just wondering if anyone else in here went to this event and what they thought about it? all the racing was pretty tight. there were a few crx, a prelude, a 99 si that ran in the scca its, ita races. but the main attraction was the drifting, and i must say it went off. more events like this need to come this way. hell i even gave up going and racing my car at the local scca 3rd points race to go and watch this event and i must say i was not disappointed.

 

I heard Memo Gidley was there racing in another series (World Challenge I think). That guy needs to be in a Champ Car.

 

At the risk of mixing metaphors, Memo G. is a poster child for why we need drifting in the US - he's more likely to actually MAKE MONEY in or even around the fringes of the hot import scene than he is running in ANY open-wheel racing series.

K

 

I was there and enjoyed the drifting 'show'.
Viper > *

I have several pictures from the weekend that I need to upload.

 

I watched practice and qualifying and it was a great show no doubt. The Pontiac, Vipers, 240s, 350Z and Corollas were just impressive, I can't think of another way to describe it. And the car control was pretty incredible.

 

I was there Friday during the road race proctice day. It amazing to see how much $$ is being invested in this... err... activity (sport?). The drift participants have poured big bucks into their cars and there is remarkable sponsor support. No denying this is gaining momentum.

 

that viper won from what im hearing. my friend finished 8th.

 

the viper did win, but when you are a factory supported driver its easier going than an ae86 with a big hairdryer funded by a credit card and when its his or her personel daily driver, it seemed alittle over whelming. But the crowd felt the viper did not win, as i felt the same too. but the eightsix gave the viper a run for its money. That made the initialD crowd stand up and cheer!

i had a blast, the event brought alot of first timers to a real track, and spec miata put on a hell of a show, and so did the speed touring guys. The iT race was good, still makes me laugh that it takes two late model bmw's working together in a team format to beat a 32 year old datsun. (Just my .02 1/2 cents)All in all its was a succes, i would have liked to see more cars, even better matchings.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by iggyracer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">But the crowd felt the viper did not win, as i felt the same too....</TD></TR></TABLE>
The crowd's feelings were probably more anti-domestic sentiment than anything else, if the booing for the domestics at the Houston drift event was any indication.

Just MHO.

Karen

 

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Slide or Die biotches

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CamaroFS34 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
The crowd's feelings were probably more anti-domestic sentiment than anything else, if the booing for the domestics at the Houston drift event was any indication</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not in this case since the white Viper was by far the most cheered car when they all made their way to the grid at the start of the competition.


As far as the drifting what can I say, great event! The fact that it was so different from what I was used to seeing just blew me away and captured my attention.

I watched practice + qualifying and left half way trough the competition on sunday (when they were down to the final 8.) But I have to admit, I don't think I could ever participate in such an activity though! I was getting frustrated just by watching it at how unfair it seemed, at least to my untrained drift-eyes.

During the first rounds of the competition, the black turbo 86 went up against the white Viper (the eventual winner from what I hear?). Anyway, it seemed that it’s *so* easy to screw up the other guy during these 2-at-a-time competition runs, and that's exactly what the viper did. Isn't the 2nd car (the car following) *supposed* to remain the 2nd car for the entire run?? In one run when the Viper was the designated 2nd car, he put his nose in and got along side the 86 - totally screwing up the 86's drift while doing so. Is this a tactic to make the other guy loose points or something? Then on another run the Viper actually got along side and passed the 86. What was up with that? This totally took away the 86's space he could not do any drifts. I'm sure the 86 driver was fuming after that and that's why he went off and nudged the wall on the last turn. I've seen other competitors do this same thing and I already picked up on two tricks to screw up the other guy on your run. Here they are: If you are the 1st car, just slow down harder than usual while doing a drift so that the 2nd car has to check up not to hit you and you just ruined his drift. If you are the 2nd car, just stick in your nose or get along side the 1st car and take away his space. This will force the 1st car to abort the drift and loose points. Aren't there any rules to govern all this? Lol

There were a few *really* good drifters there, including the judges who put on one heck of a show before the competition started. Although I would imagine having a total blast doing such an activity, I just could never see myself "compete" in such an activity. There are just SO many other factors *out of the drifter’s control* that will determine your outcome. At one point, the judges even asked the crowd to declare the winner by seeing how loud they would cheer for each of the two competitors. lol I think I need to go to a drift 101 course to better understand how at least the competition aspect of it works.

Overall, I had a great time watching it!!

 

Two autocrossers were there competing as well. Taka Aono and Hiro Sumida are both national autocrossers. Taka won at Nationals in Topeka FSP in 2002 in a Toyota Corolla GTS and also won the ProSolo championship in 2002 and 2003. Anyone know how they ended up in Atlanta? I thought I heard Taka had qualified 2nd, but I was riding in the back of a pickup coming in from Turn 3 so I could be wrong.

 

yeah, that crowd was feeling anti-domestic, the Viper kicked ***, as did the GTO, mad smoke from mad horsepower, as well asgreat car controll. Hell, that Tarzan guy drifts a Viper in Japan. The spec Miazda racing was where it was at though

 

Don't forget that the viper and GTO are factory backed teams, with all the others having small company sponsors! The crowd was not anti domestic, the crowd cheered loudly when the viper was pronounced the winner, it was only that the Ae86 is a favorite in the initial d crowd.

 

I only saw practice and qualifying on Sat/Sun but I too didn't think there was any anti/pro domestic thing going on. I think most folks reacted to what seemed like good runs and a lot of smoke (I am sure some of the nuance was lost on me however). The Vipers (and the GTO) were just so powerful motorwise that I think you had to handicap what you were looking at. The AE86 all motor guys should have been getting bonus points for how much faster they _seemed to me_ entered 10A coming down the hill - that was a cool visual comparison. Coolest moment for me was Millen in practice when (think it was the noseless RX7) had him red flagged exiting the turn about and he kept the drift going w/ the power braking - that was a unique moment. Watching those little cheese wedges throttling the hell out of the car into 10A was badassed. And the tandem 3 car (240/350/Viper was it?) runs on Saturday were way neat too. Again, a very cool event and one I would definately attend again if it were held nearby!

Too bad the fields were smallish for the Pro IT and Touring Car - I think it would have been great to have this on a different weekend than the double SARRC personally so that the Pro-IT field could have been larger and maybe given the guys and gals there for the drifting a larger show in return. But the PSM group was large enough and the racing was certainly tight so hopefully the folks that showed for the drifting exclusively got a feel for that side of things.

 

DORIFTO!

 

Nice pics, I saw the integra at drift miami, put on a good show! Keep it up

 

Heh, why am I not surprised that the only pic of the MR2 is it too sideways to recover smoothly?