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I went to Road Atlanta yesterday and spent half the day drifting. It was pretty freakin awesome. About a week ago I found out about an extreme sports/ stunt bike video producer on his way to FL from NY that wanted to get some drift video and might pass through atlanta.
I went to RA to see about renting an hour or two of time for
yesterday but they were booked.. but the rental manager's ears perked up when I said "drifting" and "USDrift Champ" and said he'd like to give some free time there some day. Turns out they have a Slipstream/Formula Drift event scheduled for May but have never seen drifting in person and wanted to find out how/if certain turns would work for the event.
So a few days later I had Chris (video producer) call them. RA
decided they could squeeze us in on the main track for about 20
minutes, and then let us run on the "autocross" course in exchange for a promotional video.
So it all worked out pretty awesome. I've got a lot of footage, in-
car, on-car, and of course external. The track there is DAMN SCARY. First we focused on 10a-10b (chicane at end of back straight). Actually that part's tame except for the huge sawtooth curbing (and desire to build up more speed on the straight than you can possibly scrub). I played around in 11 going down the hill toward the infamous turn 12, but just half speed, more choku dori style to feel it out and decided a cage was probably in order.
Then we went to 3-5 (essentially the esses), and ran that back and forth. I've drifted FAST turns before, at the VIR event I entered the drift at 90... but then slid down as things tightened up, but down though the esses is INSANE! 4th gear was required all the way through the first part. I could have really used race tires and another 50-100hp (especially up hill). And a cage would be nice to go full out. I had a couple tense moments, like when going the reverse direction in five, sliding wide and barley keeping my inside tires on the outside curb just a few feet from the wall, or when overotating after the bottom of the esses and going backwards across the track and stopping ~6 ft from the wall. Phew... FUN!
Then they gave me free reign on the gokart track until close. It's a sloped, very twisty, very narrow, multi-configuration course. That was fun but really too tight/narrow for an event. Still great to practice on and I also blasted around the skidpad (outside of the sealed area)... made for some cool shots because of the sheer sustained speed and smoke.
The track managment was very excited and pleased and I gave some of them rides. Burned through half a tank of gas and 4+ tires and today my shoulders and chest are sore from the harness and steering work. That's never happened before and the in-car footage showed a whirlwind of activity on the small track. Next meet I'll bring the new footage, but unfortunately this stuff doesn't have a cute girl making orgasmic utterances.
-Tony
I went to RA to see about renting an hour or two of time for
yesterday but they were booked.. but the rental manager's ears perked up when I said "drifting" and "USDrift Champ" and said he'd like to give some free time there some day. Turns out they have a Slipstream/Formula Drift event scheduled for May but have never seen drifting in person and wanted to find out how/if certain turns would work for the event.
So a few days later I had Chris (video producer) call them. RA
decided they could squeeze us in on the main track for about 20
minutes, and then let us run on the "autocross" course in exchange for a promotional video.
So it all worked out pretty awesome. I've got a lot of footage, in-
car, on-car, and of course external. The track there is DAMN SCARY. First we focused on 10a-10b (chicane at end of back straight). Actually that part's tame except for the huge sawtooth curbing (and desire to build up more speed on the straight than you can possibly scrub). I played around in 11 going down the hill toward the infamous turn 12, but just half speed, more choku dori style to feel it out and decided a cage was probably in order.
Then we went to 3-5 (essentially the esses), and ran that back and forth. I've drifted FAST turns before, at the VIR event I entered the drift at 90... but then slid down as things tightened up, but down though the esses is INSANE! 4th gear was required all the way through the first part. I could have really used race tires and another 50-100hp (especially up hill). And a cage would be nice to go full out. I had a couple tense moments, like when going the reverse direction in five, sliding wide and barley keeping my inside tires on the outside curb just a few feet from the wall, or when overotating after the bottom of the esses and going backwards across the track and stopping ~6 ft from the wall. Phew... FUN!
Then they gave me free reign on the gokart track until close. It's a sloped, very twisty, very narrow, multi-configuration course. That was fun but really too tight/narrow for an event. Still great to practice on and I also blasted around the skidpad (outside of the sealed area)... made for some cool shots because of the sheer sustained speed and smoke.
The track managment was very excited and pleased and I gave some of them rides. Burned through half a tank of gas and 4+ tires and today my shoulders and chest are sore from the harness and steering work. That's never happened before and the in-car footage showed a whirlwind of activity on the small track. Next meet I'll bring the new footage, but unfortunately this stuff doesn't have a cute girl making orgasmic utterances.
-Tony
Plus they have a solid rear axle, and often just rear brakes which you can use like an e-brake. They scrub speed much faster though when sideways. But I didn't have a kart at RA, was on that track with my car too, which is just a little shorter than the track is wide. It's so tight and twisty you can drift continously, lots of feint and ebrake, keeps the hands extremely busy.
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