Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
“<br />
What’s not to like about the<br />
recklessness of driving a<br />
car - being able to practice<br />
controlling something that’s, you<br />
know, essentially out of control at<br />
the same time?”<br />
Professional driver Ryan Tuerck has<br />
hit on the best way to describe Formula<br />
Drift - just one of the motorsports set<br />
to take on the streets as part of this<br />
year’s Long Beach Grand Prix, the<br />
longest-running street race in the US.<br />
Formula Drift is kind of the stepchild<br />
of the more established race formats<br />
we’ll see there, like Le Mans and Indy<br />
cars -- an irreverent, distinctly flashy<br />
stepchild.<br />
Here’s the thing: it isn’t a race. Just as<br />
driving<br />
sideways<br />
BEHIND THE SMOKE OF FORMULA DRIFT AT THE<br />
LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX<br />
Formula Drift takes on the streets of<br />
Long Beach during the 39th Long Beach<br />
Grand Prix. Photo courtesy of Ryan Tuerck.<br />
BMXers moved from the dirt course to<br />
the half-pipe and the sport took a turn<br />
more about style than speed, Formula<br />
Drift is a blur of colors, wheels - and<br />
tons of smoke.<br />
“It’s like doing a big-ass burnout, but<br />
for a long, extended period of time<br />
through a series of turns,” says Tuerck.<br />
But that control Tuerck mentions is<br />
key - with the flashy comes finesse.<br />
“We’re judged on speed, angle, line<br />
and overall style.”<br />
As cars go head to head in tandem<br />
battles, skills become essential on the<br />
track. When the drivers turn corners,<br />
they drift in synchronicity, dangerously<br />
close to one another. Professional<br />
driver and 2009 Formula Drift<br />
BY SASHA MILENA<br />
champion Chris Forsberg describes<br />
just how risky the Long Beach course<br />
really is.<br />
“The track is super dangerous,”<br />
Forsberg says. “It’s got walls on both<br />
sides, which makes no room for error<br />
and since it’s a streets course, the fans<br />
are sitting right at the edge.”<br />
The Long Beach course is one of the<br />
riskiest because the narrowest point<br />
on the track from one concrete block<br />
to another is only about 45 feet, says<br />
Formula Drift founder and president<br />
Jim Liaw. Just imagine two cars<br />
squeezing through this narrow space,<br />
while attempting to maintain control<br />
in order to get points, with screaming<br />
fans only inches away from the fence.<br />
It gets trickier, too – this year, Formula<br />
5
Change language