Xtreme Drift Circuit XDC 2010 – Irwindale
By Brian Jones, Photography by Duane Uyeda
The Xtreme Drift Circuit kicked off its 2010 season with an opening round at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. Our intrepid Photography Editor, Duane Uyeda, made the trip out to the “House Of Drift” and caught all the action firsthand. With turbocharged Nissans going up against V8-powered RX-7s and naturally aspirated Toyota Corollas, the drifting was intense and closely fought.
The XDC series is a unique drifting and car show combination that attempts to cater to professional and amateur drivers, otherwise known as a Pro-Am series. With companies like Royal Purple, NOS, Discount Tire, Mazda and seemingly every tire manufacturer on Earth involved, professional drifting has an incredible draw for amateur drivers.
In Formula Drift’s pro ranks, drivers can get behind the wheel of a 600hp monster that features professional preparation, relocated suspension points, engine swaps, sequential transmissions, lots of tires and a big budget.
Now compare that to a grassroots driver’s zip ties, small budget and old chassis. Throw in the incredible popularity and visibility of big time drifting and you’ll see why every driver wants to do well in the XDC.
XDC offers a cash prize to the top four finishers and an invitation to the Pro-Am Nationals for the top three finishers at each event. The top three drivers from the overall XDC series also get a 2011 Formula Drift pro license. Off to the big leagues, so to speak.
Drivers that place 4th through 8th at the end of the season each get an invitation to the Pro-Am Nationals, where they can also compete to win that 2011 Formula D license.
With many young, hungry drift drivers pouring all of their money and effort into their racing programs, results are desired. On track, it showed. James Evans, from JE Import Performance, drove his V8-powered, Tokico-suspended Nissan 350Z into the Top 16 before being eliminated against eventual winner David Briggs. Briggs would also beat Mike Pollard and Jeff Jones before facing Quoc Ly.
Jones would take his S13-chassis Nissan 240SX out against Brian Peter’s V8-powered Mazda RX-7 in the battle for 3rd place. It was a close fight but Peter eventually hit the wall in the oval while leading Jones, taking himself out.
With XDC’s prize payout structure, Briggs was awarded a prize of $3000, Ly $2000, Jones $1000 and Peter $500, while the top three were awarded tool packages from Genius Tools. Not a bad way to start off the season.
Source
Xtreme Drift Circuit
www.xtremedriftcircuit.com
