Howdy, get ROWDY! - FormulaD Texas Video Recap & My First Post

"Atlantian" (Atlantian)
10/09/2013 at 23:08 • Filed to: Formula, Drift, Texas, FormulaD, HowdyGetRowdy

Howdy, my name is Ben and this is my first post on Opposite Lock. I'm a drifting and racing fanatic (overall driving fiend). I'll start off with a video coverage I've been anticipating for a while. And I'm excited to be sharing more automotively related content here with y'all in the near future.

Daigo Saito laying down a 107.7 mph initiation in qualifying.
credit: Larry Chen of Speedhunters

Let me explain why I have been so excited to see a video coverage of this event: Formula Drift at Texas Motorspeedway has been not the most daunting, but by far the fastest track we have seen on the Formula Drift schedule in the history of the sanctioning body. Initions seen in practice, qualifying, and competition have produced numbers north of 100 mph. Chelsea, himself (yes, it's a guy), has even said that he was initiating at around 105 mph in practice (video after the jump).

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credit: BC Racing, Chelsea Denofa and AMENIC7 Media

I just so happened to pick this video featuring two time XDC (Xtreme Drift Circuit) Champion and Formula Drift driver Chelsea Denofa because he was the first to post one and it popped up in my Facebook feed.

As I captioned the main picture at the top of this post, Daigo Saigo (or Diego Santos to some) put down a qualifying run with the highest entry speed at 107.7 mph. When I first read that number in the Speedhunters post, I thought it was absurd . Bonkers, even. Those are Gatebil initiation numbers. (Not as fast as the "Fastest 'Drift' in the World" at 134.8 mph, but still)

Ever since watching Formula Drift for the first time in person in 2010 at my home track Evergreen Raceway, and later the Abu Dhabi Formula Drift show in 2011 at Yas Marina, I've been daydreaming about Formula Drift and other sanctioning bodies to start using more fluid and flowing tracks for their events. Since, more professional drivers build their cars with four digit horsepowers coming out of the rear wheels and ridiculous acceleration become more common in a drift car.

Texas Motor Speedway honestly reminds me more of Palm Beach International Raceway as a drift venue, very flat and featureless. Unlike the monster banking at Wall Stadium Speedway in New Jersey or the unbelievable drop into a left handed turn 1 at Road Atlanta. But it's a step in the right direction for the sport. To put more challenging and jawdropping venues into the Formula Drift schedule.

I'd say the next step would be to commandeer COTA to use turns 19 to 12 in reverse. What say you? Comment below, hope you enjoyed the video. And it's back to doing electrodynamics homework for me.

DISCUSSION (8)

Somethingwittyer likes noisy > Atlantian
10/09/2013 at 23:10

Sweet! Another avid Formula D follower! Welcome to Oppo man!

Atlantian > Somethingwittyer likes noisy
10/09/2013 at 23:15

I wouldn't say I follow Formula Drift (not since the second year I watched it in 2011). I started to follow it after working at Evergreen Speedway during the fall of 2010. They promised me discount track time and watching the professionals kicking their clutches really solidified the love I found in drifting.

Great to see there are drift fanatics here on Jalopnik, thanks for the welcome.

pdthedeuce > Atlantian
10/09/2013 at 23:15

welcome...again , I guess .

Somethingwittyer likes noisy > Atlantian
10/09/2013 at 23:17

Welcome! Hope you stick around, we have a really good community here.

Atlantian > pdthedeuce
10/09/2013 at 23:19

Sorry for the delete-and-repost, I tried to edit the original post to add a few more images and Kinja didn't allow me to save. I had to go back and save several times, thinking it was a server issue, but tried a new post with "test" in the text and there was no problems there.

Turns out there was some issue with some image links that Kinja doesn't want me linking from, apparently. Oh well.

Again, thanks for the welcome on the original post, sorry for the confusion.

pdthedeuce > Atlantian
10/09/2013 at 23:23

gotcha...no prob . we all know about Kinja around here ... I wasn't sure if I was having a Matrix/deja vu thing going on .

Bird > Atlantian
10/10/2013 at 00:14

Welcome!

Not sure if anyone else from Oppo is going out, but I'll be at Irwindale saturday. I'll post up coverage of the car show, and hopefully some videos of the action!

Atlantian > Bird
10/10/2013 at 18:42

Looking forward to that, I'm happy Irwindale is back on the schedule, was shocked they took it off.

I wish I could make it, but I'm all the way up in Corvallis, Oregon.