ok I'ma come in since I personally have travelled more than maybe any other FL driver on my own dime I think. Suck it up about the money issue guys. There are trade offs. Stop buying dildo shift knobs and fucking nardi steering wheels. Anyone take a look inside my car lately? STOCK wheel, STOCK shifter, STOCK dash, NO gauges (stocks broke when building car), NOTHING except required seat and harness. This isnt because its not somethings I want, its because I'd rather use that $60 to get to or into an event rather than have the coolest steering wheel.
Make sacrifices. You all talk a lot about this and that money and don't look for ways to take short cuts. Talk to shops, lots of them, find a guy that will help you on mount costs. find a used tire place that will help you on costs for that, tell them you are constantly buying used tires. Hell, even paint... you can spray paint a whole car if you take your time, and use enough coats. it can loook decent for 20$.
if you want to drive more you can find a way. if you cant find a way, you just dont want it bad enough or your situation is really bad. in the second case start working on how to better things. none of us who are looked up to got here by spending $20. Anyone that was mentioned in previous posts has spent a MINIMUM of $10,000 I guarantee. Car/travel/tires/hotels/entrys etc... Some of us that have been going longer and have trucks/trailers and all that shit are into it for EASY 25K+ so don't wine about your money please, its insulting to hear about how you cant afford a drift event because you need gas money to get home. I know it happens, but that shouldnt be a reason IN THIS THREAD.
To get FL drifting back into the RIGHT focus we need a few things.
#1 The tracks/organizers need to work together to stop having 3 events the same weekend. Share the drifting community around the state and give areas a break in between. Its no wonder we see 30 people at events when next weekend there is a totally different 30, and a 2nd track has another 30. If we stopped running 4 events a month, and consolidated them into 2 max in the STATE, we would see many more attend and full driver list = happy track owners.
#2 make crowds happy. TANDEM makes crowds skeet, we need more tandem. Means you guys need to sacrifice and get bolt in cages! from event side it helps if you allow rides-a-longs. raffle ride-a-longs to the crowd with 'demo' drivers. or sell them straight up? Make sure the drivers providing the opportunity get a cut of the money, because without them, crowd gets no rides and they dont get that 'extra draw in'.
#3 PRE-REGISTER ONLY. if you want to drive, pay up before game day. this allows for people to actually commit and not puss out day of. and helps the venue see potential disaster before its too late. if you dont pre-reg, you dont drive. you show up past the meeting, you dont drive. Learn to not be a damn high schooler if you want to be treated like a 'driver'. Tracks are professional environments that have spent lots of money to build the facilities. This isnt a skate park yo, take time out of your busy morning to actually show up on time. its a matter of RESPECT to the event and other drivers. events need to have a drivers meeting, a real one. TIGHTEN up our amatuers professionalism. TELL them how the day will run, what the course is, what is NOT ALLOWED, and what they need to do to be ready. Make it short but informative.
#4 stop fkking waiting until the DAY OF or BEFORE an event to FIX YOUR CARS! I don't know why drifters are so damn LAZY. Get tires a week before, get your new stud in the damn hub (it takes 30 min?) Stop showing up to an event and having to open a damn car garage just to make it to the track and then missing runs/wanting to jump in other run groups. Simple shit like EMPTY YOUR BACKSEAT. I swear we are the most pathetic group of drivers. No other state have I ever seen people leave a helmet/jack/mcDonalds flying around the car.
#5 stop worrying about what you can't do. too many people are trying to 'skip' the learning steps and just jump into high speed or high HP cars just to get attention and they end up not progressing or never getting build done. start simple and get good, then upgrade. You have PLENTY of time to get recognized when its your turn, don't trying to worry about right now, worry about building a REAL foundation.
so in summary....
1/stop wasting money on shit that you dont have to have, then complain about no money.
2/make crowds happy from an event organizer pov. and stop conflicting the schedule so much.
3/tighten up the respect and professionalism in FL.
4/fix you DAMN CAR before the event gets here.
5/stop trying to be mr.2cool4skool
Don't get me wrong, FL has a lot of positives, but as a whole, the community is the ones responsible for the scene. If I was an organizer and saw the lack of professionalism at events, I'd never have another drift event. You can show up on time, with a working car, with the ability to listen to rules AND HAVE FUN... trust me.
Moe- as for your direct question... competition would work but you need more time I think to really do a competition. If you are just doing a mini-comp then its ok but with real comp style... practice/qual/tandem... its a LOT of time needed. at the demos do you guys announce anything to interest the crowd? introduce drivers BEFORE the demo/ allow them to do burnouts/donuts/windmills to get the crowd pumped? word of mouth is the cheapest and easiest advertising, just gotta get people telling their friends. See if you can work it to give spectators rides/raffle them/sell them, insurance issues i know, but see about it with proper gear- maybe fara has a firesuit they can 'lend' for use and a helmet? Just a thought.
GL ya'll, we need to fix this up.
