What is Drifting?
Hollywood
movies and been made about it, most of us have heard of it, and those attending
recent race meetings at Barbagallo Raceway such as the V8 Supercars would have
seen demonstrations of it, but what exactly is drifting?
Simply put, drifting is
the art of driving as sideways as possible around a set course whilst
maintaining the speed and control of the car.
This new and street
savvy form of motor sport is the fastest growing form of competitive motorsport
in the world, made even more popular by the recent release of the movie The
Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the third instalment of the original
blockbuster The Fast and the Furious released back in 2001.
Whilst many feel that
this new motoring craze is nothing more than a mob of 'hoons' blasting around
and acting crazy, drifting is in fact a fully recognised and endorsed form of
competitive motorsport that requires immense focus, skill and dedication.
All competition battles
are run under the guidance of the Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS)
with the driver’s behaviour closely monitored at all times. Actions such as
performing burnouts during competition are strictly prohibited and general
unsporting behaviour is also penalised.
Drift battle winners are
not determined by speed or time as is the case with other forms of motor sport.
Instead, competitors put their skills on display in front of a panel of judges
who determine the best from the rest.
Competitors demonstrate
their skills in a solo qualifying performance before pitting their talents
against others in a series of one-on-one elimination battles until just one car
remains.
In general terms, the
more sideways the car is the better, but competitors must also be able to keep
the car under control. Speed, whilst an important aspect of the judging
criteria, is not an essential element to drifting as more emphasis is placed on
car control than time.
Points are deducted for
under steer and overthrow, when too much speed is lost when correcting or if the
angle is too severe and awarded for outstanding control, flair and general
touch.
In a sense, drifting is
not so much about getting out of control as it about getting as close to the
ragged edge as possible without going over. Drifting as a sport requires a lot
of skill, focus and determination to be successful.
How It All Started
Modern drifting started out as a racing technique popular in the All Japan Touring Car Championship races over 30 years ago. A motorcycling legend turned driver, Kunimitsu Takahashi, was the foremost creator of drifting techniques in the 1970's. He was famous for hitting the apex (the point where the car is closest to the inside of a turn) at high speed and then drifting through the corner, preserving a high exit speed. This earned him several championships and a legion of fans who enjoyed the spectacle of burning tires.
The relatively low grip of even the best racing tires of the 1960s and 1970s lent themselves to driving styles with a high slip angle. As professional racers in Japan drove this way, so did the street racers.
A street racer named Keiichi Tsuchiya became particularly interested by Takahashi's drift techniques. Tsuchiya began practicing his drifting skills on the mountain roads of Japan, and quickly gained a reputation amongst the racing crowd. In 1977, several popular car magazines and tuning garages agreed to produce a video of Tsuchiya's drifting skills. The video, known as Pluspy, became a hit and inspired many of the professional drifting drivers on the circuits today. In 1988, alongside Option magazine founder and chief editor Daijiro Inada, he would help to organise one of the first events specifically for drifting.
How An Event Works?
A drift event consists of two distinct sections, a qualifying session and the
battles or elimination rounds. Both the qualifying session and battles are
judged but using different sets of criteria and scoring.
For qualifying, each
competitor is given two laps, in front of the judging panel to display their
skills. The judging process is similar to that used in sports such as diving and
gymnastics where points are given for technical aspects including speed and line
but marks are also awarded for personal style and touch.
The most important
aspect though is the angle on which the car is driven otherwise known as 'yaw' .
Yaw is term commonly
used in sailing which literally means to deviate from a straight course, or to
move unsteadily on a zigzag course. When you think about it, there really
couldn’t be a better word to describe what drifting is all about!
After each competitor
has completed their two qualifying runs, each judge awards a score out of ten
which are averaged. The scores are then ranked from highest to lowest and the
top 16 (or 32) competitors advance to the battle stage.
Drift battles on the
other hand consist of two cars going head to head on the circuit and attempt to
'out drift' each other.
Each battle consists of
two laps, and competitors take turns being the leader and the chaser. During a
battle, the leader takes the front position and will drift as hard as possible
whilst the chase car attempts to copy or out do their performance. At the end of
the first lap, the competitors swap places so the leader becomes the chaser and
vice versa.
The judges will award
three points for each drift battle, one based on speed, one for line and one for
angle or yaw. Each judge allocates a point from each criteria to either the
leader or the chaser according to who they believe performed the best.
At the end of a battle,
the panel of three judges compare scores and a winner is chosen to move onto the
next round. The loser is eliminated. In the case of a draw, the battle is re-run
until a clear winner is decided.
Alternatively, a chaser
may also win a battle by overtaking the leader, but this can only be done whilst
both cars are displaying a significant amount of yaw or angle. Such a move
immediately awards the win to the chase car and the leader is eliminated.
The Cars
Whilst drifting is more synonymous with turbo-charged Japanese imports than
other manufacturers, mostly due to it’s origins in Japan, it is not essential to
have a
Nissan Skyline or Toyota Sprinter to be competitive.
Ken Jaffey from
Hyperdrive Motorsport says that any rear-wheeled driver car is capable of being
a competitive drift car.
"The most important
thing is the power to weight ratio, a larger car would simply need more power to
be competitive"
"However a good driver
will be able to perform well in any car", he said.
This point was none more
proved at the last round of the 2006 Toyo Drift Australia Series in Queensland
where Robbie Bolger piloted a 900hp Holden Monaro to victory ahead of the Toyota
Sprinter of Leighton Fine and Nissan Silvia of Danny Vahoumis. Bolger currently
sits second in series, 148 points behind Fine.
Most of the cars
currently competing in WA are imports with the Nissan Silvia and Skyline the top
pick, but new competitors with any form of rear-wheel drive car are always
welcome.
-Emma Costello
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