On an uncharacteristically warm Sunday afternoon in September I attended the first major drift event in the Midwest, the RS-R Drift Festival at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois. And, if it weren’t for a bunch of idiocy at the end of the event, it turned out to be a great little intro to drifting. With movies!

On an uncharacteristically warm Sunday afternoon in September I attended the first major drift event in the Midwest, the RS-R Drift Festival at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois. And, if it weren’t for a bunch of idiocy at the end of the event, it turned out to be a great little intro to drifting.

Now, for the folks out there who still might not know what drifting is – it basically involves taking your car and trying to get it to slide or “drift” sideways through a curve for as long as you can. That’s the short answer. Typically drifting cars are rear wheel drive (RWD) – refer back to Mr. Lorraine’s fine article for help with what that means if you need to! – because it痴 mighty hard to get a FWD car to kick its back end out and keep it that way for any length of time. Because of its cheapness, RWD drive train and plethora of aftermarket upgrades available from Japan (the birthplace of modern drifting) the Nissan 240SX is typically the drifter’s car of choice. And the 240’s were out in force at the Drift Festival. Of course, there were other cars – Toyota AE86痴, Miata痴, an S2000, a Supra, 350Z’s, and even an old El Camino – but the vast majority were 240’s in an array of colors and trim levels.

By the time I arrived at Rt. 66 Raceway cars were already roaring around the curvy drift track. Spectators were able to stand pretty close to the track and watch the cars slide by which also meant that you would get covered in the waves of tire dust generated from each car shredding its tires as it passes by. Good times.

Throughout the day groups of amateur and professional drivers were constantly going down the track practicing for the competition later in the afternoon. At regular periods the top RS-R drivers from Japan would hop in their well-tuned and very expensive drift cars and put on a drift show. First the four RS-R drivers would go by solo, then in pairs and finally all four at once in a kind of synchronized swimming of automobiles. You can get a little bit of an idea of how this looks by watching the two videos I took that show the RS-R drivers in pairs and driving with all four at once. Video 1 + Video 2. Quicktime required.

The funny thing about drifting is that it’s a bit subjective to judge. You don’t “win” by beating the other person to the finish line first, you win by performing the longest, most dangerous and exciting drift possible. I like to think of it as figure skating for cars since drivers basically drive/drift in front of a group of judges who then decide who the best drifter is. Audience participation is important though as well since drivers who can excite the crowd are more likely to win than someone who can’t.

One thing really pissed me off though… at the end of the day when the RS-R drivers were giving their final show people just started stealing the RS-R and Yokohama banners that had been flapping in the breeze around the track all day. At first just a few folks did it and the announcer told them to stop but then scores of people swarmed to the banners and ripped them down with some kind of idiotic mob mentality. The relatively light security there was unable to handle the situation and just let everyone basically destroy the banners. Really bad form in my opinion. Especially since drifting is not anywhere near as big in Chicago or the Midwest as it is on the West coast and in California. So RS-R and Yokohama spent all this money to come to Chicago and try to get the scene started and then these bozos in the audience go and trash shit at the end. Weak.

After all was said and done though it was a great day for anyone who enjoys cars, and especially imports, to be outside and bask in the glory of loud engines, screeching tires and burnt rubber. Hopefully the tuner companies who put up the bucks, cars and drivers to kick-start these kinds of events won稚 be turned off by the audience’s stupid actions at the end and will continue to invest in Chicago’s fledgling drift scene.