I could tell you who won the second round of FormulaD: Atlanta, I could tell you what types of turbos and superchargers were used on some of the drift cars there, I could even tell you the weight of each car, but I won’t.

That would just be me regurgitating statistics and specs, and nobody goes to a drift event to know how much horsepower team xxx is running, no, they go cause of the excitement that Formula Drift is known for. There are no numbers to describe what it feels like there.

I’ve been to a few drift events, but only in Texas. Grassroots drifting is what I’m all about, make no mistake about that, however, there is something to be said about high-stakes, high dollar professional drifting that even grassroots events can’t hold a candle to. This all feels so new…

Let’s rewind for a minute.
The first time I attended a FormulaD event was back in the summer of 2004, damn near 6 years ago when it was held at Reliant Stadium. It was quite memorable. It was held outdoors of course, but there was also a show going on indoors. Here, they even had a Need For Speed Underground drift challenge, where spectators could drift in the then-new EA Sports game for free, with the top winner getting a ride along with one of the FormulaD drivers. Why was this so memorable? I actually placed third at this competition! Pretty funny. At least I got a shirt out of it.

But that’s not what stood out to me from this event. This was basically Houston’s first “big” drift event to hit the third coast, so with that, FormulaD spared no expense in bringing out the heavy hitters. NOB Tanuguchi, Tarzan Yamada, Rhys Millen, Sam Hubinette, Vaughn Gittin JR, and all sorts of drift celebrities were here in the Lone Star State to show us how it’s done. They put on quite the show, and from what I remember, everyone had a GREAT time. I remember the feeling after leaving that I genuinely got my money’s worth, and I was so looking forward to the next time they would come back to houston in 2005.

Unfortunately, 2005 would be the last time Houston, no scratch that, Texas, would ever see a FormulaD sanctioned event.

I wouldn’t get that feeling of excitment back until recently during Import Reactor Drift, but even still, I kinda missed the glitzy, hollywood, glamorous style that FormulaD had. So when JohnP asked me if I wanted to go with him to FormulaD Atlanta, I agreed, mostly to satisfy my curiosity for how FormulaD has changed.

Some things never change.

When we landed in Atlanta, we weren’t sure what to expect. The last time I was in Atlanta was in 2001 for Nopi Nationals, which is no more, and from what I remembered, there were a lot of crazy people where we stayed at.

But not this time. Atlanta is actually a beautiful city full of trees, curvy roads with elevation changes. The people were oh so nice too! When we finally pulled up in our rental Corolla to Road Atlanta, just Northeast of Atlanta, we were greeted by the steepest incline I’ve ever seen that wasn’t a part of a mountain. This paved incline was the entrance to Road Atlanta, and I’m so upset that I actually did not take a picture of that ramp. Our rental Corolla could barely make it up the hill without dying, it was that steep.

As soon as we were at the top, it then became very surreal. Road Atlanta was a HUGE facility, and there was a ton of things going on all at once. But first thing’s first, we decided to hit up the pits where both the drift cars and vendors would be.

That’s it for part one, part two coming out tomorrow!
–David–
David@maydaygarage.com