What Is Formula D Racing?

Unless you are a aficionado of racing cars, there is a decent chance that you have not heard of Formula D Racing. Formula D has its adherents obviously, yet it is still not as widely known as the other types of racing like Formula One, Drag Car Racing, NASCAR or Cross Country Rallying. This is partially because it is a pretty new kind of car racing.

Each year the national TV coverage is a bit more widespread, yet it is taking a long time to prise some of the airtime away from the more traditional sports. Once you have seen a competition though, the likelihood is that you will become hooked on this exhilarating sport that they have called Formula D.

The 'D' in Formula D stands for 'drifting' which is another name given to the sport. Drifting refers to the angle of the car with reference to the sides of the road at any given moment. Drifting around bends permits the car to maintain its highest possible speed in a turn. Drifting sounds natural and therefore commonplace, but it is really very hard to do properly.

Drifting takes talent and plenty of practice. Drivers are judged partially on their skill at drifting. There are in fact two facets of Formula D or two kinds of drifting. There are the traditional style qualifying runs and there are also tandem battles. Qualifying runs involve the driver racing solo flat out against the clock, drifting as necessary to sustain the highest speed possible.

However, tandem runs involve two car drivers who are being scored on their skills at outwitting the other driver. The judges are looking for the line of drift, the speed of the cars, overtaking, collisions and much more. Driving in the tandem runs really sorts the men out from the boys.

Formula Drifting grew up a little chaotically, but there have been major attempts to regulate it. At the moment the Formula Drift Championship is the only professional drifting championship that is authorized by SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) Pro Racing in the United States, although there are frequently amateur local drifting bouts held unofficially.

There has to be more officially sanctioned races so that standards are maintained and every driver follows the same set of regulations. This is the only way that the television stations will pick up on drifting and help advertise it more. Drifting is new to the United States, yet the first Drifting Races took place in 2004, so not all that long ago anyway. It is still very much a new sport.

At the moment the country where Formula D is most popular is Japan, but that is likely to change when the American media gets to grips with Drifting. At the moment it is still not that simple to watch drifting events unless you live in California, Washington, Georgia or New Jersey and it is still not simple to watch it on TV unless you get G4TechTV, which is commonly known as G4.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on several subjects, but is now concerned with how to compare tyre prices. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Car Tyres For Sale.