| The History of Drifting
Background
Drifting is a high-skill, high-powered motorsport that calls for drivers to control a 200 to 600hp car while it slides sideways at high speed through a marked course. It is similar to rally racing, but is done on a closed course and judged on execution and style rather than who finishes the course fastest. Drifting takes all the thrilling moments of traditional motorsports and packs it together into non-stop competition.
History of the Sport
Drifting started in Japan approximately 15 years ago. Today, the extreme motorsport is so accepted and popular in the country, that drivers have become recognized celebrities. In time, drifting evolved into an organized series where top Japanese professional drivers compete in a series of events to determine the best drifter. Amateur drifting events take place in Europe, Australia and in the U.S.
U.S.-based drifting has been an underground sport for the last 10 years but professional drifting has only taken off in the States recently. In Fall 2003, Irvine, Calif.-based Slipstream Global Marketing brought top professional Japanese drivers to the U.S. to participate in an exhibition competition to a sell out crowd at Southern California's Irwindale Speedway. In August of that same year Slipstream Global Marketing successfully brought competitive drifting to the U.S. The success of these events caused an explosion of interest in mainstream national media and further reinforced the interest and need for a North American competition, and in November 2003 Formula Drift was founded to deliver sanctioned competitions of auto-crazed fans across North America | 
18th May 2010, 01:16
