<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JeffS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">... Unfortunately, it will likely to inspire on-road practicing by the non-track crowd.</TD></TR></TABLE>

How do you respond when someone suggests that SoloII or HPDE events encourage participants to practice on public roads? What makes drifting inherently different?

K

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Knestis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
How do you respond when someone suggests that SoloII or HPDE events encourage participants to practice on public roads? What makes drifting inherently different?</TD></TR></TABLE>

while i think its unfair for the above persons to initially "blast" this event as some riceboy fest full of ppl just asking to roll their cars or something, your question kirk is a bit interesting as to why perhaps a sanctioned drifting event would be considered any different than an autocross or some track event. i think it has to do perhaps to a matter of professionalism and image of the organizers and participants respectively. but thats certainly a vague answer, and wholely debatable.

a similar debate would be do sanctioned drag races or even having a local drag strip help or hurt unlawful conduct on public roads? i can say with confidence, that generally a competitor in a club like SCCA road racing would NOT be likely to 'practice' or carry over any sort of competition on public roads. but i do think, however, that an average amatuer drag enthusiasts DOES in fact do so. am i being unfair, unjustified, or just wrong? perhaps, but i think many ppl know where im coming from. but take the SAME sport of drag racing, i dont think any PROFESSIONAL drag racer would care to carryover any sort of competition on the street either. but drag events are available to the public and priced so that anyone can get involved and there certainly is a bit more appealing 'image' to the sport, and most weekly events are just free for alls with not so great level of competition. and i do think autox events that i have participated in are organized with a much greater sense of professionalism, lacking of any popular image (most ppl still dont know what it is, whereas any joe off the street knows what drag racing is) and has a level of competition greater than the general drag event. i think by nature of being associated with a real track the higher level of professionalism is inherent for track events due to the danger and also the simple cost to attend track events and definately real road racing. so, thats what im trying to get at about it being about professionalism and image.

basically i think it is OUR 'image' of 'drifting' that makes this type of event more scrutinized. i do hope that the organizer enforces a high level of professionalism to ward off any further scrutiny, and i have no reason so far to think the organizer would do otherwise.

 

Drifting is rally driving on asphalt. To do it well requires skill. Skill requires experience. It is not that Drifting or it's enthusiasts are bad, it's that most of the organizations that are currently running the events do not have reputations for running safe higher speed events. HPDEs regularly have novice driving at much higher speeds than novice drifters will ever attain and yet they are generally very safe events if rules are established and enforced. The same can occur with Drifting.

Drift is an ally of road racing. If nothing else, Drifting does etch in the mind of the average sport compact enthusiast a respect for driving skill. It is "showy" and exciting to watch. There are relatively few road racing series out there that provide the same level of excitement.

When NASA looked at creating and sanctioning the US DRIFT Nationals we asked ourselves how this would help road racing. We believe that once an enthusiast/spectator develops a respect for SKILL, they will hunger for the pentulimate venue for the expression of a driver's skill...Road Racing. This is not at all to say that drifting won't continue for a long time but what we think is that it will fit very nicely into the autocross, time trial, HPDE, and Road Racing mix of controlled, fun, and legal motorosports activities.

There will be many that jump on the bandwagon of Drifting event organization. Some of those organizations will be excellent and some won't be. NASA/US DRIFT has already created competition standards and has also created training standards that will be present in it's upcoming drifting schools.

I apologize if this seems like a NASA plug (you know I NEVER plug NASA) but there is a place where drifting will be done with fun AND safety in mind.

Peace,
C

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RacerZook &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It's just another stunna craze.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Only so much as drag racing is a 'stunna craze'... the stunnas love to watch it and talk about it, but those who enter legal sanctioned events, get out there and learn to drive elevate themselves from stunna status.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by elgorey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have never really understood the negative attitude towards (private, legal) drifting on this board.</TD></TR></TABLE>

It's not well recieved among many because it's not racing... it's car control, but with an emphasis on grace instead of lap times.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">a similar debate would be do sanctioned drag races or even having a local drag strip help or hurt unlawful conduct on public roads? i can say with confidence, that generally a competitor in a club like SCCA road racing would NOT be likely to 'practice' or carry over any sort of competition on public roads. </TD></TR></TABLE>
On principle, I have to believe that safe, sanctioned events reduce the amount of "practicing" on public roads. I would think that these events are not creating a market so much as responding to one that already exists. Does autocross contribute to "canyon carvers" or "sprited drivers"? Or does it create a group of knowledgable, skilled drivers who decry it?

On the flip side, if you'll indulge a slight digression.. quite a while back someone wrote a story about returning a rental car at an airport somewhere when another driver came careening into the rental car return area. That reckless driver was then scolded by the rental car employees (if I remember the story correctly), but then the author of the story said something like, "Don't you know who that is? That's [insert famous race driver here]!" That's the one key thing that stunned me (I infact did not reply to the thread, because I hadn't been around too much in this forum at the time :/ )-- the person implied that the high-speed, reckless driving was excusable because the driver was a famous professional- and others agreed with him. But my opinion was, "This is at an airport, where people (or children) are liable to be lost, confused, worried, late, etc. and could step out from any direction at any time from behind a pillar, a bush, a car, etc. The professional driver may be able to handle his vehicle to avoid the obstacles he is aware of, but there is no way he could be anywhere near certain that he knew of all the obstacles that might appear without any warning!"

Anyway, my point to that whole diatribe is that just because we are so great and compete against each other/the clock with left AND right and throttle AND brake, doesn't mean somehow we are all holier than all others and our community is not capable of being a home or encouragement for jackasses to do jackass behavior.

 

Question. How exactly do you score a drift event? All forms of racing that I know of are scored by time, or by position if it's w2w. But how do you score this? Is it like figure skating, based on technical merit and presentation? "H0ly ****, that some phatty dryft, y0! 10 pts for technical merit!" "You had great style and a smile to go with it, 9.6 for presentation!"

Sorry if its overly sarcastic, but I'm completely befuddled.

 

It's like judging a surf competition. There are points for just getting through the course, then there are points for style; how long you hold a drift, how wide of an arc you swing exiting the turn, how well you transition. You get the idea.

Did just explain scoring a drift competition? I'm gonna go get a drink....

 

Drifting was actually invented by George Knighton in the mid-70s.

Here's a pic I found of him at one of the first drifting exhibitions: