Disclaimer: Right off the bat, lets get this straight. I am not skilled. Don’t think I’m building myself up. I couldn’t qualify in FD. I just think about this stuff… and in some ways, I think I’m a little unique. Read.
When you talk to the really good people these days, they tell you how they were first exposed to option video’s or the likes in the mid to late 90’s, thought it was awesome, and decided to learn from there. For me, it was a little different. I grew up in an automotive family… not a motorsports family by any means… my Dad owns his own repair shop, I had a subscription to Car&Driver when I was only 14, and my Uncle has always been a boy racer driving such cars as KP61 Starlet, A1 GTI, EF Civic and even an AE86 brand new in 1985. Somehow, for me, it was only natural to want to slide around corners. I was doing it before I even knew what AE86 was… perhaps this is not so unusual.
When I moved to Lethbridge in 1998 with my recently purchased zenkei hatch, and discovered Club4ag I was amazed. I learned about Initial D, found some vids of Tsuchiya and all of a sudden I realized that my desire to slide had some meaning. Today, a lot of people rag on Takumi. It pisses me off. Not because I think the show is real, or that I could really drive like that… it’s just endearing to me. I wish I could be like Takumi and destroy the big cars in my 86… what’s wrong with a little fantasy? At the very least, it’s a very good story about driving and my car. So all you guys who are paranoid that people will think your a poseur if you say anything good about Initial D… loosen up! Maybe you guys are the poseurs, not evening knowing what your enthusiastic about…
I started getting up at 5am before school to go driving on country back roads. Eventually, I found a road which I might refer to now as my run. I’d probably hit it three or four times a day: early before school, mid afternoon, before my trip to the grocery store, coming home from my girlfriends place. It was literally 10 blocks from my house, and probably 1 km long: a private road leading down into the river valley.
Lethbridge is a very beautiful city. The university was packed with lots of other enthusiasts. In fact, in Lethbridge at that time, I saw more modded S13’s and FC’s etc than I see in Calgary even today (after the JDM craze has hit). I ran into a group of them one night on a different road… friendly guys, racing each other in the Initial D style and doing a little sliding, but I didn’t hang around long. I thought it was pretty scary, my car was stock and very slow… I always drove by myself.
Sliding became my way of establishing my skill. If I could slide my car through a new corner I would know I was getting better. I didn’t time myself and I didn’t have anyone else to compare myself too, so I just drove and relished new feelings of success. Those who have followed what has gone on in Japan, will realize the big name, huge sponsors, widely attended drift competitions are a relatively new phenomenon. This used to be a real grass roots thing, a place where anyone could come with any car, and run in front of the judges. I suppose it is still like that to a certain degree, but back then, guys didn’t even need cages etc. So for me, back then, drifting was never the final goal. I wanted to be a road racer. Without a race car, without a track, drifting was my way of preparing for that goal. Back then, always thought that how Japanese drifters viewed there sport to some degree also: a stepping stone, I way of recognizing one’s own driving skills, and a way of being recognized.
Of course we can get into the whole feeling of drifting, which is something entirely else. I think about, controlling chaos. Turn in hard and commit… put it all on the line and find some way to return order. If I go further, I say, it’s my way of finding control in an existence that is far beyond me. I can’t control how tall I am, or the fact my friends Dad is dying of cancer but I can control my car when no one else can. I suppose, this element of finding control where there should be none, is part of why I have come to love playing poker (03.02.2008 – I hate poker now). It’s the same thing: transcending randomness, overcoming probabilities… putting it on the line and hoping.
For these reasons, I think drifting is something best done alone. Why would I mess all that up with corporate sponsors, high zoot parts and big crowds? It’s just not my flavour. Today, my final goal of being a road racer is no more. I just want to be a better driver. Being a better drifter is part of this, and I hope, that I can use my own feelings to determine my successes here. I don’t want some S13 dude to tell me my angle wasn’t big enough, and I don’t want to get pissed off and have to tell him his entry is too slow. We all have our own styles, and ideas of what is good. I don’t want to be lame, because I’m running a stock motor and USDM bumpers on run of the mill wheels. I’ll think about who’s better when the clock is running… just let me run.
Thankfully now, I’m back in Calgary where I have options besides the street where I can go learn. For me the cost of driving on the street is just too great. The cost of tickets, but even more, the cost of an accident… these are things that I view as crippling. I consider myself extremely lucky to have gotten through two years of pushing on the street, with only minor difficulties, and I hope you’ll consider yourself lucky to have access to legalized events! I’m never done learning, I’ll always be out there and I hope you’ll see the benefit of joining too!