Drift

Drift - a type of motorsport, characterized by the use of a controlled skid at the maximum possible speed and angle to the trajectory to keep on the track, as well as the cornering technique.

Competitions are observed both on dry pavement, as well as on wet and even on snowy tracks with big sharp turns. For drifting competitions, specially prepared cars with rear-wheel drive are used only. But it is also possible to convert an all-wheel drive car into a rear-wheel drive one.

Drift also happens in pairs. In paired races, the first participant must pass the area to be evaluated in accordance with the task, and the task of the second participant is to drive as close as possible to his opponent while drifting, also to make synchronous shifts.

In order to determine the winner, two races are made, in the second race the rules are the same, but the pilots change places.

The winner is the driver who drove better, being "catching up". Also, if both races were flawless or the number of errors of both pilots is the same in total, the judges may assign a rerun.

The proposal itself and, in particular, the technique of drifting appeared in Japan in the early 1980s. The history of drifting began in the late 70s in the form of rally racing, then they were very popular, namely the World Rally Championship (World Rally Championship, WRC).

• Since 1973, the Japanese began to participate in the World Championship with Toyota, Mitsubishi and Datsun cars. And already in 1980, the first team of racing drivers from Japan appeared, headed by Yoshio Iwashita and Kanjiro Shinozuka, who actively began testing Mazda, Subaru and Nissan cars in rally races.

The Japanese team did not take any prizes in the championship. For example, at the 1980 World Rally Championship among manufacturers, the team had 7th and 15th places in the final standings. And in the world championship among pilots, the Japanese Yoshio Iwashita took only 42nd place.As a rule, the Japanese rally technical cars were well prepared, and race car drivers Kanjiro Shinozuka, Yoshio Iwashita, Yoshinobu Takahashi, Yasuhiro Iuase and Yashiro Iwase skillfully drove cars and drove over rough terrain, walked at speed with sharp turns and skilfully glided - drifted.

Irohazaka are two mountain serpentines that connect the central Nikkoto region with the mountainous part of the Okunikko region.

A group of young enthusiasts took skiing from the World Rally Championship as a basis and partially applied this technique on the Irohazaka mountain serpentine in the form of drifting.

This is how drift culture was born in Japan and touge drivers appeared, later such groups as Toge racing and Canyon racing arose.

• Unfortunately, the new drifting movement in Japan has caused an increase in accidents. It happened that novice touge racing drifters were injured (due to accidents) and died due to the fact that the newly minted rally drifting technique was not ideal on the sharp turns of the Japanese mountains.
• The most enthusiastic were called "rolling zoku": they competed on the toge. the appearance of skids was not a necessary part of the toga, but, mainly from rally video footage, riders learned that on a narrow and winding road of traffic, turns in slip control occur fastest. Racing toge falls into two parts: up and down. On such narrow tracks, overtaking is impossible, so the race becomes a pursuit, the goal of the leader is to increase
• the distance between the cars to the finish line, and the goal of the pursuer is to reduce it.
• In places where the width of the road allows you to line up 2 cars at the start, the races are held according to the classic rules. An advanced version of the toga is the "duct tape race" where one hand is tied to the steering wheel.