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.