VIDEO> XDC Round 4 – Englishtown, NJ
Let me start this off by saying that it was a blast to return to the United States for a drift event this year. It’s been a solid year at LEAST (maybe a year and a bit even??!) since I’ve been in the Land of Freedom and Hotdogs, and I gotta say it was good to be back. This video covers the one Drift Posse member who was available to make it out to XDC Round 4 at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey; Pat Cyr in his F20 powered AE86 coupe, as well as the stylings of some of the top players in the Xtreme Drift Circuit today. This includes event winner Matt Waldin in the two-tone 350z, Steve Angerman in the Gardella Racing Solstice, and the series points leader Chelsea Denofa in the wicked green NST BMW E36.
The competition was fun and everything, but honestly the most exciting part for me was just being in a different country, and realizing really how different our cultures can be, even though we only live a few hours away from each other. The biggest and most obvious difference though, is food. Crossing the border into the States is kinda like crossing this line of sugar, chips, and fast food, and I love it. My first order of business once we hit a gas station across the border was to buy myself some Mountain Dew Code Red, along with some Milk Duds; with a 5th Avenue Bar for dessert (I can still feel my teeth hurting). It may surprise you, but none of these is available in Canada, and as a self-proclaimed sweets aficionado, you can imagine that I was in heavenly bliss for basically the rest of the ride to New Jersey. (more…)
COVERAGE> Drifting at Houston’s Import Reactor
For those of you who aren't familiar with Import Reactor, it is a multi-faceted automotive event that takes place in Houston, TX during Anime Matsuri - one of the biggest anime conventions in the country! It consists of three parts - a special dyno day and tuning session, a drift day, and then a show that spans the entire weekend. The atmosphere is unbelievably unique - it's definitely an experience! I was at the event all weekend covering it for MotorMavens!
One of the great things about this event was that it brought together the drift enthusiasts and the show scene here in Texas. The guys at Import Reactor had the brilliant idea to allow car show teams to sponsor a driver. Each team had a driver whose entry they paid, while the driver ran their sticker on his car. It was great to the drifters bringing their cars to the event, only to be greeted by 20+ members of the team that sponsored them - cheering them on the entire time! Read more...
One of the great things about this event was that it brought together the drift enthusiasts and the show scene here in Texas. The guys at Import Reactor had the brilliant idea to allow car show teams to sponsor a driver. Each team had a driver whose entry they paid, while the driver ran their sticker on his car. It was great to the drifters bringing their cars to the event, only to be greeted by 20+ members of the team that sponsored them - cheering them on the entire time! Read more...
COVERAGE> Remix Car Show and More XDC
It has been about a week since the newly formed Remix Events series debuted at Irwindale Speedway alongside the Xtreme Drift Circuit's first event. I'm pretty sure that after seeing the results and the feeling coming out of the first event, people in the drifting community seem to be pretty excited about the XDC Series, and I'm happy about that. It looks as if XDC is going to provide a good arena for amateur drifters to battle their way into the professional Formula D series.
Meanwhile, I'm also looking forward to seeing more from Remix. I'll be pretty honest - I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked to in the car show area looking at cars, because I was busy in the Irwindale grid area talking to and hanging out with all the grassroots drifters from miscellaneous regions of the United States while they were visiting Southern Cali. However, from what I've seen thus far at the Remix Show, I like it! The entire event had an intriguing vibe to it... for those of us "experiencing" the show for the first time, it was definitely different and fun. The first thing we noticed is that there were a hell of a lot of girls at this event - everything from high end "name brand" models to no-name "new talent." As I mentioned previously, I decidedly focused most of my attention on the drifters on the track and on the grid, but in all honesty, there were quite a few times I had to double take and say "damnnnnn" when I saw certain pieces of eye candy sweetening up the show. (This was definitely the type of show that our boy Yoshi Shindo would go bananas at, I'm not gonna lie.)
Back to the cars, I have to say that there were a lot of really impressive looking cars at the show. Everyone is stepping up their wheel game, and it's awesome! Read more...
Meanwhile, I'm also looking forward to seeing more from Remix. I'll be pretty honest - I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked to in the car show area looking at cars, because I was busy in the Irwindale grid area talking to and hanging out with all the grassroots drifters from miscellaneous regions of the United States while they were visiting Southern Cali. However, from what I've seen thus far at the Remix Show, I like it! The entire event had an intriguing vibe to it... for those of us "experiencing" the show for the first time, it was definitely different and fun. The first thing we noticed is that there were a hell of a lot of girls at this event - everything from high end "name brand" models to no-name "new talent." As I mentioned previously, I decidedly focused most of my attention on the drifters on the track and on the grid, but in all honesty, there were quite a few times I had to double take and say "damnnnnn" when I saw certain pieces of eye candy sweetening up the show. (This was definitely the type of show that our boy Yoshi Shindo would go bananas at, I'm not gonna lie.)
Back to the cars, I have to say that there were a lot of really impressive looking cars at the show. Everyone is stepping up their wheel game, and it's awesome! Read more...
COVERAGE> Xtreme Drift Circuit at Irwindale
Most people that are familiar with drifting in the United States have heard of Irwindale, California. After all, Irwindale's most famous attraction, Irwindale Speedway has been home to many major "firsts" in the drifting community. Irwindale Speedway was the venue for numerous early Drift Day events; the Video Option Ikaten on January 17th, 2003; the first Drift Showoff on March 3rd 2003; the RS-R Drift Festival on April 6, 2003; the first D1 Grand Prix event in the USA on August 31, 2003; and the first Formula D homecoming at Irwindale on August 29, 2004.
I mention these particular events because they were all milestone events for the grassroots drifting community. Since then, Irwindale has become a recognized name and a home for grassroots drifting in the West Coast. This past weekend marked the first ever XDC (Xtreme Drift Circuit) event at Irwindale. Whether or not this XDC event (or the series in general) will turn out to be a major milestone in the minds of drifters in the United States remains to be seen. However, I can tell you that I observed some re-invigoration and renewed interest in high level grassroots drifting competition from some of the drivers. Hell, if having high-skill-level grassroots drivers spend the time and effort in making the journey from most major regions of the United States (and Canada too) just to compete in this event doesn't indicate what kind of hype this new series is generating, then I don't know what will. It looks as if XDC is heading towards becoming a major force in the grassroots drifting arena.
I'll be honest - when I first heard about yet another drifting series launching this year, I kind of rolled my eyes, just like everyone else did. "Oh jeez," I thought. "Another drifting series is trying to come up and compete with Formula D again?" Well, if you observed how the whole "Nopi Drift Series" turned out, you might understand where some of the drifting community's skepticism comes from. However, when I found out that this new XDC Series was actually slated as a "feeder series" which would sharpen up the skill levels of grassroots drifters across the country and allow them to graduate into Formula D competition, I thought, "hmmm... I think this might actually work out."
The Motor Mavens Movement is all about supporting grassroots drivers and local street teams and crews from all over the world. Formula D did a good thing by empowering the local drifting organizers in different regions to hold Pro Am "driver search" events (like Vegas Pro Am and Evergreen Pro Am, etc), but what I think really boosts the level of drivers that want to graduate into the Formula D series is having the ability to compete regularly on different tracks, against different drivers from different geographical regions.
This "nationalization" and/or "globalization" of competition between the drifting community's hometown heroes is the only way grassroots drivers can really prove how good they are. However, with the level of drift car builds and big money that's required to actually run an entire Formula D season nowadays, it's nearly impossible for REAL grassroots drivers with REAL grassroots style drift cars to actually compete against the Formula D series' hundred-thousand-dollar engine builds, Nascar V8s and full race cars with silhouettes of their OEM bodies dzus-fastened onto tube frames. It saddens some people to see drifting turning into a major pro motorsport like Nascar, but it's all a natural progression, I suppose. Read more...
I mention these particular events because they were all milestone events for the grassroots drifting community. Since then, Irwindale has become a recognized name and a home for grassroots drifting in the West Coast. This past weekend marked the first ever XDC (Xtreme Drift Circuit) event at Irwindale. Whether or not this XDC event (or the series in general) will turn out to be a major milestone in the minds of drifters in the United States remains to be seen. However, I can tell you that I observed some re-invigoration and renewed interest in high level grassroots drifting competition from some of the drivers. Hell, if having high-skill-level grassroots drivers spend the time and effort in making the journey from most major regions of the United States (and Canada too) just to compete in this event doesn't indicate what kind of hype this new series is generating, then I don't know what will. It looks as if XDC is heading towards becoming a major force in the grassroots drifting arena.
I'll be honest - when I first heard about yet another drifting series launching this year, I kind of rolled my eyes, just like everyone else did. "Oh jeez," I thought. "Another drifting series is trying to come up and compete with Formula D again?" Well, if you observed how the whole "Nopi Drift Series" turned out, you might understand where some of the drifting community's skepticism comes from. However, when I found out that this new XDC Series was actually slated as a "feeder series" which would sharpen up the skill levels of grassroots drifters across the country and allow them to graduate into Formula D competition, I thought, "hmmm... I think this might actually work out."
The Motor Mavens Movement is all about supporting grassroots drivers and local street teams and crews from all over the world. Formula D did a good thing by empowering the local drifting organizers in different regions to hold Pro Am "driver search" events (like Vegas Pro Am and Evergreen Pro Am, etc), but what I think really boosts the level of drivers that want to graduate into the Formula D series is having the ability to compete regularly on different tracks, against different drivers from different geographical regions.
This "nationalization" and/or "globalization" of competition between the drifting community's hometown heroes is the only way grassroots drivers can really prove how good they are. However, with the level of drift car builds and big money that's required to actually run an entire Formula D season nowadays, it's nearly impossible for REAL grassroots drivers with REAL grassroots style drift cars to actually compete against the Formula D series' hundred-thousand-dollar engine builds, Nascar V8s and full race cars with silhouettes of their OEM bodies dzus-fastened onto tube frames. It saddens some people to see drifting turning into a major pro motorsport like Nascar, but it's all a natural progression, I suppose. Read more...
COVERAGE> Irwindale Pro Am, Part 1
It's true. I'm overdue again on posting my event coverage. This time, the coverage is from the Formula D Pro Am that took place at Irwindale Speedway this past weekend. However, I don't think it's a bad thing necessarily.
While all the other media people that attended the event (let's be honest; there weren't that many) rushed home to be the first to post photos on their websites, blogs, Twitters, and whatnot... I decided to spend time hanging out with my friends instead. I love that I was able to do this and not feel bad (this would be absolutely unacceptable behaviour if I was writing for a different website). But everyone in the Motor Mavens Crew understands. Hell, some of them were even there with me for all the non-car related stuff we did that weekend... like rolling 30+ heads deep to Dino's in Covina for some spicy grilled chicken; or taking Yoshi on a wild goose chase to meet up with some import models at a cafe in OC; or using trucks and trailers with drift cars loaded onto them to make parking difficult in the small parking lot of Flappy Jacks on Route 66, just so that Ray from Garage Autohero could get his traditional American style Sunday breakfast and complain that coffee in California sucks compared to Seattle's. LOL. Oh yeah, but somehow in between all the chillin we did with all our out of town friends that came to Pro Am, we did somehow manage to squeeze in a little bit of time to take some photos. Read more...
While all the other media people that attended the event (let's be honest; there weren't that many) rushed home to be the first to post photos on their websites, blogs, Twitters, and whatnot... I decided to spend time hanging out with my friends instead. I love that I was able to do this and not feel bad (this would be absolutely unacceptable behaviour if I was writing for a different website). But everyone in the Motor Mavens Crew understands. Hell, some of them were even there with me for all the non-car related stuff we did that weekend... like rolling 30+ heads deep to Dino's in Covina for some spicy grilled chicken; or taking Yoshi on a wild goose chase to meet up with some import models at a cafe in OC; or using trucks and trailers with drift cars loaded onto them to make parking difficult in the small parking lot of Flappy Jacks on Route 66, just so that Ray from Garage Autohero could get his traditional American style Sunday breakfast and complain that coffee in California sucks compared to Seattle's. LOL. Oh yeah, but somehow in between all the chillin we did with all our out of town friends that came to Pro Am, we did somehow manage to squeeze in a little bit of time to take some photos. Read more...
