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Sporting Report : January 28, 2008
Local Drift Aims to Hook Midwest
Young competition: auto racing meets ice skating
By Jonathan DeHart
Tokyo. Honolulu. Los Angeles. Cincinnati?
Drifting, a unique motorsport created by the Japanese, has made its way from the Pacific to the Midwest. Now, Cincinnati is a player.
Drifting is a unique, highly subjective motor sport. It is comparable to ice skating in the way it’s judged, as the driver’s handling of the car is much more important than speed. Drifters deliberately slide their car sideways through turns, maintaining control, and keeping the car on its course afterwards.
In an office next to a garage strewn with cars waiting to be modified, Mike Bailey, founder and owner of Zero Lift, and Chad Fisher, Zero Lift’s Formula-D sponsored driver, lay out the nuts and bolts of drifting in Cincinnati. Formula-D is America’s answer to drifting’s premier championship, Japan’s D1 Grand Prix.
The closest Formula-D team to Zero Lift is based in Maryland, making Zero Lift a significant part of the Midwest drift scene, and essentially the Cincinnati scene.
“Right now we’re the skateboard kids of the automotive world,” Fisher says. “We’re the punk rock kids…no one understands it. And we have to prove ourselves every time we step on a track.”
Drifting began in the 1970s on the mountain roads of Japan when a group of highly skilled street racers, led by Keiichi Tsuchiya, began going sideways through turns. He would deliberately over-steer into them, causing the rear end of the car to shoot out. Then he brought the car back into control by steering the front tires in the opposite direction of the turn to straighten it out again.
“It’s just like skateboarding or BMX. It’s not like an actual race,” explains Fisher. “You’re judged on how well you can control a car while you’re sliding it through a road course with another car next to you.”
Drifting is judged by are speed, angle, overall excitement, and the race “line” you take through the course. A “line” is determined by how well a driver handles “clipping points,” or the apex of a turn.
“Drivers want to be as close to the edges of the track, and to the wall, as possible. Go as big and bad as you can,” Fisher says. “Make the crowd get crazy.”
This flashy style has caught peoples’ attention. ESPN2 signed a contract with Formula-D in 2007, giving it TV exposure.
“It is the new action sport. You’ll probably see it in the X Games in the next three to five years,” Fisher says.
With this surge in popularity, more people are interested in trying it.
“If you want to be a professional drifter, you have to start with the grass roots stuff,” said Bailey, who founded the team.
And then there’s the car. Unlike high speed racing, there are few barriers to entry into drifting. One can build a drift car for a local event for as low as $6,000 – 7,000. The keys are rear wheel drive and a light body.
Bailey believes a skilled driver can keep up with a Dodge Viper while driving a Toyota Corolla.
“It has nothing to do with power…Usually more power means a heavier car.,” Bailey explains.
A light car is crucial, allowing for better handling around tight turns.
Getting Into the Drift
- Cincinnati Drift Club http://www.projectseven.org/ .
- Ready to try their skills on a track? Kil-Kare Raceway, in Xenia, Ohio, hosts open drift nights, on their bike nights -- every second and fourth Tuesday of the month -- for only $15, with proper safety equipment. More information can be found at their site at http://www.kilkare.com/
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While the car may not empty your bank account, the tires will. That’s why a new driver needs a tire sponsor.
Drifter hopeful, Jon Mayer, of Lebanon, Ohio, says he’s heard of a driver going through as many as 600 tires in a single season.
Showing up to watch those tires being burnt away, the crowd at a drifting event is eclectic.
“We were at Formula D Atlanta and I was sitting there in a truck listening to the announcements [when] I heard this deep voice and wondered, ‘Who the hell is that?’ And I look over and Hulk Hogan was sitting on the tailgate of the truck,” Bailey says.
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Hogan’s 17 year old son, Nicholas has been drifting for about two years. Before having legal complications in 2007, he had the benefit of private lessons from professional stunt driver and two time drift champion, Samuel Hubinette, and unlimited track time.
Bailey says that politics like that ensure that teams with big pockets do well.
With big players competing for profit and prestige, Cincinnati has an admittedly humble place in the drifting world. However, there is hope.
“ Cincinnati has the drifters, but [it lacks] race tracks and large parking lot venues that will allow the sport to grow,” says Director of US Drift Midwest, Derrick Allen.
Allen says its own event will help Cincinnati in the sport.
“I would love to hold an event at a high profile venue, like a mall parking lot, Allen continues.
He says that if the public could see it up close, they would “be hooked.”
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