Did Drifting Kill Spocom Drag? (Kinda Long)

[Bebop]

When I first discovered drifting many years ago drag racing was almost non existent too me. Only Driver I knew by name was Papadakis and due to his presence on mainstream TV shows and magazines. And with a airbrushed godlike physique in magazine adds I thought Ed Bergenholtz was a model turned racer. Drag racing just plain didn’t interest me for many reasons. Growing up in the IE, the street racing scene was full of stock or swapped 90s hondas. And if you had cash you probably drove an eclipse, Celica, GTI, RSX, Prelude, or something of that nature. Essentially something kind of fast and was easy to modify.

The scene was full of teenagers and men in there 20s who spent most of the time talking trash before actually racing. Maybe for 20 to a few hundred bucks at the most, and if someone did race for “pinks” their car wasn’t worth much in the first place and was probably built off stolen parts. Don’t act like you don’t remember the term “sleeper”, a car that looked stock or looked like sh!t that was pretty fast. Something like a primer CRX with some sort of B18 or something. I haven’t been to the street races in years but the last time I went the crowd didn’t change a whole lot. Only noticeable changes I saw were a lack of attractive untaken women lol, and kids huffing balloons filled with nitrous oxide. It seemed like a bad house party more then an act of illegal motorsports. Now you might ask why I’m I just talking about the illegal side of the sport and not the real thing. Well because basically that’s all I really know about it. I was raised on F1 and Lemans, and took interest in mini trucks more less to piss off my dad before discovering drifting.

But while in Vegas sitting in the stands during qualifying, as I usually do if someone near me doesn’t quite understand what’s going on I always politely inform and educate them. As I was doing this a man in his 30s made a comment saying something about how he cant stand drifting and how it killed Spocom drag. I turned and smiled back and jokingly said “What’s Spocom Drag, import cars dressing up as domestic cars?”. The guy had a sense of humor and we struck up a 15 minute conversation about the subject. With him basically saying that Drifting took all the spocom sponsors, market, venues, etc etc. I kind of replied with agreeance, but pointed out certain drag race teams took it upon them selves to get into the sport of drifting. As well as the fact there have been collaboration events with both drift and drag and that some drag organizers tried to start there own drift series. And I also pointed out that the market is ever evolving and with the downward economy some companies just didn’t have anything left.

So umm yeah

What do you guys think, why is spocom drag in the position that its in today? Or is everything live and well in the scene?

[bergenholtz]

NHRA killed it?

[boo]

"No They killed themselves"

[Bebop]

Originally Posted by bergenholtz

NHRA killed it?

Tell us more??

[Slapshotnerd]

GM killed sport compact drag racing.

Spectators like to see side-by-side racing. In 2003 and 2004, the only drag races that finished side-by-side were the ones without GM cars. Either 1 car was breaking, a GM car was running 1-2 full seconds faster than the competition, or there was a Bye run because there were so few cars that could afford to race. The exception was in the Pro RWD class which had 4 or 5 different makes all running within a few tenths of a second of each other, but these were tube-chassis cars putting out 1500+ hp, and not achievable for the up-and-coming driver. GM was spending more than $1m per car per season, and they had several different cars in each class. It was blatant that they bought their way to the top, and people were turned off by this. If you watched a round of all 5 pro categories (All Motor, Hot Rod, Modified, Pro Front, Pro Rear), you were likely to see 5 or 6 side-by-side races out of 20, and those were likely to all be in the All Motor or Pro Rear class.

Drifting came along and offered side-by-side racing with cars of all makes and models. Import, Domestic, low HP, high HP, and it was marketed well. The cars could be related to, the side-by-side action was easy to follow, and the races were exciting. Drifting was still very grassroots - the cars were "achievable" to the average person, and everyone seemed to have a driver to root for. The underpowered Corolla, the GTO driven by a stunt driver, the crazy Mk4 Supra, the SR20-powered 350Z driven by a college dropout, or any number of S-chassis cars driven by guys who a year previously were probably just screwing around in an industrial area for fun. The big $$$ builds weren't dominant (although Sam won the first 3 FD events, there were several runs that he nearly lost, and every race was side-by-side).

It was an instant hit, and the crowds made the shift. With the shift in crowds, the sponsors followed.

[J-Rod]

Video killed the Drag race star....

[driftmonkey503]

I'm a Lil slow, I didn't realize it was dead around here there are more street racers than anything and the local track here is a drag track. There are waaaay more mopar and american thunder type cars and the occassional import night.

[Jspfab.com]

The import market in general is very young. Youth tends to be swayed largly by trends. Drag racing became popular leaving trend setters to find a new trend to start. Drifting became the new trend. I'm sure there will be another new trend that will take away from drifting. It's just like anything in life like this. Those who are really into something because it's what they love will still be into it after it loses some appeal from the followers. There are still plenty of hardcore import drag racers. The only reason the big name guys stopped is because the big sponsors pulled out. The sponsors pulled out simply because attendence was low and nobody was making money. As a driver and spectator I get just as much excitement from drag racing as I do with drifting. I have competed in nhra sportcompact, boti, formula d, d1 etc. They were all equally as fun for me. Drag racing just became a bit too much reliant on money rather than driver ability. Drifting is going in that direction as well but still requires more driver input that drag racing did at the sport compact level.

[AlexPfeiffer]

Import drags killed import drags. Come on now, anyone who enjoys dragging a FWD isnt a real drag guy to begin with.

[Bebop]

that last post should have ended in "no hom0"

[ontrack]

THANK YOU ALEX!!! Almost Exactly what I was going to write until I saw your response.

[Jspfab.com]

Drag racing isn't about what kind of car you drive. It's about going head to head with someone else and seeing who comes out on top.

You joking Alex? Take a 1000hp civic on 26" tires for a ride and tell me it isn't exciting and fun. Now see if you can get to the finish before the guy next to you...

Competing in the nhra sportcompact series was super fun and very competative. I fully plan to build another drag car in the next few years.

[AlexPfeiffer]

Thats exactly what i mean. How many 1000hp civics are cruzing the streets and going out dragging? Thats about as many people still thinking their FWD's are good drag cars. There are just not many of them anymore. People stopped building them for reasons, ether no one to race against in the same class, not enough idiots at the street races to show off too, cant turn?, i can go on and on why they where just a fad.

Its like my scooter stories of spree's running 14's. It was cool in hawaii when alot of people had modded bikes and you had people to race against, but when the cops cracked down and gave you a ticket for a pipe, everyone just stuck to having cruzers and now all the *Censored**Censored**Censored*s have ruckuses. At that point you may as well just buy a harley if your going to spend that much on a god damn scooter. Same as drag, once your really into that scene your going to be in a v8 on alcohol, blown and wasting your money 5 seconds at a time. If you think 1000hp civics are fun, wait till you feel 6000hp dragsters.

[rmj_drift]

Alex, I agree totally. I know drag racing takes some skill, but for the cost of building a 1000 hp FWD car, having no one to compete against and carrying a supply of half-shafts with you, it was just not worth it much.

I think that fans and drivers noticed the higher level of skill and fun involved with Road Course (Time attack) racing and Drifting.

Domestic drag racing is still strong because there are a good number of people to run against in just about every class and dollar amount.

[AE86_Fan]

Originally Posted by rmj_drift

I think that fans and drivers noticed the higher level of skill and fun involved with Road Course (Time attack) racing

LOL @ fans at Time Attack events.... i have been to several Time attack events over the years, and although they do attract a certain amount of drivers, they lack fans. i myself love time attack and drift, but time attack is just boring to watch in person (its better to watch on tv where you can see all of the track)

[Bebop]

I think there should be more collaboration events with time attack, drift, and etc. Like hyperfest and GTlive.

I want a excuse to show up early, leave late, bbq, etc.

So Cal hasn't had something like that since SuperGT came in 04.

[Slapshotnerd]

Time attack has no fans because it's visually boring. It's like a dyno session on the track.... literally a game of numbers.

I want to watch a competition and visually be able to distinguish a winner. I can watch the top 5 fastest time attack cars make a lap at Buttonwillow (widely considered to be one of the pinnacle time-attack courses in the entire US), and have no idea who actually won because the 1 or 2 full second difference between the top and bottom performers is visually indistinguishable. At least with NASCAR, I can visually see who's in the lead. With Drifting, I can visually see who's closer to the wall or clipping point. With Drag Racing, I can visually see who crossed the finish line first (or if I can't, I'm really excited that it's a side-by-side photo finish!). Until Time Attack can solve that situation, they will NEVER see any viable success.

[Bebop]

Originally Posted by Slapshotnerd

1 or 2 full second difference between the top and bottom performers is visually indistinguishable

I'm by no means a time attack fan, but 1 or 2 second finish is quite a big deal and IMO is not " indistinguishable" by trained or not so trained eye. The only way I see that as boring is if the cars are slow to begin with.

I wouldn't mind seeing 1 on 1 "grip" battles, battle of the touge style. That would be pretty cool.

I'm gonna go out on a limb as say I'm probably one of the few road race fans in here?

[Slapshotnerd]

on a course that runs 1:47 to 1:50 for the top guys, you won't be able to see the 1 to 2 tenths per corner that are different. I've watched superlap a few times, including watching the top division from the spotters tower, and you can't tell whether someone is going to run a 1:46 and break the record or a 1:49 and place 5th unless you look at the scoring.

[MonkeySlide]

I think what Burgenholtz was reffering to was when NHRA absorbed what was left of import drag racing (except IDRC) and then pretty much dissloved it after making a bunch of class rule changes that watered down the competition.

To NHRA Import Drag racing was just a new toy that they thought they could use to attract new kids but it didn't work out that way for them so it kind of just phased out.

Blaze you aren't the only road race fan. I've been watching road racing ever since middle school when I'd go to the Long Beach Grand Prix.

The problem with Time Attack is there aren't enough cars participating and as Slapshot suggested, that is boring to watch.

There is also the fact that the tracks that Time Attacks go to aren't exactly spectator friendly. For some reason some of the best tracks in the world aren't exactly the best when it comes to accomodating spectators. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is a good example.

I agree that they need to team up with Drifting and Drag Racing to create mega events like GT Live. The only reason GT Live didn't go so well is because Super GT felt that they were being placed as second banana to drifting and they didn't like that one bit.

If Time Attack isn't going to team up with anyone then they need come up with a spectator friendly package.

Any F1 fans know how exciting qualifying can be ..I think if they aren't doing it already Time Attack needs to adopt F1 style "knock-out" sessions. Open the track to all the cars in a certain class at the same time and who ever can lay down the fastest lap within a session wins.

Now it would be hard for one announcer to keep all that information about whats going on in a situation like that to fans but its not impossible.

Also Time Attack needs to take a page out of Formula D's playbook and live stream all their events. Multiple cameras, graphics, the whole nine. It needs to be produced the same way most live road racing broadcasts are but streamed online which should reduce the costs.

With faster internet speeds on the horizon and nearly every laptop and desktop having HD screens, watching online would be great for anyone who wants to watch.

It would also be a good way for Time Attack to rack up VIEWERS which can translate into sponsorships.

[Charlie@JustDrift]

Originally Posted by blaze1

I think there should be more collaboration events with time attack, drift, and etc. Like hyperfest and GTlive.

I want a excuse to show up early, leave late, bbq, etc.

So Cal hasn't had something like that since SuperGT came in 04.

we tried, asbx and redline on same weekend at willow. fireworks, drifting, time attack and who knows whatelse happened that weekend. lol...

[GoukiS14]

With the idea of time attack. I think Ken block's gymkhana invitational event is kinda solving the "boring" part of time attack, with the side-by-side action of having the course be a mirror of it's self for competitors