Jul 27, 20202 min read

Grassroots drifting, a story in the new age pandemic

These guys have the opportunity that the more professional drivers don’t, the guys with big build high horse power cars don’t generally want to come to small arenas.. Where they wet the track for the lower powered cars. The amount of mud spray you get from these circuits is awful, imagine bringing your top shelf competition car to one of these drift days. You’d be cleaning the mud off for weeks.

Now I’m not saying these practice days are for the lower class, no. These are just the days that open up so novices can learn the ropes and drive at their own level, ready to step it up into competition when they’re comfortable or confident enough to run in competition with others.

Or, these are just the days where people come down to hangout with their mates, have some laughs on the track, bang doors and rub paint, you know, the usual stuff. The times where you don’t even care if someone rips the bumper off your car, if the tandem drifting around the corner millimetres away from the concrete walls don’t make you smile, I’m pretty sure this sport isn’t for you.

When you walk around the pit area you generally see everyone enjoying themselves, discussing what craziness just happened on the track, or even other drivers helping out the guy that just crashed into the wall, drift is definitely a community, as well as a sport.

Sunshine or rain and these enthusiasts will be here, never missing the opportunity to get off the streets and into a safe environment, its just a shame there are very limited places to do this isn’t it?..

During this pandemic in 2020 we have all had to sacrifice a lot in our own lives, to help others and to save lives. This does include everyone, no matter what people may think, this has caused a lot of destruction. Now, recently the rules have changed, full lockdown has been lifted and we’ve been able to do what we love again, unfortunately in the new world this means having to wear a mask in certain places. I’ve heard that many automotive events will have this rule enforced, so why should we be any different.

I went to a local drift day over the weekend and included in the rules, yep, face masks and gloves. At first it looked a little scary to see everyone around with a mask on, kinda like I was in a weird movie, but then in the corner of the paddock I saw some mates, the first few guys I met when I came into the scene many years ago. A team who go by the name, ‘Bad Taste Racing’.

Whilst all this chaos is hanging over us its nice to be able to, in a way, forget about the real world and go out on track. At least we didn’t have to wear a face mask under our helmets!

Oh, sometimes you do actually see a few more exotic cars out on track though and some people do also come prepared. This is what we call a drift survivor kit, patent pending.