When I tell someone that I race and drift or that I'm a drifter, I usually get a confused look. People ask me, what is drifting? So let me start by explaining the sport of drifting!
Drifting as a sport originally started in the hills of Japan. Kids would race up and down the mountain roads or touges. Soon they would start to slide the car sideways around the corners to show off and to keep their engines rpms up. This technique of controlling the cars over-steer (over-steer is a handling issue that results when the rear slip angle is greater than the front slip angle) soon started to catch on and it's popularity grew. The artistry displayed by these early drifter and those to follow helped coin the term "Corner Artists" for the amazing way they could attack a corner and turn movement and tire smoke into an art form.
As a result of the excitement and growing fan base of this new sport D1 Gran Prix was formed in Japan as an organized form of racing that's sole purpose was to challenge the drivers to one on one heats on a technical section of a track. The driver are scored on speed of entry into the corners, angle of attack, racing line, distance between your opponent, and style.
The success of D1GP has lead to several other circuits starting around the world such as NOPI Drift, Formula Drift, and several other country specific circuits.
Drifting as a sport truly is a fan based sport. In no other motor sport can the winner be determined by the crowd. This aspect of the sport really drew me to this form of racing. Drifting can almost be compared to gladiatorial games in a sense that the crowd has such an impact on the outcome.
During a drift competition only two cars will compete during a run or race. The race is set up like this: two cars will line up side to side to each other on a section of the track known as the scoring section. One car will be the leader and the other will be the follower and they will compete against each other in the the five points categories, speed of entry, angle of attack, racing line, distance between opponent, and style. After the two cars have made their drift run through the scoring section they will repeat this same thing, only the leader and follower will switch roles.
Now if the two drivers were so closely matched in their skills of slide the crowd can call for a "One more time". Which is a sort of sudden death round in which if either driver makes a mistake they will automatically loose (more on how a competition is ran in my upcoming post "Drift Competitions, How They Work").
So to sum up drifting as a motorsport: it's tire smoke and cars on the razor's edge of control, mixed with a nonstop adrenalin rush and a crowd on the edges of their seats, garnished with some of the most skilled corner artist in the world.
http://Drift-Diaries.com is a chronicle where I show you my rise in the drifting community. I will teach you how you can compete, get exposure and eventually make it big as a drifter.
Hi My name is Chip, or Speed as a lot of people know me and I am a soon to be professional drifter, interested in helping you learn to drift and build your skills.
See you at the track!
Postingan
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar