By Nate Ryan, USA TODAY

" If you have seen The Fast and the Furious movies, you probably are familiar with the Japanese import known as drifting, which pits highly modified street cars in a frenetic battle of technical skill on tight courses
But those who have watched NASCAR highlights on ESPN might have a good grasp of the sport, too.
"When someone turns on a Sunday night sports show, they show guys going out of control and crashing, crossing the finish line and doing a burnout," says Ryan Sage, co-founder and vice president of marketing for the Formula Drift series. "That is essentially what happens every single run in drifting." ".............................



http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor...t-racing_N.htm

 

sweet someone makes fun of the drifting sport and classes it with nascar, yet has no clue what it is realy about...bash his taillights with bats?

 

He's the founder of Formula Drift, I would have expected him to dignify the sport a bit more.

 

agreed on how he wrote it....I just wrote a report on this and mine was much better!

 

its formula d tho. what can you expect?

 

dudes Jr himself had nothing to do with the article.. lol he was just mentioned in there....

and ill copy and paste because im getting the same responses forum wide lol

like i told JR lol... i didn't to much like the Tokyo drift name thrown around lol....

I honestly hate when someone comes up to me and say ohh your like Tokyo Drift............im like yea i had my car since 03/04 and i have been into drifting since 2000

also groups like DA have been out there years before that one summer in 2003 when it all really kicked off for mainstream USA.

but man its been around for a bit its going no where.. Posers will be posers and those who are on the outside looking in will never understand fully

 

I agree.


I really dont care how mainstream America views drifting. Most of mainstream America doesnt drive in motorsports. Since late 02 early 03 I never really cared about anything but driving, as long as I get my seat time everyone else can do whatever they want.

The thing that I wonder all the time is how the United States is compared to Japan as far as drifting is concerned. Not skill level but acceptance. It seems like drifting there is just as legit as road racing, but here in the states alot of road racers and track owners completely dislike drifting and wont even give it a second thought. Mainland Japan is smaller than California yet they have tracks made specifically for drifting all over the country as well as road racing tracks that have no problem holding drift events. Here in the US getting events on road courses is a hard thing to accomplish, even parking lot events take forever just to establish the relationship. What I want to know is why are most people so hostile about drifting in the US? Drifting isnt going anywhere but it's hard for things to grow at an amateur level when establishments want to see the money that FD has to put up for amateur events. Japan has Ikaten but what do we have thats accessible for amateur drivers who dont have mountains of money to toss around? The events at HTM and the balcony are the closest things to what amateur events look like in Japan but thats all the way in California.


Will we never be accepted enough to have support like SCCA and NASA?

 

yea..... i thought SCCA was the governing body for all of amateur to semi pro level events... well i guess the choose what they want to support.... here in VA/MD Nasa and Scca host a ton of events.


but yea man.. i could careless about mainstream. i mean I know JR personally so im not going to sit here an bash Pro level guys because they are on and im not lol.... he put up a lot of his own money to get started Falken didn't roll out the red carpet right away. when he is home he pilots his s13/s14 around lol, however, it would be awesome to make a living drifting. You could related it to skateboard/ biker guys.. some are good enough to get a lil T shift deal and others can raise a family with it ( Tony Hawk, Dave Mirra etc etc)

**** i need to renew my scca liscens lol

 

lol I had a SCCA liscense too lol. No point in renewing it since there are no SCCA hosted road course events around here (4/12 hour drive to baton rouge).


But yeah the pro level guy's are cool. They are extremely talented drivers and are really down to earth in comparison to pro level drivers from other motorsports. Even the ones who seem like dicks online are actually really cool in person. I just hate how corporate America basically is forcing anything past amateur level to become flashy and showy. Like in FD they added some things to the events to make it appeal to people who only watched F&F TD and thats all they know, so they have all the revving at the beggining and the annoying *** announcer with his gay *** catch frases, and the girls saying that ready set go **** and twirling all over the place (like seriously wtf is that ish?). You dont see **** like that in American Le Mans, SCCA world challenge, or even Nascar and they still have huge fan followings. They are concentrated around driving and thats it (well besides NASCAR..... good drivers but it's pretty boring to watch and they constantly try to sell you 10 dollar beer and hats and bs lol).

Drifting is about the driving to me but you go to FD or Drift showoff etc and it seems like they are worried about everything but that. I mean the chicks are cool to look at but I'm sure the 20 or so "models" arent willing to hook up with any of the thousands of dudes that come out to the events lol. The people who take home the burnt up tires are hilarious though. I cant point everything out but D1 japan (never been but I see the vids and such) is so much different than FD, and it's still exciting if you know what you are looking at, you dont even have to understand what the judges are saying. Back in 03/04 FD was a hell of alot better than it is now thats all.

I just dont like FD because of all the BS that comes along with it. Begginer/amatuer drift events are much more entertaining than pro level events imo. You see the people who came at the beggining of the day improve and progress, you joke around and have fun out on the course with friends, thats what it's all about, having fun driving.


Enough of my rant I'm sorry lol.

 

very true indeed.... seems like i have found the only other guy that doesn't care form models at events... they are lame lol

 

seee...now THAT is why i go t the track on OFF days...nothing but me and my car...th way its SUPPOSED to be.

 

welll i do local events.... group of close local drivers. great atmosphere.

 

You guys are looking at the article the wrong way. FD is a business, he put it in the simplest more recongnizable way for people to understand it.

He couldnt put; "its a *****in' time where we smoke tires chill with our buds and holla at some cute little ladies".

Basically, the more people into drifting the better off we all are. The more mainstream it becomes the more opertunties we have to do what we want.

The article was good and bad. **** it.

When it comes down to it, its about the driving not the show. Thats why we drive and they spectate.

 

that pickle cutting vid is impressive...

 

Always with the Fast & Furious reference...