Taro Kori, President and CEO of Zigzag Asia, writes his impressions of American Drifting on his weblog, jdmracer.blogspot.com. He talks about some things that he feels are needed, and why the current drifting competition formats used in the United States do not play well on television. I certainly agree with some of the points that he makes, and have been formulating some ideas and opinions of my own over the last few years.
Here is an excerpt:
You know where this could lead to is purely drift demos. Who knows? Drifting is all about tricks. Whether it is one car or with two cars or three cars. You go out and show your stuff and you’re judged on how well you executed it. Just like skating and skateboarding. This tandem battle style is too gray for mainstream. This could be strange from someone like me who produces Touge Battle videos. But this gray style is just not TV friendly enough to make it big. Two cars going against each other but cannot necessarily pass and must follow some imaginary line? Come on! That is so Japanese in the bad vague way. Winning and losing has to be clearer. Clear as black and white or you’ll never get rid of the whining. Japan invented the sport but the US doesn’t have to follow every bit up to the gray stuff. The Americans this time must take in something that is not theirs and make it their own. It’s time to rip up those old ancient rules and rewrite the constitution your way. It’s got be easier than the won you wrote back in 1787.