okay erik, i respect you and what you do, but i dont think you have any right at all to bash US drift.. no offense chief, but you almost sound like tony calling other people your competitors. the guys who run it are good people, and have been into motorsports for a long time now, not just some corporation exploiting drift and milking the cash cow. i was doing promotion for them here in orlando for a short time, not that long before they cut most of the events out, and although im pissed they canceled so many events, its wrong of you to misinterpret everything that went down.


usdrift canceled all but a few of the events (yes, they still run them, there was an event last week in cloverleaf with plenty of participants) in this years lineup, not because of the lack of funds or participants (who wouldnt want to go to ocala grand prix, that track was bad ass, anyone who likes primus would rock out there...) but because things just began to fall through. the ownership of the ocala venue changed hands, and the new owner did not approve of the competition and what it would bring to the track. in keeping with this, usdrift didnt believe there would be an ample amount of spectators or competitors to even cover the cost of the event, and you know this just as well as they did, you have to face the music when youre running events all over the country. going over budget at most of them isnt going to help anything. it was exactly like this with many of the events, they believed it would be a wasted venture that would put them in the hole. sure, the sport would be more well known, but the circuit wouldnt last the next year to keep it rolling. i keep in touch with the coordinators, mike deford and chris cobetto, and they plan on bringing events next year, when they feel the sport has gotten more well known and familiar, the cost of the events will easily be covered.

sponsorship issues: isnt dg trials working in conjunction with secret services? thats not a sponsorship?

the usdrift series was going to be a lot of good events, a lexus-backed factory team, drift schools, open practice time, and finally a competition... i was planning on going, as were the majority of the people i had passed out the flyers to, until everything went to shit before i even heard about it.


im not defending usdrift because they asked me to, but because i know the people who run it and how a lot of this happened. theyre good people who, like you, were looking out for the future of the sport, and trying not to run it into the ground before the country was ready for it. if only they knew, right?

find out for yourself, www.driftcentral.com . thats their forum.

 

I think they are promoters not sponcers

 

Secret Services is not a sponsor to DG Trials...we work in conjunction with each other. We actually contacted Eric to help us run drift events in FL because he had the experience of running successful events up north.

A lot of this rambling is very unnecessary to most of us and i think needs to be between event promoters and shouldnt be openly discussed. By having these open discussions you are only creating more drama.

 

okay that didnt have any sarcastic connotation, i was seriously just wondering because erik was talking about how dg trials doesnt care about sponsors, didnt mean to come off like an ass, i just didnt know what the deal was.

as for the rest of it, it does include us, i think as part of it all. it all affects us and people will always have their opinions.

 

Wow this thread is getting to be too much to read, you bastards need to get a job for typing or something


bah, way to much to keep up with now.

 

All of this venting due to the fact that someone simply said...I had fun drifting....

 

seriously...

 

You know, I thought I had posted a response, but I guess I didn't.

Maybe I was harsh on my commentary of US Drift. Yes, their recent events are going well, despite some initial hangups, and I'm happy for that. However, they fell victim to the cart-before-the-horse trap that most drifting groups are falling into. They made big promises, got big relationships, and when it turned out that reality wasn't candy all the way through, the coating quickly wore off and the icky stuff inside got revealed.

SS does not "sponsor" DGTrials -- we have not received a penny from them. They help us out with running our events and I give them credit for it. They also help us out with some of our staff demo cars, and they were kind enough to literally shut down the shop to get my car rebuilt for Formula D. It's more of a handwashing relationship than anything else right now.

 

I dont wanna know WHY you are washing your hands.... ROFL

Just had to throw some gutter humor in here

 

right on.

its just that it sparked a little bit of controversy... more conversation than anything. besides, maybe these are the growing pains of the sport? part of the progression i guess, where opposing ideals meet, and personal fundamentals finally show their differences. i dont think anyones making arch-enemies here, just talking it out really.