Between the Posts
Blog Posts in between the Main Blog Posts about the Behind the Scenes of our day to day life and our life in Drifting
*Plus Some Unanswered Questions About our 2013 Program*
What you may not know about Formula Drift
Formula Drift is a motorsport that is judged, except for the speed score, therefore, the judging being subjective leaves a lot of people wondering what's 'really going on' when it comes to wins/ loses, and general scoring. I see a lot of people commenting on forums, FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc on how "He got robbed" and "He killed it, I can't believe it. What are the judges thinking?!" For all it's worth, maybe that driver 'got robbed,' but maybe there are some things that everyone doesn't know which leads people into thinking that driver truly 'got robbed.'
I'll Explain….
Unless you go to a Drivers Meetings, or you CURRENTLY drive at EVERY round of Formula Drift, you don't really know what the judges are looking for and what the drivers must do in order to receive the maximum points for their runs. Before and after each Formula Drift event, there are these things called 'Drivers Meeting' where all of the drivers that are driving at that event along with the driver's spotter attend to understand what the judges want to see in order to gain all the points you can from that judge. Formula Drift rules change all the time. Sometimes a new rule comes out or a rule changes during an event. Just because you drove at 1 event or even if you drove at every event last year doesn't mean the driving criteria is still the same. Most likely it has changed.
During a Drivers Meeting, each of the 3 judges are going to tell you what they are specifically looking for as far as; Line, Angle, and Style.
Here are some of the things they will say (just some!)
-Which line to take throughout the course
-Where they want to see you run wide
-Where the clipping points are placed
-Where the re-start cone is placed (if applicable)
-Where the course markers are placed
-Where they want to see you throw a lot of angle
-What they don't want to see (they tell us in detail)
-What area of the course speed is counted (aka Speed Zone)
-What's the median speed is for the Speed Zone
-ETC.
Now without going through the whole explanation of Formula Drift and how it works and every little update, there are mistakes that drivers make that see that are commonly not recognized by average specter and general things you they might not know because they don't regularly attend Drivers Meetings. Watching from the grandstands or through DriftStream, you may have an idea and overall understand on how drifting works, but no driver, spotter, or spectator are mind-readers. That's why Formula Drift has Driver Meetings. So give us some credit, we all know what we're doing…half of the time (; Below are some, not all just some things that you might not know about Formula Drift and some things that may appear to be an incorrect call by the judges, when in reality, you just didn't know any better…until now.
If you aren't driving 5mph faster than the median speed during the time you are driving through the 'speed zone,' you're not going to receive the maximum speed points possible. Watching from the grandstands or DriftSteam, you may not see what speed the speed gun is reading, or you may not know where the speed zone is located (it's 2 cones and they can be easily be mistaken for just regular cones), you probably don't know what the 'median speed' is granted they change per event, and possibly you didn't know that speed is even a criteria used in drifting.
2) What Line, Angle, and Style Judges are looking for and where the majority of the points are counted
In the Drivers Meeting, the judges individually give a you a breakdown of where the places on the track the points are counted and how many points each place on the track is worth.
Example;
-The Angle Judge may say he is dedicating 15 out of 30 Angle points to the track's bank and wants to see the drivers throw a lot of angle there. (Side note: As a spotter, you will need to be the eyes outside the car and radio to your driver to throw more angle if you see he isn't throwing enough angle where the judges said they want to see it thrown)
-The Line judge may say he is dedicating 15 out of 25 Line points to the bank as well and he wants to see you run as wide as you can along the bank. (Side note: As a spotter, you will need to radio your driver if he is driving under/ higher than the line he should driving on)
-The Style Judge may say he is dedicating 20 out of 30 Style points to your transfer into the bank and wants to see you to make a snappy transfer leading into the bank. (Side note: As a spotter, you will need to radio your driver if he is making a slower and wider transfer than you feel the judges want to see.)
So if you do those 3 things exactly how the judges said they want to see it being done, you already have 50 points from that one part of the track alone. If the median speed score is 50mph through the speed zone and you do 55mph, then you get your full 10 points for speed which brings you up to 60 points from those things alone. *Please note the Line and Angle judge also have 5 points each counted towards Style but I'm not about to get into that. This post is long enough (:
This is something we have been a victim with in the past and is a huge reason of why we don't run an SR anymore. For everyone who loves SR's as much as we do, please understand, yes it's 'cool' and 'JDM' to run an SR but it's not 'cool' to struggle to be able to make it past qualifying because we can't keep up or worse not qualify because we can't make the speed score at every event. And it's really not cool to blow head gaskets and have an unreliable motor because it's simply not meant to make the amount of HP that is needed to be competitive. This is Formula Drift Pro, not ProAm. The competition is fierce. That's why you see amazing drivers in ProAm and amazing drivers in various Pro series in other countries that come here to compete in Formula Drift and end up struggling. It's a whole different ball game. You most definitely need your big boy pants and big boy motors to be competitive.
Over the years I've heard hundreds of people complaining that a driver had an advantage over another driver because one had less HP and they felt it wasn't fair to the lower HP driver. Look, that driver with lower HP is a Pro, and knew what he was getting himself into and the competition he would be facing. You don't see Nascar drivers complaining about not having enough HP nor would you see a Nascar driver bring a Formula Drift car to compete in Nascar. You bring the right tools and drive the right car setup in order to be competitive or I'm sorry, it's your own fault. If you don't have what you need to be competitive then you need to find ways to get the budget to get you what you need.
Alternatively you can push Formula Drift to change into being a spec'd series like most other motorsports. The only thing is, Formula Drift drivers are usually not rolling around in money. Drivers come to the events with various cars and whatever they can afford under the hood. The amount of money every driver would need in order to drive in a spec'd series aka you can only drive A, B, and C cars with A, B, and C motors and transmissions, and cannot modify anything unless permitted to do so would be a lot more than the average drifter can afford. Sure the judging may be less subjective since it would be a fair playing field for everyone and let the best driver not car win, but a lot fewer drivers would be able to compete because of the budget it would require. Besides, a 5 million dollar car won't make a terrible driver win anyways so let's all stop complaining about who has what and who has an advantage. Unless we have a FD judge suit on, no one is listening to us anyways (:
4) Lead Car/ Chase Car. What Just Looks Cool and What Does and Doesn't Count for Points
Earlier I mentioned that a Chase car is to treat the Lead car as a moving clipping point, so within reason, the Chase car is to 'mirror' the Lead car. Obviously if the Lead car goes into the wall, you are not required to do the same, but if the Lead car runs a shallow line and poor angle, so do you.
As a Chase car, your front wheels should never surpass the Lead car's front wheels in other words, the Chase car's front wheels should never be in front of the Lead car's front wheels. The Chase car should be following the same line as the Lead car as well, meaning he shouldn't be on a lower line either. The main objective for a Chase car is to be wheel to wheel, as close as he can get to the Lead car during tandem. He can even rub up against him as long as the Chase car doesn't disturb the Lead cars drift. So watch them wheels!
As a Chase car, your front wheels should never surpass the Lead car's front wheels in other words, the Chase car's front wheels should never be in front of the Lead car's front wheels. The Chase car should be following the same line as the Lead car as well, meaning he shouldn't be on a lower line either. The main objective for a Chase car is to be wheel to wheel, as close as he can get to the Lead car during tandem. He can even rub up against him as long as the Chase car doesn't disturb the Lead cars drift. So watch them wheels!
But what if the Lead car does a terrible run and the Chase car does a great run with more angle, better line, and overall better style? Well, it doesn't count because he's not the Lead car nor is he mirror the Lead car's run. So before you start saying the Chase car's run was better than the Lead, remember that his job is to chase, not to Lead. And before you point fingers at the Chase car stating he had poor angle, and ran really shallow, make sure he wasn't just following the Lead car's run. Moral of story: The Chase car's job to be nothing but a Chase car.
5) Excessive E-Brake, Dropping Tires Off-Course, Constantly Hitting/ Bouncing off Rev Limiter
We all know that spinning out, straightening out, hood or hatch flying open are all counted as automatic zero's and corrections are counted as deductions.
But the 3 things that you may not know is if a driver uses the e-brake excessively, is consistently bouncing off the rev-limiter, or if he drops 1 tire off-course, he will receive a deduction.
The one deduction that can turn into an automatic zero? Dropping Tires. If a driver drops only 1 tires once throughout his run it is a deduction, but is he drops more than 1 tire at any given time, or if he drops 1 tire two or more times during his run, he will receive an automatic zero on his qualifying, lead, or chase run.
What You May Not Know About Me…
The part I play in Walker's program is I hold an umbrella and smile…Ok, just kidding (: The parts I play in Walker's program is I manage Walker in addition to manage Walker's Formula Drift program. I create his proposals, keep up with sponsors, personal relations, negotiate with existing and potential sponsors, to some degree oversee and make decisions about what we run in the car and what we need to change in order to make us successful. Of course I did not single handedly build his FD car from ground up but if there are specific things that prevent us from being the next champion I make sure it gets handled. Kouki front, yes, Walker liked the idea, but he loves the pop-up headlights. From a sponsors point of view, the pop-up mean one thing…old car, therefore, this was something I knew we had to change. Walker is on one end, and sometimes the sponsors are at the other. I am the mediator between. Sponsors want a traditional racer livery, Walker wants purple (ok I wanted purple too) but again, in order to be successful and keep sponsors happy, unfortunately that had to change. Same thing with the motor. We needed to stay competitive. And for the record I knew we needed more HP and torque, but I didn't choose the LS7. That was Walker's decision going into his 2012 season and it worked out very well. A lot of traditional American Domestic sponsors would have never sponsored us if we didn't run an American motor. There's a method behind our madness. We just don't roll out of bed with an idea and run with it. <-Did you get that lame joke?! Run as in, run in the car.
I am also Walker's spotter and part of spotting is not only telling your driver where they need to put their car, where to add more angle, and when they need to transfer, but you are also telling your driver that in order to make it through the hairpin and not overshoot the clipping point, throw more angle as you transfer into the hairpin to help slow you down. Basically telling them what they need to do and how to go about doing it.
Spotter 101
As a general rule, a spotter should always tell the driver how to correct what he is doing wrong. Although drivers usually know what they are doing wrong, they're focusing on getting down the track and they have a lot going through their heads. Courses change and sometimes you're driving at the same track as the year before but they moved the course around so now you have to get this new layout down. Rules also change in between rounds and so does the criteria of what the judges are looking for. If a driver doesn't know what he's doing wrong, then he's not going to know how to fix it. In Formula Drift, the driver's don't have time to sit and watch videos of their own practice runs, and that's when we, spotters, come into play. A spotter almost doubles as a coach and the driver the game plan he needs so he can focus on perfecting his runs.
That being said, if the driver is throwing weak angle while driving along a bank, a spotter would tell their driver to speed up when approaching the bank so he can throw more angle as he 'rides' the bank. Naturally, throwing more angle will decrease your speed. To be able to throw more angle while driving along a bank, you will need more speed approaching into the bank in order to extend your line and drive high along the bank. If you initiate slow into a bank and throw a lot of angle it will slow you down, which may prevent you from being able to extend your line. You may have to shallow up on the bank, use less angle halfway through, or make a correction to gain speed.
Why Drivers Change Tire Brands
2 Years Ago
Chris Forsberg changed from Maxxis to Hankook
Last Year
Ryan Tuerck change from Nitto to Maxxis
Odi changed from Falken to Nexen
Ryan Kado changed from Falken to Nexen
This Year
Pat Mordaunt changed from Falken to Yokohama
Mike Essa changed from Nitto to Yokohama
There's a lot of drivers who have changed tire brands that I have left out. Point being said, drivers change tire brands according to what the sponsor has to offer and what tires work the best with their car's setup. I think it's funny that everyone thinks that something super secretive and horrible that happened between us and Falken. Vaughn Gittin Jr ran Falken Tires for I think 9+ years and switched this year to Nitto, yet I feel more people are wondering why we changed. Sort of Ironic. So officially to cleanup the conspiracies, nothing happened. We, like everyone else, went with what made the most sense for our program. Both Walker and I are still extremely close to everyone at Falken Tire. In fact, Walker and I were friends with people at Falken before him and I were ever together so to think that we had a falling out is silly! We appreciate everything Falken Tire has done for us and cherish the relationships we STILL have with one of them. Both Falken and Achilles are like family to us and we love them both. They both make great product, but at this moment in time, Achilles Radial manufactures amazing tires that work perfect with our new current setup and horsepower.
We, just everyone else appreciate and love the crazy amount of smoke they give off as well (:
Drivers Get Mad at the Other Driver Who Beats Them and The Judges For the Call They Made
Not necessarily
1) Even if the driver doesn't agree right away with the call, most of the times when they see the re-play they understand why that call was made. Like I said, we go to the Drivers Meeting and we all know what the judges are looking for so it's more like although they were wishful thinking they would have moved on to the next round, they understand why they didn't.
2) Most all of the drivers not only know one another, but spend so much time together and that everyone become friends. Same go with the judges, and everyone else on every team. We all spend a lot of time with each other and are all very supportive and happy for each other when any of us do well. At the end of the day, we still help one another out and are there for one another when one needs it. Spotters also spend a decent amount of time with the judges and the judges are always there to clarify anything that we feel is questionable in order for us to tell our driver exactly what they need to do to be successful. We all work together!
3) In Formula Drift, we all share the same passion and are there for the same reason. Everyone has a lot in common and are the only ones who truly understand each other's struggles and lifestyle. Not only the drivers, but every person from each team as well as all of the Formula Drift staff. What most people don't know is even most of the judges use to be drivers, so yes, even they understand what it's like to be in the same situations of having car issues, deadlines, passing tech, and having a drive to win. So in all, making enemies with other teams, drivers, or the Formula Drift staff would only be hurting yourself because at one point or another, you need others help and support, no matter who you are. We're all one big family and just like family, we spend way too much time together to hold grudges and to not be anything but genuinely happy to see another driver do well, even if that driver isn't you.
