Wrecked Magazine
Well-Known Member
Well today we received a press release assuring us that the D1 Grand Prix will be throwing a 2009 season. As much as I wanted to be excited I have to admit that it doesn’t look good. I am a gambler at heart and running the numbers just doesn’t seem to have it in them to do it. With so many failed promises in the recent past I won’t be getting my hopes up or booking any flights. Now if they get together and make it happen I will gladly eat my words but let’s not get so worried about that jut yet. Let’s break down the press release they were kind enough to not send Wrecked Magazine for you guys.
What will truly separate the D1GP (USA) racing series from any other drift program are the event locations that will draw larger crowds and will build a new fan base for the sport of drifting. The D1GP USA events will take place in downtown city locations that serve as a central area to the surrounding communities.
Interesting I guess but sounds like a huge pain logistically. The old Formula D Chicago events at Soldier Field were a blast but parking, pit space and everything was a huge headache. So off the bat it looks like no race track bookings that we can confirm with for this 2009 series.
The all-new D1GP USA series will be operated by Southern California based, Driven Events. The company has licensed D1 Grand Prix USA and share a long term vision with D1GP (Japan) to produce the race programs in the United States. The license agreement also includes rights to Canada. The management team behind Driven Events includes the original founders of Hot Import Nights responsible for much of the industries growth before they sold HIN in 2004 and Imagine Media Group, producers of events such as Extreme Autofest. What this means to the industry is the events for the D1 Grand Prix USA are being hosted by industry professionals with the leadership and experience to make D1 bigger and better than it previously was.
Good news, they licensed Canada! Basically this says blah blah blah don’t worry Hot Import Nights is running these events. I think we have shared our thoughts from the HIN camp from this video here. All this great management seems pretty interesting, but man does this start to smell of the old sport compact drag racing era awful quick.
For the past year, there have been many questions raised as to whether D1 Grand Prix would come back to the U.S. The answer has always been yes; however, the key to bringing the racing series back to U.S. soil surrounded the establishment of a new management team and the timely development of a program that would separate it from other drift racing programs already competing here.
Most of our questions were about the All-Star event you never had in November that you kept dragging announcements out for. The question I want to know are can we get a conference at SEMA from you guys? Can we please have some people on the site/interview them from this new D1 Grand Prix regiment? Can I get a press release? That is all.
D1GP USA will be releasing more information on the schedule, locations, drivers and overall program in the coming months.
How about SEMA!?
Well that is the break down of this press release. I know we have been getting quite the hate mail saying we are busted D1 pretty hard but it’s a reality of the circumstance. It’s a case of the boy who cried wolf, after a while it gets hard to believe a new series is around the corner. We plan to sit back and wait for more updates on this as it happens.
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