What Is Drifting?

When it comes to motorsports, there is nothing quite like drifting. It’s not racing in that you’re trying to complete a course in the fastest time possible. So, what is drifting and what makes it a motorsport, then?

When you first get into racing, you’re taught that you only want a vehicle to exhibit neutral to just a little bit of oversteer. You want to use the throttle to drive you out of the corner and only to add more when you need just a little more rotation. Drifting throws all of that out of the window. Or, at least it seems to do it. What you have, instead, is equal parts skill of the driver and chassis setup prowess of the crew chief.

While the cars of drifting are in an extreme state of oversteer, they are also exhibiting a lot of grip. That may read counterintuitive from what you witness, but if you set up a car too loose (give it a chassis that drives with too much oversteer) you get a car that is absolutely undrivable. Many beginning drivers look for tires that don’t have enough grip or overinflate their tires to reduce grip because their chassis are set up with too much understeer from the factory. If they don’t go beyond the settings from the OEM, their cars won’t ever get the angle they really want. They will continue to fight the car until they change toe, camber, caster, spring rates, and even their dampening settings on their aftermarket shocks.

Once they do, drivers will want tires that have a lot of grip, like the Milestar MS932 XP+. Without that grip, the car will over-rotate and probably spin out. Once they get beyond that level, they will then start to drive in tandem with another car on the track. There are two goals in a drifting competition and it depends on if you’re leading or following.

All through a drifting competition, you are judged by three to five judges (depends on the sanctioning body). During qualifying, to place you in a Top 16 or Top 32 format, you will be judged on your line, angle, and style. Once placed and going into tandem, each driver is judged by that panel with two tandem runs. The drivers will swap from lead and follow on the two runs. For example, driver A will lead, and driver B will follow on run one. Once that run is done, they swap with B leading and A following.

If following (or chasing), your goal is to stay as close as possible to the lead driver while also mimicking that driver’s lines while drifting. If you’re leading, your goal is to drive with as much angle as possible while getting close to clipping points and zones without interfering with your line. If you hit the wall but your line stays the same, you won’t be judged against and the following car also must mimic that. If both drivers do too good (or both do equally bad), there will be a full run usually called a One More Time. Depending on the sanctioning body, you may have two, three, or as many as needed to determine a winner.

Speed is not always criteria but trying to finish the course in the fastest time isn’t the goal of drifting. Instead, the goal is to simply drive better than your competitor in the eyes of the judges. Therefore, big angle kits, sophisticated shock design, and tires with plenty of grip are all a big part of professional drifting. If you can drive your car with a bigger angle, on a better line, and gap your follow driver while also being able to keep up with your lead, you’re probably going to win. That’s not always the case, though, as with all this pushing to the limits, things will break. Even the best driver with all the money in the pits will lose thanks to a $0.30 part. However, you won’t know that until you go out and drive.

Just “Loose” It! Club Loose Drifting Experience

If you’re any sort of an automotive enthusiast, then you’ve likely heard of a style of driving called drifting. Controversially labeled as a “sport,” drifting has become a nationwide sensation over the last 15 years all across the United States. Whether you blame the third installment of The Fast and The Furious or Formula Drift for the increase in popularity (and for the infamous “Drift Tax”), it’s a sector of automotive motorsports that just can’t be ignored.

To many, becoming a professional drifting driver, let alone learning how to drift at all, seems like an entirely unattainable goal. The pros pilot high horse-powered cars competitively with full pit crews on-site and some of the biggest auto brands sponsoring them. Add to the fact that most of the drivers make it appear effortless and you start thinking to yourself, “How and where can I learn how to do this?!”

As easy or as difficult as drifting looks, depending on your perception of it, any professional driver, from veterans like Daigo Saito to Pro1 rookies like Ryan Litteral, will tell you that one of the biggest keys to succeeding on any level is this: Seat time.

And that’s where grassroots organizations like Club Loose come in.

GO DRIFTING OR GO TO HELL!

The closest events for me take place at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey – The birthplace of Club Loose. When you arrive, everything within your immediate surroundings suggests that you’ve made a wrong turn: The cars look destroyed and the organizers look like members of a biker gang with a motto that’s short and sweet – “Go Drifting Or Go To Hell.” Now, this all sounds like a recipe for a deterrent but it’s quite the opposite. Club Loose event organizers genuinely want drivers to, not only learn how to drift but to also, have fun doing it!

Over the course of the 10 years since it’s origination in 2008, people can sign up to drift at tracks as far North as New Hampshire Motor Speedway and as far West as San Antonio Raceway. Many of their events like “Freedom Moves” are over a two-day span, giving drivers plenty of seat time along with the opportunity to camp and party on track. Suddenly the Bloodmasters don’t sound so bad.

In order to avoid sheer pandemonium, drivers who sign up for an event are put into one of three groups: A (for the “experts”; the only group allowed to tandem), B (for those on the intermediate level; the ones who are starting to get the hang of it), or C (for those who are just starting out in drifting). With sessions for each group that last roughly an hour and 30 minutes each, everyone has enough time to practice…or fix what they’ve managed to break.

SAY WHAT YOU WANT

Providing people with an avenue to learn to drift in itself is pretty unique but what I think separates Club Loose from other organizations are the personalities. The people who attend come from all walks of life. The personalities of the cars are all so different in the way they’re modified. It all reminds me a lot of the skateboarding culture of the 80’s and 90’s.

With an almost anarchistic, free-spirited aura in the air, It was difficult not to walk around the paddocks without seeing something that made me smile. The “Pabst Blue Ribbon” 240sx and the makeshift attempt at a Bimmer pickup, for example, both gave me a good laugh. Sure, they’re both freedoms of expression, but they also scream the all too familiar acronym I.D.G.A.F. And that’s the best attitude you can have when it comes to drifting. It’s an attitude I wish I embraced more when attempted to drift at a few of their events.

TURNED UP TO 11

As someone who once attempted to drift in Group C (with absolutely no prior on-track experience), I can understand and appreciate now just how challenging it all is. With that in mind, when groups B and C are on track, I’m photographing of course, but there’s also a burning sense of desire in my gut for the drivers to “get it.”

But when their sessions are over and it’s Group A’s turn to drive, the best analogy for how the atmosphere changes are that things get turned up to 11. Virtually every inch of the track is now one long, driftable run (whereas Groups B and C can choose to drive on either the front or back course). Everyone driving is either in tandem or part of a drift train and, as a photographer on track, you can’t turn without seeing drivers fully sending it. There’s a rush you get that’s not easy to explain.

In short, there are many who choose to spend their weekends clubbing. Others train for and run marathons. But if you like to let loose, party, and maybe even learn to drift, then spend some time at Club Loose…or go to hell!

Formula Drift New Jersey

Formula Drift hosted their 100th round of competition at Wall Stadium Speedway in New Jersey and it was nothing short of exciting. With Round 4 being the midway point of the eight round series, spectators and live stream viewers alike are used to the carnage that “The Gauntlet” dishes out…and there was no shortage of it this year. Even the highly consistent “Norwegian Hammer” – Frederic Aasbo – collided with Forrest Wang and sent them both into the wall. 

Fans came out in full force to be a part of Formula Drift history with the first 100 fans in line receiving a special edition key chain. With tons of other giveaways in the paddocks, including used tires, few fans left disappointed. They came to the autograph sessions in droves with fenders, dashboards…literally whatever they could get their hands on.

Of course, no round of Formula Drift can be complete without the interactions between Jarrod DeAnda and the crowd. They connect with him in a more personal way, whether it’s through their hilarious signage that he spots while announcing – see the “Deane For President shot as an example – or heeding to his calls for a giant “Wave” in The Great Eight. One spectator even managed to catch Jarrod’s eye with a sign made to sell a used BMW!

THE (NEVER ENDING?) HORSEPOWER DEBATE

As expected, there were some notable battles that took place. The Worthouse Drift Duo of James Deane and Piotr Wiecek were door-to-door in both their leads and chase runs, making everyone practically forget that they were even teammates. Another wild battle between rookie Matt Vankirk and veteran Jhonnattan Castro – a driver who’s been making noticeable strides in the last few years – resulted in Vankirk getting the win, and bringing him into the Top 16 for the second time in his career as a pro driver.

But Vankirk’s win doesn’t just improve his driver standings in the series, it also brings into question a topic of much debate: The necessity of super high-horsepower cars in Formula Drift. Do drivers like Chris Forsberg need such a technically advanced, 1000+ horsepower, twin-turbo, VQ-powered competition car that, so far, has had a slew of issues, when drivers like Vankirk can make it just as far with one of the lowest horse-powered engines in the series? Can Dean Kearney rely on a twin-turboed Viper if midway through the season he needs to use Forrest Wang’s spare car just to stay in competition? For Forsberg, a current ranking of third overall and 39 points shy of points leader James Deane suggests otherwise. What’s more is the return on investment for this new engine setup has the potential to be pretty high if Forsberg can clinch a fourth championship. 

PROGRESSION OF FORMULA DRIFT

With the competition continually getting fiercer, and battles becoming more exciting at every round, it’s difficult to ignore how Formula Drift has progressed as a whole over it’s 15 year lifespan thus far. Along with the increased amount of coverage sources, advancements in drifting journalism from the Maximum Driftcast podcast in combination with Laurette Nicoll’s improved on-site reporting has no doubt helped. Ryan Lanteigne’s explanations of the more complicated judges’ rulings definitely doesn’t hurt either.

There’s also no question that more teams in Formula Drift have had better budgets in recent years, resulting in more families on both the driver and spectator sides attending each round. Pros like Ryan Tuerck used to drive competition cars to each round by themselves with all the spares and tools they could fit in them. Now many drivers trailer their cars, and bring their family and friends with them too.

Although these are obvious statements, they are worth mentioning, not only for those who’ve only recently started following the series but also, as a benchmark for how the series will surely grow in the future. Here’s to another 15 years!