Fear of the dark

  • 2009-08-13
  • By Antons Ponomarenko

RIGA - The fifth stage of the Latvian Drift Championship and the fifth stage of Finland's X-treme Drifting Trophy took place at the Bikernieki race track last Saturday, August 8.
Drift as a motorsport was founded in Japan in the 1970s. Its techniques were developed from the ones used in the All Japan Touring Car Championship by Kunimitsu Takanashi, a motorcycling legend of the time. Drift is referred to as a driving technique where the driver intentionally loses traction in the rear tires, causing the car to over-steer at high speeds.

Judgement is based upon four factors: speed, line, angle and show. Speed of entering, passing through and exiting the turn. Correct line, which the judges announce beforehand, taken by the driver. Angle of the car in a drift. Show factor is based upon the amount of smoke, additional flashing lights, proximity of the car to the wall or the opponent and the crowd's reaction.
So, thanks to the staginess of the show, drift has been gaining in popularity all over the world for more than 30 years, and has finally come to Latvia as a motorsports event, rather than a gathering of teenagers burning tires on their dad's BMW in the empty shopping-mall parking lot at night.
The event itself was fabulous to look at, however, the organization was rather poor, which can be understood because Latvia has never held similar events before.

First came the Latvian and Lithuanian 'drifters,' mostly on BMW 3-series cars. Squeaking noises, lots of wheel spinning and clouds of smoke. The crowd was filled with joy, but they didn't know what was coming. And coming were the Finns. Their choice mostly fell on cars from Japan, Nissans to be more precise; however, there was one Mercedes, and an unexpected Lexus. When the first tandem rushed by, hardly anyone could believe their eyes because of the speed they were going. Making a car go sideways at speeds exceeding 150 km/hour, at less than one meter from the other car, takes a lot of courage, but the cold-blooded Finns knew what they were doing. That was, until the sun started to set.

As soon as it got a bit dark, the races stopped for some reason. The crowd was waiting, but sadly nothing happened. After some 20 minutes of staring at the empty track, the presenter came on the loudspeakers and explained that the referee from Finland has stopped the race because the beginning and the end of the track didn't have enough light, and continuing the race in these conditions was nothing but suicide. He simply refused to continue judging unless something was done. As there were no additional lights available, the drivers that were not involved in the race, and had nothing better to do, were asked to take their cars to the side of the track and to shine their headlights on it. So they did, and guess what? This was no good, either. Now, the presence of other cars on the side of the track was posing a threat to the contestants, so the judge again decided not to proceed.

The local daredevils, on the other hand, were not at all afraid of the dark or of crashing into somebody, and continued on with another championship, the All-Star Competition. But as four out of eight racers in this category were supposed to be the best from the Latvian Drift Series, and the other four, the best from Finland, who didn't finish the competition, they had no overall best, so the participation was voluntary. Whoever wanted to take part was welcome to join. Four cars from Latvia and one from Lithuania queued up at the starting gate within seconds. Then, one by one, three drivers from Finland, presumably hurt by a couple of jokes concerning them sleeping with a night-light on, entered the track, and were met with a round of applause.

The show went on, and this is when everybody started to get what the Finnish referee was talking about. The cars started crashing into each other; luckily, no serious damage was done. A couple of broken headlamps, a disengaged Lithuanian exhaust pipe and a few scratches on the side counted the damage, but no injuries.

Gvido Elksnis was the star of the day, as he was the winner of both contests, the fifth stage of the Latvian Championship and the All-Star Drift Competition.
If you have ever, accidentally or intentionally, made your car slide sideways, and if it caused a smile on your face instead of a frightened expression with sweat pouring down your back, then this is a MUST SEE event for you.

The event was organized by Sporta agentura Bikernieki (www.sabi.lv).