportunity for a night of motorsport fun.
Our friend Justin Banner is the voice of Thursday Night Drift. Justin has been announcing for Top Drift and Vegas ProAm this year, so its awesome that he was able to land the announcing job for these events. We are all about the growth of everybody involved in drifting, and Justin is absolutely enthusiastic about the sport.