(FEEDBACK) D1 GRAND PRIX USA May 2, 2009 Anaheim, CA

[Brian]

Also, in regards to the course design, I have an idea. I wasn't there, so I'm just using photo reference and some logic.


D1 put out this concept of a huge track with very fast entry speed. I think they may have ASSUMED that more American pros would drive the event. Judging from the photos, there didn't seem to be many at all. I saw Ross Petty, but can't think of anybody else.

D1 MIGHT have realized that they had a bunch of American amateurs there, so they decided to scale down the course for the overall scaled down skill of the drivers.


Again, I wasn't there, so I'm just thinking of reasons why the course was so different than what it was "supposed" to be.

[slideways2004]

I was having a beer and the security saw me so they asked me to leave. They where cool about it.

no beer allowed?

[rainslicked]

that was the worst event i've ever attended.

no wonder the driver's list was released so late.

hoping to bank on the D1 name only 7 drivers from japan showed up and the rest were basically no names from the US.

an amatuer event with a few japanese drivers thrown in to bring some justice to the name.

ran by extreme ricerfest and hin founders.

never seen so many clamshell hoods and lambo doors in one spot.

driftbox was a failure. 60 percent of the score? its a style sport and it didnt work. drivers didnt like it.

track was small... but hey its in a parking lot so go figure.

the schedule was silly, long, and drawn out.

how many times do we need to see stunt bikes and go karts?

gumball rally was interesting but definitely not needed.

way too many dead spots.

no open pit.

the worst media support. you had a lot of media and very few cutouts in the fence to take pictures.

no falken, no bridgestone, no toyo, no yokohama, no hankook.

the rest of the schedule is going to be the same. parking lot ricer fest with drifting on the side.

the was not D1, not even close besides the name. the was D WACK!

[courantcom]

All I can say is this event was the equivalent of buying some knockoff TE37's. Look legit from far away but when you get up on them...Damn..Let down...

I don't know about you, but when I go to an automotive motorsport event, I see a bunch of race rigs on site. The first thing I noticed was that there weren't any race rigs on site...none at all. Then again, from a planning point of view, the people involved in the realm of drifting have already set their schedules to be a part of Formula D. Logistically speaking, Formula D is NEXT week at Road Atlanta. I'm in the process of packing my rig because I have to leave today/tomorrow. So, for me, I can't even say that it looked legit from far away either...

I want to thank Drifting.com for the free VIP's But I am so glad I did not pay to go to this.

How much were the tickets anyways? I don't even know...

It fell short in many instances...Here are some examples.

VIP area - WTF was up with the so called "Bar"...5 dollar canned sodas

Yeah I heard about that! The EMT that was parked next to me told me that he paid $5.00 for the can of Pepsi in his hand. I mean...geez, RedBull (normally priced at $2.00 at convenience stores) can be found for $5.00 a can at a "high priced" night club. Pepsi in cans can be found for $0.75 in vending machines...so a "high" price would be $2.00 a can. Right?

PA system - Holy jankiness....5 speakers in each corner sitting on a ghetto looking trailer creating lots of static and half the time didn't even work.

Their website said that they would have "Over 40 stacks of Line Array speakers surrounding the track and midway area’s". I guess that didn't actually happen...

Course Layout - What a joke....I thought this was suppose to be one of the largest purpose built drift courses in the U.S

More like the size of the Adams kart track in Riverside...Maybe even smaller.

No, you're right. Adams Kart Track in Riverside is larger. Laughlin's track seems larger as well, and I thought THAT was small. High speed entries at this "track" were somewhere around 65-75 mph. Entry speeds in Las Vegas' "parking lot event" have been over 100mph before.

For building a drift course out of absolutely nothing, Formula D and last year's Red Bull event definately set a very high bar. They built a drift event out of an empty lot that had abolutely zero anything. Sorry for the grammar, but for internet forums, bad grammar "adds" to the effect. Formula D brought in their own electricity, water, facilities, and structures. Everything that was there was built and/or brought there. That space was simply a big slab of asphalt. I can go on and on about all this...but I'm not because I don't think I have to.

Personally I think we all got took son!!

Now they can move on to the next town for more suckers

One more thing...The course workers sucked a big donkey dong!!

The course workers on hand were all experienced course workers that have worked with D1 in all of their past events. In their honest defense, they knew what they were all doing...the real problem they had to deal with was a lack of a "safe area" where they could be in. They talked about having additional flaggers being present in certain areas but with how the track was "designed", it would have been dangerous for them to be standing there. Proper course planning needs to have provisions for course worker stations.

Some caring fan got in there to help out and remove some debris and for that got booted the hell out!!! WTF!

That guy was an idiot. He went over a barrier and/or through a "hole" in a fence while cars were on the start line really getting ready to go through the course. Think of it like a guy going over the fence at an Angel's baseball game and walking like 10' into left field during a game right when the pitcher was about the deliver his pitch...yeah, kinda like that. I'm sure they're not going to just let him return to his seat afterwards either.

[MonkeySlide]

The car show and the Gumball parade were the best parts of this event.

I really wanted D1 to work ..when I was in the parking lot you could tell just by the style of cars that there were a lot of legit fans there but I'm not sure if D1 delievered what they were looking for.

I feel that the group that took over the reigns of D1 don't really know all that much about what people expect from a drift event and how a drift event should be covered.

Media

Apparantly they didn't want to cut ANY holes in the fence but to their credit after realizing the error of that decision they sent a guy out with bolt cutters to try and make more holes but even then he wasn't allowed to really cut holes where they were needed. So by that point the "photo area" was already crowded with photogs huddled together trying to share photo holes the size of shoe boxes.

And why wasn't there a photo area in the middle of the hairpin? I get D1 wants to have their spot to shoot their DVD's but there was more than enough room in there for at least a small photo area without getting in the way of the video camera guy. That would have made up for the lack of photo holes in the fence.

The course layout

Of course I couldn't measure but it seemed like that straight away was a good 1/8 mile long into the shortest right turn known to man!

Sure you could say the excuse for that was the small amount of space..but then you look at that monsterous straight away and it just doesn't add up.

Most drifters pro or amature can drift the whole bank at Irwindale without that much of a straight away...it could have been shortened a lot to space everything out in the middle much more.

If the space was going to be that small it would have been better for them to copy the Long Beach layout instead of the Red Bull.

Especially since there was that whole area for the Gumball cars despite the fact that they stayed at the event for a grand total of 20 minutes. Don't get me wrong it was cool to have them there but they got too much space.

D1 spent all this time setting up a VIP area for them and food and all that..and a lot of them didn't even go over to that area. The guy with the golden Veyron took off before they let the crowd in to look at the cars.

Random things

The short little video intro thing of each driver before they had their tandem battle got old REAL fast. We want to see them drive not fumble around nervously trying to explain why they like drifting...or in some cases trying to find the correct words since their english was limited.

There wasn't enough places to buy food and 5 bucks for a CAN of soda or a bottle of water is robbery especially when people were paying 25 bucks for STANDING ROOM ONLY tickets!

Speaking of tickets I feel sorry for anyone who bought their ticket online...the will call pick up line was ridiculous. Especially when it only took all of 20 seconds for some one to just walk up and buy a ticket at the other booth.

The pit area shouldn't have been closed off to fans...sure most of the drivers weren't all that "famous" but the way to fix that is to let people get to know them. If they weren't going to let fans into the pit area then there should have been an autograph session at the very least. There was more than enough down time for that.

By the way..where the heck was Mr "Dorikin" hmm? D1 comes back after all this time and he doesn't show up? Doesn't call or write? I'm a little offended..

Some good

The Gumball thing was a nice touch it just would have been nicer if you got them to stay a little longer.

It was cool that you had something happening on track between the drifting..the go karts and stunt bikes were cool.

The car show was huge and had a little something for everyone.

Overall

This first attempt was a valliant effort but they didn't quite hit the mark...hopefully they'll read this thread and make improvements for the next round.

[Slapshotnerd]

I'll keep it short and sweet.

The event felt like an FD event from '04 or '05... FD Chicago / Houston-esque. Considering this was the first event that this group has put on, it wasn't TERRIBLE.... however, after what D1 has done in the past, and what FD has done over the past 6 years, it wasn't up to "par" for what was expected.

If D1 hadn't hyped themselves up so much, this would have met expectations. But with D1 over-hyping (biggest TV deal, biggest build out in history, etc etc), this was a disappointment.

It will be interesting to see where things go from here.

[ArchangelX]

Regardless of the event, I just wanted to give props to all the Hawaii alumni that showed up. Good to see our guys doing their best. Kudos to Forrest. Awesome to hear...that guy is incredible, both in fab skills and his driving.

[SSmith]

Yeah I heard about that! The EMT that was parked next to me told me that he paid $5.00 for the can of Pepsi in his hand. I mean...geez, RedBull (normally priced at $2.00 at convenience stores) can be found for $5.00 a can at a "high priced" night club. Pepsi in cans can be found for $0.75 in vending machines...so a "high" price would be $2.00 a can. Right?

Yup, $5 for a can of soda sold by some girls in a booth...The economy is bad, but $5 for a can sold by girls who wanna be models? Get real, it's like the government raising taxes to pay for those bailout bills under the mask of stimulating the economy.

[srfiveten]

Wow, what a joke that was. I've been too all previous D1 events at irwindale and some formula d events and have always had a great time so I'm not a hater. I was bummed D1 wasn't coming to the U.S. in 2008 so they could "regroup" and make it better. So I was excited about yesterday. However what I experienced yesterday was an absolutely joke. I felt like I was back in 2002 at Hot Import Nights. We got hosed!!

1. $15 bucks for parking? Really? Long ticket lines, why can't you people do the e-mail ticket method like before.

2. So after we stood in the long ticket lines we finally got inside and sat in the bleachers. After about 2 hours of on track action we got told to leave because we didn't have wrist bands. OK that's fine. I asked the security guy if we could go out and upgrade to a wrist band. He said yes go out to the ticket window and pay $10 to get a wrist band. So we walked all the way around the grandstands like a mile at least only to get to the front and be told by a RUDE security guard they have stopped letting people out and then come back in for whatever reason. So now we are stuck inside and can't even go give the d1 IDIOTS more money so we can have a seat. Real smart..

3. So we are all getting mad at this point and hungry and thirsty. So the only FOUR food booths have lines that are so so so long it's not even worth it. I asked a guy that was almost to the front of the kettle corn line how long he'd been in line and he said 1 hour and 30 minutes. So I end up buying a can of pepsi for $5.00 and I savored every drop.

4. The car show was just wrong. Out of the at least 300 cars I saw only 15 or so that were actually worth looking at. The DUB cars were lame and the music was blasting way loud. The vendors were the worst I've ever seen out of any car show. I wanted a poster from the Vertex booth and the guy wanted to charge me $5. The rest were just lame. A 2005 chevy impala on 28 inch rims. WTF WHY?? why is that at a drifting event? Anyways. The car show was very disappointing as was the fact the pits weren't open like they are at irwindale. So you couldn't even go look at the D1 cars.

5. Lack of competition on track.. The Japanese D1 drivers were just 100 times better than the other guys. That red e30 bmw spun out in the first turn because Kumakubo was hauling *Censored**Censored**Censored* behind him and he couldn't handle it.

6. Nothing was on schedule. Everything was at-least an hour or more behind schedule. We watched the Super 16 run and then they said they were taking a 20 minute break before the top 8 ran. At this point it was about 5:15 and we had enough and got up and left. We were all hungry and wanted something to drink and I wasn't about to buy another $5 can of pepsi.

7. So we left and went to Hooters around the corner and drank beer and ate wings before the drive back to S.D. I think Hooters was the best part of the day. pretty sad. As we got on the freeway I was able to look down into the parking lot and saw cars still drifting and only about 1/3 of the people still there. I guess we weren't the only ones that felt like they got RIPPED off in every way and left early.

8. All I can say is I WILL NOT ever attend another D1 event unless it is held at an ACTUAL racetrack that is setup properly and can cater properly to all the fans that are in attendance. The D1 people in charge of yesterday should be ashamed of the product they put out!

[courantcom]

Wow, what a joke that was. I've been too all previous D1 events at irwindale and some formula d events and have always had a great time so I'm not a hater. I was bummed D1 wasn't coming to the U.S. in 2008 so they could "regroup" and make it better. So I was excited about yesterday. However what I experienced yesterday was an absolutely joke. I felt like I was back in 2002 at Hot Import Nights. We got hosed!!

1. $15 bucks for parking? Really? Long ticket lines, why can't you people do the e-mail ticket method like before.

I think parking prices are up to the venue, and not the actual event...so to D1's defense, parking can't be blamed on D1.

2. So after we stood in the long ticket lines we finally got inside and sat in the bleachers. After about 2 hours of on track action we got told to leave because we didn't have wrist bands. OK that's fine. I asked the security guy

There's a good idea in here...and that is to have an actual D1 representative present at various locations around the event...even if there were people walking around with hideous shirts that say "How May I Help You?". Yeah, they look cheezy, and the people wearing them would have to swallow some pride, but it adds a way of how the actual PATRONS of the event can interact with the group that put together the event. Come to think of it, it would be cool to have people like this at every event. People will always have questions...and why not load a couple people up with some answers. "Security" personnel can never have accurate information as to how to do what, or even where anything at a venue is.

if we could go out and upgrade to a wrist band. He said yes go out to the ticket window and pay $10 to get a wrist band. So we walked all the way around the grandstands like a mile at least

The entire event wasn't THAT big...sheesh, you're making it sound like D1 was HUGE! =X ;-)

only to get to the front and be told by a RUDE security guard they have stopped letting people out and then come back in for whatever reason. So now we are stuck inside and can't even go give the d1 IDIOTS more money so we can have a seat. Real smart..

3. So we are all getting mad at this point and hungry and thirsty. So the only FOUR food booths have lines that are so so so long it's not even worth it. I asked a guy that was almost to the front of the kettle corn line how long he'd been in line and he said 1 hour and 30 minutes. So I end up buying a can of pepsi for $5.00 and I savored every drop.

4. The car show was just wrong. Out of the at least 300 cars I saw only 15 or so that were actually worth looking at. The DUB cars were lame and the music was blasting way loud. The vendors were the worst I've ever seen out of any car show. I wanted a poster from the Vertex booth and the guy wanted to charge me $5. The rest were just lame. A 2005 chevy impala on 28 inch rims. WTF WHY?? why is that at a drifting event? Anyways. The car show was very disappointing as was the fact the pits weren't open like they are at irwindale. So you couldn't even go look at the D1 cars.

5. Lack of competition on track.. The Japanese D1 drivers were just 100 times better than the other guys. That red e30 bmw spun out in the first turn because Kumakubo was hauling *Censored**Censored**Censored* behind him and he couldn't handle it.

6. Nothing was on schedule. Everything was at-least an hour or more behind schedule. We watched the Super 16 run and then they said they were taking a 20 minute break before the top 8 ran. At this point it was about 5:15 and we had enough and got up and left. We were all hungry and wanted something to drink and I wasn't about to buy another $5 can of pepsi.

I still can't quite get over the fact that they were asking $5.00 for a can of soda. I mean, if it's $5, at least try and make it look good with a cup full of sponsor logos and what not...you know, a souvenir cup or something.

7. So we left and went to Hooters around the corner and drank beer and ate wings before the drive back to S.D. I think Hooters was the best part of the day. pretty sad. As we got on the freeway I was able to look down into the parking lot and saw cars still drifting and only about 1/3 of the people still there. I guess we weren't the only ones that felt like they got RIPPED off in every way and left early.

8. All I can say is I WILL NOT ever attend another D1 event unless it is held at an ACTUAL racetrack that is setup properly and can cater properly to all the fans that are in attendance. The D1 people in charge of yesterday should be ashamed of the product they put out!

[facked_yer_mom]

man this was by far an shitty d1 event. so very unorganized event. to much "hype" and cant even back it up? "Biggest drifting build-out ever" haha comeon. the course layout was different from what is illustrated on their website! where was the "pedestrian bridge", line array speakers - sounded like blown speakers to me. oh yeah, a suggestion turn off the mic, we can hear alot of feed back from the judging tower. drift box worst thing ever! i thought drift box was suppose to eliminate or reduce the 1 more time? another thing i would like to add how can that run with daigo saito and that green nst hatchi run be called "equally". oh yeah so whats up with ken nomura his "drift box" i heard ken nomura didnt engage cuz the drift box was crap and he had a really good run in qualifying? d1 was behind schedule, wtf happen to super 16? it just ran into top 16? read it under http://www.d1gp.com/v2/latest/d1gp-usa-competition.html (Practice & attack session). security was shitty, haha i admit i bought a ga ticket and sneaked into the grand stands. food court more like food tent. oh another thing those k-rails look like they will break half if someone ran into it, there so thin, luckily nobody hit it, those banners on the track look like crap, if i was sponsor id be pissed. so many flaws at this event...i just wanna say "HYPE KILLS"
 

[courantcom]

I'll keep it short and sweet.

The event felt like an FD event from '04 or '05... FD Chicago / Houston-esque. Considering this was the first event that this group has put on, it wasn't TERRIBLE.... however, after what D1 has done in the past, and what FD has done over the past 6 years, it wasn't up to "par" for what was expected.

That's the thing...this ISN'T the first event that this group has put on. This event was supposed to be put on by the people that started Hot Import Nights. Seems like it was put together with a group of people that simply entrusted too much faith in other people that convinced them that they knew what they were doing.

So...with that all said and done, the car show side was actually really good. There was something in there for everyone. It doesn't matter what kind of "car person" you are. If you were into cars to any degree, you'll find a car or group of cars that you can say you like. I'm sure load-in and tear down on THAT side of the fence went off without a hitch. The stage seemed like it had great action...

I was hired on to provide car crashing cleanup. My job was to efficiently and quickly remove whatever is in the way so that the schedule can continue. That includes oil spills, fluid spills...large debris removal, etc. I was a little busy on Friday...but definitely NOT busy on Saturday. I had a good bumper collection on Friday with a couple flat tows and one flat bed tow. For Saturday, I only went out once in the morning just to move a tire barrier back into position. Had I not done that, they would have to send out the world's slowest forklift...manned by the world's slowest operator. So...why am I mentioning this? They hired me to take care of that entire aspect of their event. I think I brought the proper equipment...tools, number of people, etc. I was more than ready for what actually happened.

I'm sure they hired people to design a course...lay out the paddock, figure out where the start and finish line goes...how to setup the judges stand, where to put them, deal with the media...how to place them, etc. I'm sure people were honestly hired and paid to do those jobs. I'll be honest and blatantly say it...they hired some of the wrong people. Some of the wrong people they hired were responsible for way too much of how the event goes.

I'm sure that if they included you in their planning meetings of how to deal with the media...such as media placements, facilities, accommodations, etc, that section will be properly handled. So...having said all that, I wonder who in that group said that they knew what to do and got the job. Obviously, whoever said that has no real clue as to how to deal with a bunch of real photographers.

If D1 hadn't hyped themselves up so much, this would have met expectations. But with D1 over-hyping (biggest TV deal, biggest build out in history, etc etc), this was a disappointment.

They had the space to do it...just not the right people. From my vantage point, there were several fundamentals that weren't even considered. Some of those fundamentals deal with why the course wasn't as "high speed" as it could have been...and such adjustments to the design had to be made because of the shortcomings of actual things at hand.

It will be interesting to see where things go from here.

Yes...very interesting. I wonder if they will honestly understand that a few people that comb through this website actually know a thing or two about how events should really be. I'm not saying that I know EVERYTHING there is to know about how to do an event...but I can definitely help identify problems before they actually happen. For example, if they were to hold such an event and not have a tow truck on site.

[stedriftward]

I was having a beer and the security saw me so they asked me to leave. They where cool about it.

The funniest shite about this is that they booted out a driver that's in their video game

I know it was just security and all but it was a D1 event.

I loved the look on your face when you were walking down the bleachers with them!!

[Black Guy]

Oh boy, after reading all of this i'm really looking forward to D1 miami.

[golden eye]

This was the worst event and venue I have ever competed in. We need irwindale back. Track was not as advertised, Track was designed for amaturs. If you came in to hot it tossed your driftline to far in. Not enough D1 drivers showed up so they made the course slower so the amaturs had a better chace of making it in. Drift box was a joke and delays in shedule was a joke. I had enough and packed up my R33 and got out of there. D1 if your going to do something do it right. If not don't start at all.