Formula Drift Singapore - Pre-Race Press Conference

On Friday 10th June, the F1 Pits Media Room hosted the Achilles Asian Drift Series 2011 Pre-Race Press Conference, where Harvey Davis, Vice-President of ESPN STAR Sports, Ryan Sage, Co-Founder of Formula Drift and Marcus Lim, General Manager of Drift Pac Asia and Co-Founder of Formula Drift Asia, announced that the VIP Formula Drift Singapore 2011 would be the very first championship to crown the inaugural Team Championship title, which is a new points system somewhat similar to the manufacturers championship we see in other motorsports such as F1 and MotoGP, but in this case rewards teams for their performance.

This team championship is another evolution for the rather young Formula Drift Series which will now be carried on to the rest of the series worldwide (USA, Middle East and ASEAN). After Singapore, the Team Championship that was inaugurated here will include the rest of the ASEAN series, which are Formula Drift Indonesia in October, Thailand in November and the finale in Malaysia in December.

"Singapore's a fantastic motorsport nation with passionate fans, and we're pleased that this leg will be the first ever to adopt the new Team Champion format. The move aims to professionalize the sport led by the teams, while creating more opportunities for sponsorship and branding. At the drivers' level, this also fosters and accelerates teams and driver development as well," stated Ryan Sage.

But this Team Championship title is not the only change made to this season of Formula Drift: the judging format has also been refined and will now focus less on speed (a maximum of 10 points out of 100 will be awarded for entry speed) and more on style, promising bigger angles and more smoke for an even more intense Formula Drift experience.

 

While the Pre-race Conference was taking place on the second floor of the F1 Pit Building, the actual pits at ground floor were seeing an ecstatic dance of preparations as the teams were setting up shop, the drift machines driving in on their own wheels or on flatbed trucks, the drivers were having their official pictures taken and were given their number plates and tyres were being rolled in and stacked in piles next to collections of spare gearboxes, radiators and other parts likely to give way during the next two days, while the cars were receiving their last stickers before lining up for inspection. 

 Formula Drift Singapore was getting in gear.

As part of the media, I had the chance to sit as passenger for a ride along the track with one of this year's contender and ended up sitting next to Ken Gushi in his SPARK Motorsports Toyota Chaser. When asking him about his feelings for this leg of Formula Drift, he replied that he will see as this was his first time driving this car. Still, that didn't stop him from getting the Chaser sideways around the track.

Stick around for the full coverage of the VIP Formula Drift Singapore where I rolled with Team GT Radial! Jump to the coverages of Day 1 and Day 2!