Drifting
A competition where there's no fear: this is Drift Masters
Get ready to go sideways with another season of Drift Masters on Red Bull TV and get the complete lowdown on all you need to know.
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As one half of the Red Bull Driftbrothers, Johannes 'Joe' Hountondji is one of drifting’s best-known drivers. He loves the sport, but even he'll tell you that “drifting is not the easiest sport to understand.”
It is, however, one of the most exciting (and fastest growing) disciplines in motorsport, demanding the perfect balance of speed, style and fearlessness from its drivers. As Joe says, competitors go “man against man, machine against machine, mano a mano, head to head.”
With Europe's definitive professional drifting series, the Drift Masters (DM), returning for a new season in 2024, it's the time to learn exactly what the sport entails. This is drifting explained.
01
The birth of drifting
The sport was developed on the twisting mountain roads of Japan in the late '70s and early ’80s when circuit racers like Kuniaki Takahashi and Keiichi Tsuchiya – better known as the Drift King – began accelerating out of corners earlier and earlier by turning the car sideways. This, explains Jo, are the “the origins of drifting as a motorsport.”
Tsuchiya’s mesmerising 1987 film, Pluspy, made with support from car magazines and garages to show off the possibilities of drifting, really put the scene on the map in those early days. But the biggest plug the sport has ever received was the film Tokyo Drift, the third instalment of The Fast and the Furious series.
Thanks to modern-day drifting stars like 'Mad' Mike Whiddett and series like Formula Drift in the US and Japan, the sport's popularity has grown exponentially. Says Joe’s fellow Red Bull Drift Brother Elias Hountondji: “Europe is exploding at the moment.”
1 min
Drifting Beast
On his first ever trip to Russia, ‘Mad' Mike Whiddett, has a drift duel with Dakar champ, Eduard Nikolaev.
02
How to drift
Drifting is, essentially, the art of getting cars to travel forwards, but sideways, as fast as possible through turns, so that once drivers are out of a corner they can quickly accelerate away. But attempting to control a car when its tyres aren't gripping the road means “battling the laws of physics to the fullest extent,” says Elias.
As any petrolhead will know, you can make cars go sideways by either locking up the rear wheels, speeding them up or playing with weight transfer. For beginners, the simplest way of drifting is, says Elias, “to go for a turn and pull the brake; the rear wheels will lock up, and then you just slowly put on angle as much as you like, then slowly release the brake, step on the throttle and hold the grip.”
The pros have a multitude of different drifting styles and techniques involving clutches and brakes, and will drift through successive turns without their wheels gripping the road.
15 min
Deciding to drift
Becky Evans, aka Queen B, begins her journey into the drifting world.
03
Drifting cars
Drifting cars get thrown about tracks with abandon, sometimes around corners that are perilously close to concrete walls, so no one wants to spend a fortune on irreplaceable machines. And yet drifting cars are more than just beaten-up secondhand motors.
These are properly engineered race cars that, in the cockpit, closely resemble rally car setups. They need to be lightweight and rear-wheel drive, but, agree Joe and Elias, “power is the main thing.” That means 1,000-plus bhp.
“We use that power to not only create smoke but to be able to have the grip on the car driving sideways,” explains Elias. “The car I’m driving now, the BMW E30, is my dream car. With lots of power, lots of grip.”
Joe drives a Nissan 240SX S13. “It has a lot of power, it has the grunt, but it also has the looks.” Other top cars in the sport include the Nissan 370Z, Nissan Silvia S14, Nissan Silvia S15, Toyota GT86, BMW E46, Ford Mustang and Mazda MX-5.
Elias Hountondji (left) and his brother, Joe
© Agnieszka Doroszewicz
04
Drifting's major competition is Drift Masters
There are numerous championships held around the world, but perhaps the most prestigious is Drift Masters (DM). The championship is, in some ways, more like ice skating than motorsport racing – and not just because its cars look like they’re sliding all over the place.
The sport is actually all about scoring points. In the DMEC, three judges are on hand to score every run by four criteria, these being…
Speed: The faster a driver takes a corner, the better. However, the challenge is keeping that speed up while also performing the best angle.
Angle: This means swinging the car’s back end out as far as possible (ie, going sideways), for as long as possible. “But the more angle you put on,” explains Joe, “at some point you’re going to slow the car down.” Basically, drivers want to go as fast as possible while also travelling sideways.
Line: This means travelling as close to the judges’ predefined racing line as possible. This line is marked by clipping points and clipping zones – clipping points are mostly on the inside of turns, while clipping zones are on the outside. The aim is to keep the car’s nose as close to the clipping points as possible, while also keeping the rear as tight as possible to the clipping zone.
Style: As if there’s not already enough for drivers to think about, they must also achieve all of the above with as much style, aggression and showmanship as possible. Burning rubber is very much encouraged.
Judges can award a maximum of 100 points for each run.
3 min
Watch 'Mad' Mike Whiddett drifting the Crown Range
Hang on tight as 'Mad' Mike Whiddett takes on New Zealand's famed Crown Range, which was closed for the first time for him to take on its 47 corners and 1076m elevation gain in one thrilling ride.
05
The format of the Drift Masters
Every round of DM starts with qualifying, which means every driver takes two solo runs. The above scoring system applies, but drivers need to find the right balance between points-scoring and keeping themselves in the game.
“You get two tries and that either takes you through to the battles, or it’s the end of your weekend,” explains Joe. “You can either go all-out on your first lap and if you mess it up, you have one to go. Or you can go easy on the first lap, then all-out in the second. Then you have a sort of safe one in the books.”
Drivers who don’t score enough points are sent packing. Those that do proceed into the tandem runs – battles between a lead car and chase car. For most drifting drivers, these are what define the sport.
Red Bull Driftbrothers Elias and Johannes Hountondji in action
© Christian Stadler/Red Bull Content Pool
06
There's no overtaking in drifting
“Battles are the element that really define drifting, setting it apart from every other motorsport," says Joe.
In tandem drifting battles, two drivers take turns in being the lead car and the chase car. The lead car needs to do what it did in qualifying, only more so. That means driving faster, with higher angles, while keeping tighter to the line and with even more style.
But the lead car is not alone: the chase car is right behind the leader, trying to put the driver off. The aim of the chase car is to stay as tight as possible to the lead car, while mimicking what the leader does. Both need to execute the ideal drift in this pressure-cooker situation.
With cars burning rubber, it's not always easy for the chasing driver to see the leader's moves. "It’s about anticipating the moves your lead driver will make," says Joe. "You have to go by muscle memory, you have to trust a lot. This is my favourite personal part of the sport, chasing cars down, hunting doors."
The driver who dominates the battle, scores the points.
6 min
Final – Riga, Latvia
Relive the impressive showcase of precision driving in the final battle between James Deane and Grzegorz Hypki at this year's Drift Masters European Championship 2018 event in Riga, Latvia.
07
The 2024 Drift Masters schedule
Below is a list of the six rounds taking place this year, including when and where they are held:
ROUND
DATE
COUNTRY
LOCATION
RED BULL TV LIVE COVERAGE
1.
May 10–12
Spain
Circuit Ricardo Tomo
2.
June 15–16
Ireland
Mondello Park
3.
July 5–6
Finland
Huvivaltio PowerPark
4.
August 2–3
Latvia
Bikernieki Circuit
5.
August 23–24
Hungary
Rabócsiring Mariapocs
6.
September 14–15
Poland
PGE Narodowy, Warsaw
08
The RBTV live experience
Red Bull TV viewers will be able to take advantage of a unique innovation for the worldwide drift community. Fans tuning in will automatically see graphics updating in real time on their screen, explaining amongst other things the exact angles the cars are drifting at, their speed, proximity to each other and percentage of time spent in a clipping point, or zone (the judges preferred racing line).
To make this happen, all parts of the track and all competing cars are being precisely measured via laser in advance to create virtual versions of them. They're then tracked in data crunching software via two 'tags', which are mounted in precise places on the moving cars. To beam the data to your screens, a total of around 1,700m of fibre cables, 350m of power cables and 3,280m of ethernet cables have been installed along both sides of the track.
A separate tracking dashboard will also be made available to judges and commentators to assist in their scoring and analysis of the races.
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