Event: Drift West Spring Matsuri 2013 – Part I

There’s been a lot of talk about “drift racing” in the local media, so I thought I would wait for that to cool down before I wrote my article about the drifting that went down in Regina on April 28. I will leave the “drift racing” to the media big wigs who actually get to cash a cheque for their coverage.

All kidding and cringing aside, I do appreciate when drifting finds its way into the mainstream media. It was nice that some local news outlets were willing to come out and give the Drift West Matsuri some exposure.

 

I think it’s safe to say that drifting has officially entered into its third chapter in Saskatchewan. For those of you new to the scene, you may not know the first chapter was written somewhere around 2009 when QCMA started hosting drift events. The second chapter happened around the same time DODOlogic started; this also marked the closest yours truly would ever get to being a drifter, and even that’s reaching.

So why am I telling you a history of Drifting in Saskatchewan? No, it’s not so you’ll take time from your day to search for coverage of the “Big Valley Drift-oree” or “Drift Away Camp.” Rather, I want to illustrate how fast everything can go away.

Saskatchewan has a great talent pool of drifters and maybe my favorite part about these Kings Park Speedway  events is watching people learn and improve.  That is why it is important that we as a community support these events, so that they can continue and that talent pool can continue to grow.

Drifting in Saskatchewan hasn’t reached its pinnacle yet. It still has many chapters ahead of it. Hopefully with the help of Drift West and their upcoming drift events, drifting — or “drift racing” as it’s become known — can continue to grow.

At this point you’re probably thinking, “Hey Ryan, that’s all fine and good, but what you’re talking about doesn’t really have anything to do with these pictures.” My answer to you, observant reader, is “Thank you for actually reading the article.” Let’s be honest, most people are just going to scroll through the story to see if there are pictures of them going sideways.

For enduring my Sask drifting lesson, I will leave you with some extra pictures of people going sideways.

I will also urge each of you, if you’re truly interested in drifting, to attend drift events both local and abroad. And try to get to as many as you can. If you have the time and funds, take in some DriftWest this season. If you have even more money and time, try to visit some of the drift events in B.C. like the Drift Union Invitational or some of the Pacific NorthWest events.

When drifting first arrived in America in the 1980’s, the hive of activity was in California. Try hard to get to events there. Although this probably goes without saying, try really, really hard to find the money and time to get to a Formula Drift event. Or go to Japan to experience drifting where it started.

Just don’t call it “drift racing.”