You might think that having 800bhp-plus cars sliding around and shredding tyres would be a popular form of entertainment. Something to really get the old motorsport blood pumping.
Drifting, though, isn’t trying to compete with other, more mainstream racing like Formula 1 or the British Touring Car Championship. Not, at least, according to David Egan, vice-president of the Drift Masters European Championship (DMEC). “I’ve always looked at drifting as a form of motorsports entertainment,” Egan explains, as the DMEC gears up for the start of the 2021 series. “Comparing it to Formula 1 is like comparing BMX stunt bikes to the Tour de France. It still has the technicality, the precision and the skill of traditional motorsport but it is very much catered towards a live audience.”
While live audiences could be thin on the ground again this year, the DMEC is determined to put on a show for its fans who follow the slide-and-catch antics on YouTube and other forms of social media. “I think that the growth of drifting has aligned itself very much with the growth of social media,” says Egan. “Where traditional motorsports would have used traditional media – radio, television, newspapers – drifting has very much younger, more PlayStation-generation fans. They’re on YouTube, and social media streams like Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok. It has become a huge sensation to the younger audience which maybe isn't the traditional audience of traditional motorsport. Drifting has actually grown exponentially to the point where online events are now getting millions of views.”
Drifting's growing popularity is due, says Egan, to the sheer excitement of the machinery. For example, the rules are less stringent than in F1, so the design and mechanical package of the car is more open to interpretation and essentially down to the individual. Plus, a full season might only cost €500,000, making it relatively more accessible to up-and-coming superstars than more traditional racing. Even so, the sport has clearly come a long way from its midnight club origins in 1980s Japan. Even Motorsport UK now has an official drifting championship, doubtless keen to latch onto a younger audience.
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@ xxx finally we agree on something! Cars racing around a track, hard to imagine more puerile and pointless a passtime. And yet it gets so much coverage on here. I (and most of the rest of the world) just don't get it. Give me sport to watch (and play) any day of the week. And twice on Saturday!
If ever there was a waste of tire, petrol and the environment, this is it,