hello everyone, i'm from dmf drift, and i just wanted to share some information about drifting in the philippines.
The first official drift event was around 2004, in clark pampanga, named counter-steer, which was organized partly by dmf drift. Since then, we have been organizing a series of drift events for the past 4 years. Currently, there are 2 drift event series, the gladesport lateral drift pro series, and this 2009, we launched the castrol drift underground amateur drift series. The pro series is held in greenhills (parking lot beside krispy kreme) and the amateur series was held in alabang town center parking lot. Each series has 4 events each, with the driver with the top points coming out as the champion for the series for that year. For each event, we have around 20-30 drivers per event, and in total maybe around 50-70 drift drivers who have competed at one time or another. We have drivers who started and won at 15 years old, and we even have father and son team drifters as well. In terms of audience, we get anywhere from around 1k-3k people throughout the day watching. This depends on the weather mostly, as if it rains or gets too hot, the crowds lessen.
The events are currently held in large parking lots due to the fact that these are requested by the sponsors, and we have to support them as they continue to help us grow the sport. But please do not take this as a sign that our filipino drifters are less skilled. We may hold competitions in parking lots, but we also have drift days, or practice days in other larger places outside manila where drivers take their cars sideways at 3rd and 4th gear. Also, since the area is smaller, the turns and clipping points are actually tighter which makes the track more technical. In our events, there are more turns/clipping points than competitions abroad. So basically their events are faster, ours are more technical. It's not that easy to keep your car sideways at relatively slow speeds, and keeping it that way throughout the track. In fact, there are times when tuners have to de-tune their cars to fit the track, as too much power might be detrimental.
I'd be happy to answer any other questions people may have about drifting here in the philippines or in general. If there are people who are also interested in getting into the sport, you can email me at
artie*dmfdrift.com. Dmf drift is composed of 2 companies, dmf drift garage, the first garage to specialize on drift cars, and dmf drift school, the first ever drift-school in the country. Most of the top drifters learned from the dmf drift school and have their cars done at our garage as well.
You can check out some of our pics and vids on
www.dmfdrift.com and
www.youtube.com/dmfdrift or just search for dmfdrift on youtube for videos of spectators.
You can also add us on facebook for up to date news and coverage.
hope this helps,
artie lopez
dmf drift