NOPI "NEW" DRIFT Series

[MonkeySlide]

I suppose I guessed right according to the hints that Tracy and Slapshot kept dropping about who else is attempting to launch a series.

I got this in my email from Theory PR just a little while ago, I couldn't copy and paste the whole thing so I just did the important part but theres also a link as well to back this up just incase someone thinks I made this up in photoshop or something..

here is the link: http://www.theorypr.com/newsletters/101906nopi.html

[Al]

Wow. There's atleast 2-3 new series coming out in 2007.

That's going to be crazy.

[Mike Peters]

eh, i just hope everyone tries to get along. i just want to go drift but i hope this doesnt turn into last man standing, beacuse thats raelly giong to hurt the sport possibly fatally.

[MonkeySlide]

Now see, when I heard about Hideo starting his own series I didn't think that would be a big deal..he knows drifting and how the culture/business works.

So if anything I figured he would try to make his series sort of work with Formula D or at least be non-conflicting.

But NOPI is a big dog thats about making big bucks..and they're already coming off as trying to compete with Formula D with talking about how much media coverage and money is going to go into it.

THAT part seems like competition...kind of scary sort of..

I wonder if its really going to be national or confined to the east coast?

NOPI shows and NDRA races never happen on the west coast anyway so maybe its just going to be another part to what they already do on the east.

I guess we'll know for sure after SEMA

[110octane]

Sweet.....Import Drag Racing all over again.

The drivers/teams need to stand together and choose where they want to compete. If all the premier drivers/teams go to the same place the other series' will fail and go away. Hopefully.

[MonkeySlide]

I think this is all going to break down to the TV package.

If NOPI's drift series stands to get more TV time and exposure than Formula D then we're gonig to see a migration from FD to NOPI.

Or possibly depending on how NOPI does it..we may see an east coast/west cost split.

Some of the teams from the east coast who dont have as much money as the bigger teams..will simply stay with NOPI if its a east cost series in order to save costs and smaller west coast teams will do the same with Formula D perhaps.

And the big dogs (Mopar, RMR Red Bull, Falken) will probably try to do both.

Of course this is all just speculation on my part ..so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[swifty949]

An intresting bit of information is that NOPI's tv #s can be decieving. Thier show time slot is purchased, in turn they sell the ads.

Whereas Formula D has a network doing the filming and airing voluntarily.

[Pete Varley]

eh, i just hope everyone tries to get along. i just want to go drift but i hope this doesnt turn into last man standing, beacuse thats raelly giong to hurt the sport possibly fatally.

I think everyone hopes for that but this is business.

[slideways2004]

i wonder how "big" this actually going to be. They have to bring thier A-game if they really want to be a professional series

[ohtagerbilhero]

without a doubt, Formula D is going to offer incentives to drivers who drive ONLY in Formula D approved events. (possibly only events that pay Formula D for approval, but that'd be pretty awful, and i'm not going to assume that FD would do something like that)

This sort of thing sucks, but it has precedent. D1 gets in a HUGE stink when D1 drivers use their D1 cars in other events... Ueo got in some trouble with that, as well as all the drivers that participated in XDL.

If this all gets out of hand, and I'm fined for taking my corolla to a grocery store, i officially quit drifting. i'll still slide my car, of course, but it won't be called drifting. it'll have a new name, and be completely unaffiliated with drifting. i'll call it "skid-ballet" or something.


with practice venues and events few and far between, and so many expensive, over-hyped competitions with no more than 5 minutes total in-car driving time per day, i think drivers are in danger of becoming jaded and dissatisfied with drifting... i hear more and more people talking about getting out of drifting and doing time attack and other such nonsense, and it depresses me.

i really do appreciate Formula D and all the other competition series, as competition does offer a unique experience that you won't get in a normal practice day, but so much emphasis is placed on these competitions, and not enough on the practice days that allow drivers to grow and really enjoy themselves.

the only reason i was able to drive in Formula D this season is that i had been doing EVERY practice event that came around beforehand, which meant i was driving at least two full days a month.

almost the same time that i began Formula D, we lost half of our venues for practice events, and non-competition events became more and more rare. (not to mention my being unemployed and unable to afford any practice events that did occur... that's just my fault)

without the freedom to just get out and drive without any pressure or extreme time limitations, i'm afraid these high-level drift competitions are going to grow stagnant without any fresh talent or improvement among the drivers that are currently licensed.

a spectated competition with k-rails and large concrete walls is no place to learn to drift, and it certainly isn't the same kind of fun that a practice day would be.
----------------

on a side note, what i'd like to see is a Hot Import Nights practice day. They've held drift exhibitions, so they've got the clearance for drifting and space for some courses... they could hold it during the day, so they'd have more room for courses, and then close it down once the show begins. I'd also like to see Moto help them set it up. i miss that guy.

[craiglieberman]

Should be interesting

An intresting bit of information is that NOPI's tv #s can be decieving. Thier show time slot is purchased, in turn they sell the ads.

Whereas Formula D has a network doing the filming and airing voluntarily.

If that's the case, then NOPI will have to charge a ton of money for sponsors to be involved. Whomever said "it's import drag racing all over again" is more right than they now...but, in NOPI's defense, major TV coverage on a REAL network could have a positive impact on the sport.

I'm a bit concerned that adding YET ANOTHER drift series will have one effect almost immediately: pulling sponsorship dollars away from racers. It did exactly that in import drag racing and to this day, 3 separate import drag series are basically fighting over table scraps.

Eventually, NHRA will have to integrate their SpoCom drag events into their standard events and NOPI will have to either find new revenue streams or diversify...this move does both.

When I left import drag racing, I did so largely because the domestic companies had so diluted the sport, it wasn't import racing anymore. Guys from other domestic series came over, secured sponsorship dollars and programs that might otherwise have gone to people like Steph, Lisa and others and the face of the sport changed. This also meant that the event series were forced to placate these domestic sponsors in order to get them to look at us. At the time, 4 different series and the roster of racers were fighting over table scraps and since then, the tuner market has shrunk even more (insofaras sponsor commitments to SpoCom drag racing).

Ultimately, if has to be good for the drivers first if it is to succeed, otherwise, a new series may have some short term success in getting sponsor bucks, but at what cost to the drivers? And to the sport? And do we really need to see 20 minutes of bikini coverage when we'd rather be watching drifting?

I wonder how our resident pro drifters feel about all of this.

[Slapshotnerd]

Couple things:

- this has been on the EverythingDrift site for almost a week now

- Nopi sees their drag racing events going downhill both for attendance and racer turnout, and people pay way more attention to drifters doing donuts and rodeos in a corner of the parking lot than a lot of the drag racing, so now they're bringing in a drifting competition to the same events. It's my understanding that a majority of the drifting events will be run at the same time as the NDRA events. This means that with only a few more staff members, Nopi can throw 2 events at once. Less costs out of pocket, less marketing (Than if they were to promote 2 completely different series at the same time), etc. But this also highlights the fact that Drifting is just another 'side show' to the NOPI circus. In any event, when drifting is not the main focus, the competition will suffer.

- Nopi is known for passing all cars through tech just to get more paying customers and keep their numbers up. This is not safe for anyone. There has long been discussion about this on drag racing message boards, and i don't see the drifting tech being any easier. In fact, I see them passing cars with a cage and calling it good. I know many of the FD cars had to make modifications in the offseason to pass tech last year because the tech is getting stricter and stricter. In fact, at the final event, a new car almost didn't pass because they didn't have a big enough fire extinguisher, and it wasn't mounted in the right place. I was happy to know that they were just as strict on a new car as they are on all other cars, instead of NOPI which is notorious for "fix it next time"

- publicity - it's not like there are new outlets for publicity that aren't already running drifting coverage! Drifting magazine is gone, PAS / Modified / Super Street / D Sport / HCI / S3 / DialD / other smaller magazines run coverage of drifting. Some of them either don't run coverage of drag racing, or only run NHRA drag racing events. Is Nopi's series going to get more print than FD? definately not. Will it get the same? more than likely not. Magazines are already stretching their budget thin as it is, I don't see them sending a photographer to a NOPI event now if they don't already. Nopi does have a staff photographer (As does FD), but his photos aren't the greatest, and while they get more coverage using that staff photographer than they would with no photogrpaher, I don't see more magazines running their content any more. That means it's a battle of TV shows. Nopi already crams a lot into their TV show, and very little coverage of the actual drag racing. Are you telling me that they're now going to have full drifting coverage in the same time slot? or are they actually buying more TV time? either way, i'd rather watch a TV show dedicated to Drifting than one that has Drag Racing, Bikini Contest, and all that other crap all crammed together. People on here are already harsh of G4's coverage of FD this year and how it doesn't focus on the drifters enough. You think Nopi's coverage is going to be any better? That brings the advertiser into the picture - same problem. If you want to target the drifter, which show do you pay to advertise on? Even if G4 gets a smaller audience, they're a much more targeted audience, I'd be tempted to advertise on that show than on speed.

- I don't see how any of the major teams can afford to run both series. I see this forcing tire companies to make a commitment to one series or another. I know falken was very close to being over budget this year (which is why they cut some of their drivers from last year). I don't see them making any NDRA events. I know Toyo and Nitto also are tight on budget, I don't see them providing anything more than tires. BFG / Bridgestone barely sponsors any drifters, and with their huge efforts in other motorsports, I don't see a lot of support being available to NDRA (especially since there is little support now for the NDRA from these companies - BFG sponsors a class in NHRA, but not NOPI). So that means that NDRA really is relying on A) non-tire companies to sponsor racers (of which, there's only a handful who even compete in FD! Enjuku, JIC, Rotora used to, Milano, Monstor, 240sx motoring, and that's about it). or B) non-endemics (rockstar, redbull, x-box, etc). If i'm a non-endemic, i want to be a part of the best series, not the brand new one. X-box can only sponsor so many teams...

which means...

- NDRA may have a few teams come over (probably enjuku, maybe some of the other smaller teams) who will more-than-likely dominate because of their experience. But, NDRA will call them "champions of the NDRA pro series". If you're in 3rd grade, and you beat all the kids on the 1st grade kickball field, do you brag about how you're the champion? maybe it's just me, but I'd rather beat 1 or 2 5th graders as a 3rd grader and elevate my level of competition than beat up on the little kids. How legitimate is their drifting series if that's what happens?

The NHRA sport compact finals are this weekend. Results will be posted over on http://www.nhrasportcompact.com/ . Compare the car turnouts to the ones at the NDRA finals 2 weeks ago - http://ndra.nopi.com/eqraces/dsp_qua...cfm?vshowid=72

You'll see WAY larger turnouts for similar fields:
NHRA = all motor, NDRA = Pro Stock
NHRA = hot rod, NDRA = pro 4 cylinder
NHRA = modified, NDRA = pro compact
NHRA = Pro FWD, NDRA = Pro Outlaw FWD
NHRA = Pro RWD, NDRA = Pro Outlaw RWD
NHRA = Sport FWD, NDRA = Turbo Street

You'll see that NDRA has way fewer competitors, and in many cases, the 4th / 5th / 6th place teams in NHRA are the ones winning in NDRA.


I'm failing to see the enticement of the NOPI drifting series, unless they are just hoping that enough people have beef with Formula D to jump ship.

[Slapshotnerd]

another element - who will judge this? a lot of fuss was made about FD judging the first 2 years. I would venture to say that Alex and Andy have made the judging SUBSTANTIALLY better this year, if nothing other than more consistent. I know drivers love being judged by alex and andy because they are so clear and concise with A) what they want as far as line, B) what they judge on, and C) where you can improve (after qualifying, they often talk individually with 5-10 different drivers and suggest how to help them out). Who will be judging NOPI? Back to magazine editors? Are they going to hire FD "pros" to judge their competing series? i don't see that happening. So who's left?

I honestly hope that all drifting series can be successful, and that all drivers can drive in all the series. But, reality is that this market is still relatively small, and people are still on very limited budgets, and I don't see this as being a good thing for the sport.

[desertimported]

This seems a day late and a dollar short. But why speculate as to it's success when they've yet to run an event. I'll pass judgement a year from now.

[J-Rod]

I'm only replying on this post as I'm reading all this info.
As the "Voice of Formula Drift" it's good to see the Pro's Vs. Con's being discussed.
TV, Judging, media, money and themain one, THE DRIVERS!

Slapshot great points and Craig, you being part of Import drag racing's infancy it's interesting for you to see the parallel's.

We'll soon find out what's the "Haps Paps".