It's All About Drifting

Scott Souness
August 14, 2010

Scott Souness
http://www.ascentseo.co.nz

The precise history of drifting is still a topic that generates much debate among racing fans even today. While the identity of the first ever drifter is lost in the annals of automotive history, it is commonly accepted that Japanese driver Kunimitsu Takahashi was the first to use drifting manoeuvres during races in the late '70s.

Originally a motorcycle racer, Takahashi found fame in 1961 as the first ever Japanese rider to win the Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix on a 250cc Honda. A serious injury in 1962 cut short his motorcycle racing career and made Takahashi switch to racing in cars. While racing the Japanese circuits Takahashi began using various drifting manoeuvres out of necessity to take on tight corners while maintaining speed. Not only did it help Takahashi win races, drifting on the speedway also won him many followers among the fans. Fans were excited by this brand new style of racing and Takahashi's crowd-pleasing antics on the track filled the stands.

One such devotee, an ex-street racer and up-and-coming Japanese Formula 3 driver Keiichi Tsuchiya studied Takahashi's drifting techniques and took them to the next level. Not content with simply using drifting as a one-off technique on the racing circuit, Tsuchiya took the pioneering step to make drifting the entire focus of the race - elevating it to a sport in its own right. To enhance his drifting techniques Tsuchiya practiced on Japanese mountains where the winding roads provided excellent series of twists, turns and bends. The Japanese term for mountain roads, Touge, has since entered drift racing vernacular around the world and is now used to refer to any event involving street racing - whether they involve mountain passes or not.

In 1987 Tsuchiya and a few partners would team up to produce a video featuring footage of him drifting through mountain passes. The video, called Pluspy, was a huge hit generating a massive amount of followers in Japan's racing scene. A year later Tsuchiya and his partners would organise the first ever drifting tournament, the D1 Grand Prix, which took place at the Ebisu Circuit in Fukushima, Japan. Thanks to the buzz created by Pluspy, the D1 Grand Prix was also a huge success and has been held annually ever since. Today the D1 Grand Prix remains the world's leading drifting tournament where the top drifters from Japan and the world compete.

Since debuting in the late '80s, competitive drifting has left an indelible mark in the racing world. Drifting is now a part of the modern motor-sports culture, with races taking place in speedways and highways all over the planet. The ease and relative low cost of modifying one's car for drifting has unfortunately lead to a vibrant, yet illegal, underground drifting scene in many countries. Unlike other forms of competitive motor-sports, it is fairly easy for the average muscle car owner to add a few mods to his vehicle to transform it into a drift racer. While great for attracting new fans, this also leads to the surge in illegal underground races held in public roads.

Today D1 tournaments take place all over the world in countries where drifting has the biggest amount of fans. To date there have been D1 championship events in Japan, the United States, the UK, Malaysia and New Zealand. Apart from the global reach of the D1 Grand Prix there also exists thriving local drifting clubs in many of these countries. These organisations normally cater to the regional drifting scene, and hold events and tournaments throughout the year. A few examples are the D1NZ and NZ Drift Series in New Zealand, Pro-Drift Mania in Canada, Formula-D in the US, Superdrift in Italy, and the British Drift Championship.

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