In February, I went out to California for the D1 Grand Prix drifting event at Irwindale Speedway. Besides generating some fly footage for an MTV documentary, the trip convinced me that it's time for WORLD Racing to once again expand. In short, I'm going drifting.
I figure anyone who grew up on the East Coast sliding around frozen parking lots in high-horsepower, rear-drive cars with bald tires has an edge when it comes to drifting, so why not take advantage of it? I've been training to go drifting my entire life.
At this point, I think it's impossible to ignore the drifting phenomenon. At Irwindale, the grandstands were packed with something like 12,000 spectators and I don't think any of them left until the last car slid through the last corner and the last wisp of tire smoke wafted away. Much of the crowd was rowdy and only grew rowdier through every round of head-to-head competition. But beyond that there seemed to be a huge portion of the spectators who were having what were nearly religious experiences-drifting, they were realizing, is something they'll love the rest of their lives. The vibe in the crowd was nothing less than electric.
The day before the actual D1 event, the organizers had a press day at the speedway and I was lucky enough to ride along with one of the drifters from Japan. I'm not quite sure if it was Nobuteru Taniguchi or Kazuhiro Tanaka, but it was in an orange, right-hand-drive Silvia. Watching whoever it was didn't leave me awe-struck. There's no mystery to drifting, just solid techniques; it's basically the same stuff I've been doing to showoff since I was in high school. I'm not saying there's no talent involved, but I think the only advantage the Japanese guys have over us is that they've been doing this longer in an organized fashion. Give me some time on the track to practice and I'm sure I can be competitive in Drift Show-Off events.
Toyota Motor Sales (TMS) has already committed to backing us in the Drift Show-Off with a new Tacoma X-Runner pickup. The truck should be here in July and we've already got some-let's just say interesting-ideas to take the drifting vehicle preparation to another level.
In fact, as much as I enjoyed the D1 event, if there's one area where I think we can improve the sport, it's in appearance. A lot of the cars at D1 looked pretty ghetto; they were beat up and looked it. If there's one thing about us Americans, it's that we like our cars shiny, clean and sweetly detailed. Our truck will bespeak professionalism, from contact patch to the black paint on the roof. Our team will have a great-looking transporter, uniforms that match, and an aggressively friendly attitude in the pits. Way too many of the guys at D1 seemed surly to the fans; like they'd rather slump over in a lawn chair and inhale Marlboro Reds than shake hands, sign autographs or even listen to questions. Now, I understand a lot of the guys there didn't speak English, but that's no excuse for not representing yourself, your team and your sponsors well.
Because we're going drifting doesn't mean we're giving up drag racing. If there are any conflicting drag and drifting dates, we will, on a case-by-case basis, determine what's best for WORLD Racing and its business partners and proceed accordingly. Despite the NHRA's obstructionism, construction on our radical new Celica continues and it will absolutely shatter the competition at every event any sanctioning body let us in. And we plan on winning both drag racing and drifting events.
WORLD Racing is first and foremost a business. Drifting is big, it's only going to get bigger and letting the opportunity to be part of it pass us by would have been irresponsible. Drifting will help us expand as a motorsports team, as a marketing company, and as an engineering and product development firm. Our future gets brighter every day.