It was spectacular. The car was totally sideways with smoke billowing off the tires while they whined in vain from the abuse of turns three and four of Irwindale’s oval sanctity of speed. The engine was screaming with the cheeecheeecheeechew of the turbo whistling as the driver modulated the loud pedal. The car - a furious flash of sight, smell and sound - slithered back and forth like a snake along the black ribbon of asphalt as it neared the concrete wall by the judge’s stand and then roared past me in an instant. Just like that, it was gone and it was time for the next competitor.
The first time that drifting came to Irwindale, they had to turn people away because the speedway was already overflowing with over 10,000 fans compared to about half that for a typical oval show. When I was at Irwindale Speedway in April, track communications director Doug Stokes handed me a photograph of the main grandstand there and asked me point blank “What’s wrong with this picture?” I was looking at it and thinking nothing because the grandstand was filled. I said “I don’t know.” He said, “Look at it – there aren’t any aisles in the grandstand.” Sure enough, there were so many people up there they had not only taken every seat but also filled every remaining aisle spot!
From basically an underground phenomenon now reaching out into the mainstream, drifting has come a long way in a short amount of time here. The 2004 Formula D national championship was a four event series this year sanctioned by SCCA Pro Racing. I attended the final round at Irwindale Speedway on August 29th and came away from my “initiation” totally impressed. Drifting to me is sort of like a combination of every incredible save on the track you’ve ever seen or experienced and Zanardi doughnuts rolled into one.
It’s funny now to think how racers tend to complain about a loose car on ovals and that “it’s undriveable.” Well heck, that’s the point in professional drifting – getting sideways and loving it! The SoPac region isn’t far removed from this scene boasting San Diego region’s Joe Jordan and Cal Club pro driver Ryan Hampton among the locals spotted at this event.
Jordan’s driver Scott Bradley competes in both the SCCA World Challenge Touring Car series (Mazda Protégé) as well as the Formula D series (Mazdaspeed Miata). I spent some time with Jordan and he had this to say about the craze known as drifting. “Drifting’s totally different ‘cause you have to unlearn a lot of things you do on the road course. The way we see it, this is the transition from getting kids from drag racing to road racing. This is like the middle ground, the middle step. This is what gets ‘em hooked. This is what gets ‘em excited and with Circuit City they want to be a part of what the kids like so we combine our World Challenge effort with our Drift effort to try to reach the young market and to grow it and to try and introduce them to road racing. This is really why we’re here and what we’re all about.”
Jordan continued, “It’s a lifestyle event. The age group is probably 16-35 and it’s all about having fun, enjoying their cars, enjoying making their cars personalized to their personality and to really be part of something. The crowd here is so enthusiastic. They cheer when they see the car. They come up and they get so excited they actually get to talk to the drivers. They get to talk to the guys that work on the cars. They’re just really into it.”
When asked about the difference between the drift Miata and a spec Miata, Jordan said, “The biggest thing is that you stiffen the heck out of it. It’s about 40 percent stiffer in the rear than a spec Miata would be. You need a ton of power it’s got a turbo motor in it and about 320 to the wheels and we’re still shy on horsepower. We feel that to be competitive we’re gonna’ need about 400 horsepower on a 2,000 pound car.”
Hampton described it this way, “It’s a lot of fun. It’s a much different mentality than racing is – it’s more showmanship than anything else. Once you start doing it it’s very, very addicting. The biggest thing about drifting is making the biggest impact on the crowd. Then take everything you learned in road racing and do it wrong.”
Although this event was won by Rhys Millen in his factory backed Pontiac GTO, the runner-up at this event and winner of the first three rounds and the championship was Samuel Hubinette of Sweden in a factory backed Mopar Dodge Viper competition coupe.
Hubinette comes from the European touring car wars and has brought his own unique style to drifting. He enthusiastically said, “I’m stoked to be a driver for Mopar. It’s been an awesome experience to be a factory driver. Thanks to Sparco, Yokohama, Oakley, Nuformz Racing, Lateral G Racing and especially Mopar I’m able to do this.”
His Viper has only minor modifications from the factory including a softer suspension, a steering angle increased from 30 – 45 degrees, and Yokohama AVS Sport tires (275/35/18 up front and 295/30/19 in the rear). Hubinette’s Dodge puts out 525 horsepower and weighs in at 2995 pounds.
In agreement with both Jordan and Hampton on the driving technique compared to road racing, Hubinette says “It’s like black and white. It’s totally opposite. In racing you want to be smooth. In drifting you want to keep the speed but also have a big angle. You have to have a good feel for the car – car control. You have to commit fully. Put the full throttle and get it sideways even though it feels wrong. If you let off and get a big understeer you could be in the wall. You need a lot of track time.”
As far as the challenge of the Irwindale Speedway poses, Hubinette summed it up by saying “It’s the fastest track out there – about 100mph in 3rd gear. It gets intimidating flicking the car towards the wall at the judge’s stand and then flicking it back. You need to get a good flick otherwise you crash the car which is a bit of a bummer. Americans seem to like the action. It’s totally my favorite drift track so far.”
He’s not the only one favoring the speedway judging by the huge crowd that showed up. Irwindale was the host of the first D1 Grand Prix championship event held outside of Japan earlier this year in March and will be returning for a two-weekend show in early December. The first weekend will be the D1 driver’s search and the second weekend will have all the top Japanese, European, and American drifters in a wild shootout for the number one spot. As they always say, “Be there!”
Nissan’s 350Z is one of the more popular drift cars readily available.
Photo courtesy
of Gary Adkins.
Samuel Hubinette celebrates his championship in a normal fashion for drifters.
Photo courtesy of Gary Adkins.
You have it made in the shade when you meet the umbrella girls!
Photo courtesy of
Larry Mason.
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