Format
Before competitors are allowed to practice and before the qualifying rounds begin, each competitor will have signed in at ‘Drift Control’ and received their qualifying number and mandatory decals. This number will tell you when to go out onto the track to qualify. When it is your turn to qualify, you will proceed onto the track and agree that you are ready with the judges. You will get one practice run of the course, then stop at the start line and agree that you are ready to begin your qualifying. You will get three judged runs of which you will receive points out of 100 for each one. Once you have finished your three judged runs you will be notified of your result from the judge(s) and depart from the track area.
What are the judges looking for?
Drifting is a sport that is, in many ways, very similar to that of ice skating and there are certain criteria that the drivers get judged on that determine their overall scores and performance, these include:
Entry speed -
This is an aspect that cannot be easily proven in solo, qualifying runs but becomes more apparent in the ‘Tsuiso’ battles in the final 16. The entry speed of the drift can determine the result of the drift and a higher entry speed puts the car in more danger and makes the car harder to handle, because of this a higher entry speed will gain more points.
Line clipping -
This is a feature that the judges look into heavily. This is often judged on how well the driver takes the driving line and if they ‘clip’ the apexes, or not as the case may be. The driving line may not always be the inside curb of every corner but in most cases will involve the driver sliding from the outside of the corner, hitting the apex tip and then sliding back out wide to the edge of the track, maximising the drift’s length. Judges will often prefer to see the nose of the car clipping the inside point of a corner and the tail of the car to be as near to the outside of the turn as possible; this shows evidence of good car control which gains the driver more points towards their score.
Drift angle and counter steer -
The ‘Drifting Angle’ of a car is based on the direction it is facing against the direction it is travelling. The further the back end of the car comes around to be in line with the front of the car, the more ‘drifting angle’ it has. Primarily the more angle a driver achieves in his drifts, the more points he will score. In addition to this, there are more aspects that determine the score that are in relation to the angle. The angle has to be maintained throughout the drift without cutting back against the drift (straightening out half way through a drift) so that it appears to be one smooth motion. This also means that the drifts have to have high angle for extended periods of time to score heavily, whereas a short burst of oversteer would not get good points even if the rotation was significant. A car that demonstrates extreme amounts of rotation without spinning out will be awarded additional points, although, if too much speed is lost in any drift due to excessive angle points will not be as high.
Presentation -
Despite the judges marking the drivers predominantly on entry speed, driving lines and drifting angle, another factor that plays a part in the final scoring is presentation. This aspect is based on what the judge thinks of the driver’s technique and whether they think the driver is displaying flare or high amounts of energy in the drifting. Good presentation of drifting will catch a judge’s attention. Even though you may want to catch a spectator’s eye, any tricks or special moves that involve dangerous driving will not be condoned by the Series’ competition and this is only to be done in practice runs and exhibition displays. These tricks may include 360 spins into a controlled drift etc. Anything deemed ‘dangerous’ by the judges and D1RC officials will be ruled out whilst competition is in progress.
Scoring -
The judges will take all these factors into consideration and give you a score out of 100 points in total. You will get three scores from your runs, one score for each run, and your best result will be taken and placed onto the qualifying table in the correct position. In the event of a tied best score with another driver, your second, and if necessary third scores are taken into account. This position will determine whether you advance onto the Tsuiso final rounds (top 16 driver scores) or, in the Euro Cup, which final you will battle in.