I’ve been asked recently what really is the Red Bull Drifting World Championship. What is it in terms of size? What is it in terms of the look and feel? What does it mean for drifting? These are all good questions. So, I thought while I have time before I prepare to jump off my building due to the indiscriminate amount of stress, I should break that down.
Venue: The Venue is what we call Pier S. Pier S is a 90 acre lot of brand new asphalt. Some day that will be where a new port is built. This will probably be the first and last time anything happens there. The venue is surrounded by cranes, boats and water to the north and oil drills, water wells and construction to the south. West is the 47 and East is the 710. Construction of the venue means we have to build everything from scratch. We have compiled the grands stands from the LB Grand Prix. There are three major total. Currently the number of seats is double that of Irwindale. Additionally we have over 270 – 12 feet pieces of K-rail weighing over 12,000 lbs each. These outline the track. There is and additional seating allotment for VIP, Red Bull hospitality, Collegiate, LB City and Suites for sponsors that add another 2,000 seats. Capacity for the venue including the grandstands is in the neighborhood of 20-25k easy, not including standing room.
Suites: If you bought a VIP suite, your structure is a full catered, 80ft wide, by 150ft long two tier, air conditioned structure. It has open air patio and also enclosed as well. Each suite has full sound, and live feed on 40inch plasmas
Track: From start to entry is about 1200 ft. From rolling start to entry is about 1300 ft. In testing we hit 104 MPH after two runs. The track is mostly krail that will be red bull branded with the same signs they use at F1 and Moto GP. The inner course is white barricade only to define the course. It has a huge right hand bang/wall ride into a hairpin, left hand sweep with an outside clip to a wall, shallow mash throttle left to a right hand wall ride to the finish. It’s nuts. We have Red Bulls that are clipping points and huge 10×30 freeway billboards for signage as well.
Scenic Elements: We have an entry truss that is 80 ft wide and 30 ft high with a start and finish line between the two. It is emblazoned with Red Bull signage on both sides. We have two huge Red Bull atop the structure. The entrance to the the event in 1000ft of black scrimmed fence with banners leading to another 20×60 truss structure with the event logo on top. We have 50 flags on top of every grandstand representing every country involved. We have two Red Bull energy stations which are similar to what they use at F1. These are an 80×80 foot print and two stories high with all the with Live feeds, food, beer, open bar, etc. There are 8 – 10×10 towers with branding and event info littered around the venue.
Other: We have 15 buses running from 9-6pm both days back and froth from the convention center to the venue. We have Red Bull branded buses running back and forth to pick up media Saturday and Sunday as well. There are 2 major food stations serving all kinds of food, Red Bull Red Bull Cola, other soft drinks and water. Ticket for the event will stay online through Sunday. Buy a two reserved online. It is the cheapest, best ticket you can get besides VIP. No ticket has any surcharges thanks to Red Bull. No fees, no nothing, just the cost of the ticket. You get two days for the price of 1 if you were to buy on-site.
That is my short summary as I have to leave for the track now. In short this is by far and a way the largest event we have ever produced. To put it into perspective, the amount of labor, materials and workload for this event is equal to the entire 08 season, easy!
What this means for drifting? Well, I guess after the event we will find out, but in all honestly here are the facts:
1. Every champion from every recognized drifting body internationally and the runner up is here
2. Largest prize purse in drifting history – 50k
3. Largest ever TV production ever
4. Purpose build drift course. First to handle 100 entry speeds and 6 turns
5. First time top 32 head to head
6. Pro Am Nationals
See you Sat and Sun
