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Written by:
Bill Wood
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06/13/2006 - 07:00 PM
Promotion of the movie is a natural tie-in for Formula Drift, but is the sport ready for the blowback effect? » More Photos
Remember the technology commercial several years ago when a group of people gathered around a computer screen waiting for a consumer response to their company's web presence? How the first numbers came in and everyone cheered before the numbers started to tumble uncontrollably bringing fear to the assembled faces? Now they'd have to service all those customers!
Now fast forward to this weekend when the promoters of American drifting gather around a screen somewhere as the world responds to a feature film that features the same smoke slingers they promote in the Formula Drift Series, the sport's U.S. drift championship.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift opens nationally Friday. This is the plot outline stolen from the Internet: Sean Boswell is a loner, an outsider at school. He builds a world around illegal street racing distressing local authorities. His mother sends him to Tokyo to live with his military uncle. There, Sean gets in the Tokyo drift underground. There's a Yakuza angle and lots of women. The film's pre-release hype centers on the drifting, so assume that will emerge as the film's star.
Defending Formula Drift champion Rhys Millen was the wrangler for all the drivers in the film. Sam Hubinette, the 2004 Formula D champion and this year's points leader, is also in the film as is Tanner Foust and Rich Rutherford, all friends and Formula D regulars, among others who compete for the U.S. championship. As you would expect, the smoke-slinging is good! Rhys said the film was better than he expected, but Sam said he would have liked more drift scenes!
Rhys Millen » More Photos
"It was exciting to see cars going sideways and chasing each other," he said with a smile. Once the public gets that whiff, though, the sport will no longer be able to hide in its tire smoke. By this time Monday, drifting will be experienced by millions who will only want to know where to go to see this stuff up close and personal. Hopefully, neither the perception nor the reality of drifting will just become another form of illegal street racing in the mainstream media's myopic eye. Remember what the original Fast and Furious film did to sport compact drag racing six years ago?
The next Formula Drift event is at Infineon Raceway July 8. Is the sport ready for the millions of enthusiasts the film figures to have spawned by then? That's the tire-eating question of the moment. Mainstream media has responded to the pre-hype with things like "illegal street drifting… tire-burning danger and… should we be worried?" The mainstream can be a tougher river bank…
"(Drifting is) only three years old," Millen told me this week while boarding a plane in Detroit after testing the new Pontiac Solstice he's developing with GM engineers. "Someone with the insight where it can go will push it to the next level. And I think it will become a mainstream sport."
Sam Hubinette and Rhys Millen have faced off as the nation's best drifters for two years. » More Photos
Actually, many would be disappointed if drifting became mainstream. Its growth came far from the motorsports radar, so much so that drifting far outdraws weekly NASCAR shows at Irwindale Speedway, the popular half-mile short track in Southern California.
"It's a franchise that a lot of people come and see," Millen said. "If you take any motorsport from 10 years ago until now, it was all about people making a statement or a name (to) make some money for themselves. Again, where the sport is after three years, we're all pushing hard and expressing our emotions and we're trying to get established from the sport."
Millen has well established economic roots with GM support and Red Bull, his title sponsor for his drifting program. They might be committed to him and not necessarily drifting.
But there was a fundamental bump in the road last weekend in Chicago where Millen and Hubinette ended in the finals only to experience confusion over some water on the track. Spinouts by both Sam and Rhys led to judging decisions that frustrated Millen so much he conceded the final Chicago win to
"The judges didn't even see the water," Hubinette said.
That alone is troubling. The water apparently was dumped on the pavement from a concession stand within the Soldier Field grounds. It gathered on a corner halfway through the course. Drifting is done in the rain, but standing water on a dry track is a drift anomaly that forced the judges to order "do overs" after first Hubinette, then Millen spun in the water on consecutive runs.
Sam Hubinette » More Photos
Many question NASCAR's "competition yellows" late in a race, but here's an instance where one was probably needed and not called. Without going into detail, I think a ball was dropped, an option promoters can't afford if auto and tire makers step to the plate to spend millions only to find underground attitudes and practices ill prepared for the growth onto a mainstream marquee.
"The sport is quite well structured right now," Millen told me. "That can only reward those who are serious about it and have the support to get to the events. I think it's ready. The support is growing big time. There's got to be a dozen manufacturer-related cars in the sport. There aren't too many other forms of motorsport that have that. It's good for everyone, I feel."
"We (the competitors) are ready to put on a great show," said Hubinette, "but there will be lots more fans showing up for the next four events." The question is, will the sport be able to absorb the juice they'll spill on the track?
"I think the fans who come to the sport have a personal identification with the drivers over and above what you see in NASCAR," Millen said. That stretches credulity, but there's some truth to what he implies. Fans appreciate the physics-defying car control exhibited by the front-line drifters, and they appreciate the growing professionalism from the teams. But when the defending champion is so frustrated with the event judging that he concedes victory to his square in the bull's eye rival, you can see some massaging is needed. To their credit, Formula Drift officials addressed the judging issue during the off-season, bringing former drivers onto the bench to smooth out some verdicts. Rhys and Sam both admit the judging this year is more consistent and that's all the drivers can ask for, consistency.
"It's easier to understand what they're looking for," Hubinette told me. "I think there's still room for some improvements regarding course layouts and making the clipping points more visible for the fans. In drifting, you really want to show your car-handling skill. We definitely told them, so hopefully they'll get on that."
But selling the judging to a mainstream motorsports population still appreciative of clocks and top speeds could be problematic. Those crowds will be there through the end of the year and beyond after the film runs its course. Whether or not those crowds can be translated into passionate fans and competitors remains to be seen.
Drifting's largest issue could be this: should mainstreaming be the sport's objective? Tokyo Drift isn't a documentary but there's truth in the storyline that drifting's fast and furious growth came through the Tokyo and American urban underground. Success thus far has generally come without mainstream approval. Extreme exposure of the drift picture could create a mainstream/political phenomenon that might not be worth experiencing. Listen to the media comments this weekend and you'll get my drift!
One hopes current leadership will see the promotional juice flowing on the track after this weekend and come up with a better plan to handle it.
Automotive journalist Bill Wood covers the tuner/sport compact scene for RACER magazine. Click here for subscription information.
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