Judging
Yes unlike traditional motorsports where a winner is determined by crossing a finish line first or being the best with a timed event, Drifting is a judged motrorsports. Formula Drift has three judges placed in a both located near the track which gives them a clear line of sight of the track and drivers. Before the competition starts judging criteria for the layout of the track is defined in the drivers meeting, all drivers must attend.
Inside Clip's: These are point that a driver should clip with there front bumper and continue to carry their speed to the next area of the track.
Touch & Go's: These area are fill zones, the driver should the rear end of their car to travel from one end of the blue line to the other end.
Each judge is give a criteria, LINE , STYLE, and Angle to review during each run of a drivers qualifying run.
Line: The driving line is determined by the judge, which shows the driver where to place their car during each run i.e inside clipping zones and touch & go's.
Style: This criteria has three sub categories, Initiation, Fluidity, and Commitment.
Initiation is how the driver enters the first turn, there are three cone after the start line this is where the driver will need to start drifting. Did the driver start off slow or was the driver initiation after the third initiation cone.
Fluidity and Commitment would be how much throttle the driver inputs during a run and how the driver transitions from the clipping point / touch & go's.
Angle: The judge oversees the steering of the driver during the run. Each driver should maintain steering angle with minimal correction or straightening of the wheel.
Tandem Judging
Once qualifying is over the Top 32 competition begins. The Top 32 drivers are broken into a bracket system and are paired with another driver to tandem. The top qualifying driver leads the chase driver in a tandem run, the lead driver will try to run a 100 point qualifying run while the chase driver needs to match the angle, line, and maintain proximity during the tandem run.
The field of top 32 gets narrowed down to 16, 8, &4, the third place finisher is the drivers qualifying score, 1st and 2nd place are determined by the final battle of tandem. All point that are awarded per round ( 7 rounds in total) are accumulative and a sires champion is crowned.
Photographed by Larry Chen
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