|
After 4 long weeks
between events, the Drift Session once again opened its gates for
the start of the 2004 season at Hawaii Raceway Park. While the track
was still being set up for the day, cars began rumbling into the
Drift Session driveway and lining the side of the road, waiting to
get into the track.
As the main gates
opened at 9am, a flood of drivers and spectators entered the track
and got right down to business setting up their own pit areas and
prepping their vehicles for a hard day of drifting. Multiple sets of
wheels and tires were abound, as drifters are starting to prepare
for their anticipated tire use.
After a short
drivers' meeting at 9:30am, two sides of the track were opened up
for use: the Road Course set of multiple turns and a skid pad on the
front of the track and the U-Turn straightaway on the back side of
the track. Veterans and beginners alike were all in the mix today,
as they took to the track in turn to refine their drifting skill. Surprisingly,
there was a decent amount of FWD drifters on the track today,
proving once again that anything with wheels (and somethings
without) can be drifted.
At 1pm, more
experienced drifters proceeded down to the U-Turn straightaway for
round one of the 2004 Drift Championship points series. In order to
make things a little interesting, competition was brought back to
our smaller Drift Session events, allowing drivers to see exactly
how they stack up against each other.
The rules were
simple: a $5 buy in allows you to perform 1 run at the U-Turn,
winner gets the pot. 15 drivers chose to enter this competition and
they moved back the starting line so that they could reach 3rd gear
by the U-Turn.
As the competition
was judged, we could see the various strengths and weaknesses of the
different drivers out there. The "one run" format doesn't
allow for any mistakes which allows every competition to be up for
grabs. And, as part of the series, we'll be working with our drivers
to help them increase their scores and perfect their drifting.
At the end of the
competition it was Barry Wong in his 240sx that took home the cash
pot and the most series points. In second and third place were Ross
Petty and Steve Oliberos, respectively.
Another special guest
at this month's Drift Session was Akira Saiki from Judgeez in
Yokohama, Japan. Akira is busy studying Hawaii's drifting scene with
hopes of bringing down some of his fellow drivers from Japan to
compete with the Hawaii drivers.
On an interesting
note, Akira says that he really likes the Hawaii drifters and their
attitudes towards the sport. He's amazed that people out here are
drifting as good as they are, because their vehicles are so
underpowered and set up differently from their own cars in Japan. He
says that the setups that people are using in America is how they
used to do it in Japan 10 years ago.
Akira had the chance
to jump into a few of our drivers' cars and test them out on the
straightaway and was doing his best to give pointers and advice on
building up a proper drift car. Be on the lookout for Akira in the
future to return to Hawaii to assist with a drift vehicle build-up
clinic and drivers' workshop.
|
