Hrmmmm, where to start......

Well DDay7, I dont think anyone got 15 runs except maybe Rob Fleming, Tony Schulz and Bill Sherman.

I seriously want to hear from regular registered drivers who got 15 laps, I know the people I talked to got 7-8.

That works out to $11 or more per lap, and in my opinion that IS unacceptable, but I think that drift events DO NOT need to be less expensive.

I don't know the exact agreement for Ocala Gran Prix, but if it's possible the events should be run a LOT later, it has lights, I've driven by it on I-75 at night and I see them blazing. Mike Ranlet is a very capable person and I expect that he will do his absolute best to make DGT@OGP better and better.

But lets get into some numbers.

Sebring:
$12,000 per day not including corner workers, insurance or EMT's, and I don't remember if this includes the skidpad or not.

Sebring half track:
IIRC $6500 per day (when we went there we were interested in the whole track) plus insurance, corner workers and EMT's

Sebring skidpad:
(large and has sprinklers if we want to use them)
The skidpad costs $2,000 by itself, before insurance and EMT's

OGP:
Mike, you said OGP is $1350+600 ?? I just want to list some prices here so people really understand, please correct me if that price is not accurate. From my experience $1350 seems very reasonable considering OGP provides a few track workers too.

Orlando Speedworld:
Here is a price breakdown from this past sunday:
Track- $1500
Insurance- $600
EMT- $360 (2 EMT's x $15 per hour x 12 hours)

So $2460, not including track workers, track vehicle fuel, drinks for drivers flying in an M.C. from California, and buying/printing media passes, wristbands, gas to get to the track, plus a dozen other things I'm forgetting right now.

We had 14 drivers register, 3 of them were Ter-Tech sponsored drivers so their registration was paid for by Ter-Tech, meaning we got $1,100 from drivers registration.

That's $1,360 in the hole before spectators. No one has told me the number of spectators yet, but I'm sure we had 136 or more to cover our losses.

But if you want events run the way Evan/Funk said , then we would charge enough to cover our costs. We usually have about 10 track workers, and lets really lowball it here and pay them $7/hour each, thats $84 per worker(12 hours), $840 total.

So now we are at $3300, and we are still eating probably $1,000 in costs

If we get 40 drivers, that's $82.50 per driver, and we are still operating at a significant loss.


Anyone who bitches about the cost of events seriously doesn't have a freakin' clue.

I have an idea for anyone who wants lower costs:
Organize your own events or build your own track

He's thanking the people who have given him a place to practice and get better. Grow up Evan.


__________________________________________________ ____________________________

Now for my ideas for improving drifting:

#1- Lower insurance costs.

How do we do this you ask? Well as far as I know there are 2 major insurance companies underwriting drifting in the USA. I don't recall their names, but from what I recall one of them has a number of the major players in the US including DriftAssociation, DGTrials, NASA, DriftShowoff and others.

Drifting is classified as the highest risk motorsport in this country. (yes above any stock car racing, outlaws, sprints, karts, superbikes, Indycars, demolition derby, schoolbus figure-8 'racing', crash-o-rama's, dirtbike jumping, and even motorcycle demolition derby [amazing that exists isnt it?])

This is honestly RIDICULOUS! Average speeds in drifting are nothing compared to roadracing or most circle track races. The intent of drifting is not to damage cars such as demolition derby. The safety requirements of most drift sanctioning bodies and/or series' are quite stringent. The participant injury rate in drifting's history is VERY low, and the mortality rate as far as I know is ZERO or very near it.

My point in this? The major drifting organizers of drift practices/comps in the U.S need to use their weight together and demand lower insurance rates based on the near spotless record of drifting, or else find another insurer who would like to make extra money and agree to give us reasonable rates.

An interesting sidenote in this is that Erik Jacobs apparently agrees that drifting is more dangerous than figure-8 racing since he called the insurance company for the Hialeah track and specifically reported to them that Ter-Tech was operating under the tracks insurance and running drift practices. His goal evidently was to put one of his competitors out of business but he didn't realize that Hialeah's insurance covered any on-track motorsport that the track owner authorized (Hialeah is another place that did figure-8 bus races), the insurance ESPECIALLY covered events where only one car is on track at a time. I guess Erik didn't realize that greed and spite in the long run just hurt everyone involved. I mention this because I personally take issue with his actions and question the motivation behind them, why not be decent about it and come straight to the source?



Improvement #2-More seat time/tracktime/multi-car drifting

This sort of goes hand in hand with lowering insurance costs. We need to present drifting properly and professionally to insurance companies and track ownersand if we do this, then maybe we can finally run something like they do in Japan or "Sogokai" style and I think everyone wants this.

It's basically hot lapping with about 5-10 cars on track per session, each session getting longer throughout the day.

This is great for advanced class drivers and can work for even novice class drivers with more spacing and a mandatory advanced class passenger to give instruction and make sure there are no on-track problems (novice class driver will be more occupied with control the car and learning the track, so the instructor will be there to help/instruct and to keep an eye out for cars spinning ahead). Also this would involve instant track expulsion if a driver intentionally disobeys an instructor.

These improvements stand to make drifting better for spectators, more attractive to novice drivers and advanced, more professional, and get more seat time for every single participant, and have less track dead time.


Everyone please feel free to post or PM me with your questions, comments, feedback, suggestions, additions and ideas on this post.

Thanks for anyone who took the time to read though all this.
My opinions do NOT represent the opinion of anyone other than ME,

-Sean Love
(sponsored Ter-Tech driver, not employee/owner)