Stadium Drifting Q&A [Archive]

punishum

05-31-2007, 07:23 PM

XD-1 no longer exists at the stadium. Although I am the founder of the series the minority partners basically took control and "86" me. And let me just leave it at that.

The board gave the approval for 3 events before the end of 2007.

July 28, 2007

September 29, 2007

November 17 and 18, 2007.

All events will be from 10 am to 5 pm each day. Drivers must check in by 9 am and all the previous rules apply. Drivers meeting will be at 9:45 am and drifting will begin at 10 am sharp. If you are not in the tech line by 9 am you will not make the event and must vacate the pit.

All drivers will be allowed one " Pit Vehicle " and one " Pit Person " and the pit person must be present when the driver is checking in.

Volunteers will be given the opportunity to drive after the competition is over and before it starts as our way of saying thanks. They will also get a free meal and drinks all day long. We are also planning a special after event party after each event for the volunteers where they will have gift bags and other things from sponsors for the appreciation from managment for their Kokua.

We are working with sponsors and are trying to put out a purse at each event. From 3:30 to 4:30 we will have tandem with the top "8". The top 4 will receive monetary awards and the drivers from 8th to 5th will have their entry at the next event waived. The waiver will be Non-Transferable and only good at the following event. For instance if you receive the waiver on the July event it will "Only" be good for the September event and NOT valid for the November event. We will also make these drivers accumulate points for a series overall champion and will have again a monetary payout and trophies at the end of the season.

Outer Island participants showing airline tickets and a Bill of Laden showing proof that they brought in their vehicle from another island will have their entry fees waived. They will be spending more money just to get here to participate.

WE will only be allowing "50" drivers to participate at each event. WE will be taking preapplications and once we hit the "50" limit there will be no more allowed.

Les Vallarano is now the certified Race Director. HE is not a drifter but is a former Grand Am competitor in the presitgious "Rolex 24 Hours" at Daytona and a licensed IRL driver. He has tons of experience with the SCCA. He brings a wealth of knowledge on organizing as he was also a promoter of open wheel events here in Hawaii.

There were some misconduct by a participant and one of their crews at the February event. That person is banned from participating in "ANY" and all future events. We were never sure who the person was who burnt out from the pits while leaving. This type of conduct will not be tolerated. Our chief of security is a " HONOLULU Police Officer". If anyone does that in the future they will be arrested and charged with public endangerment and anyone tied to this individual or group will be " BANNED for Life" no exceptions.
Remember folks, this is a " STATE " facility. You all are already being labelled " STooopid Kids " by the elder general public because they don't understand the sport. So help us to maintain professional conduct at all times.

I want the drivers to be professional because that is how we are going to grow the sport and get away from the stigma of this is just "KIDS" burning rubber.

We have had to readjust many things after the February event and we have been before many boards in the area to argue our case to allow you guys to continue drifting at the stadium. It is hard when even politicians say one thing to your face and slam you at these meetings in front of their constituents. You all have no idea the amount of work and headache we are enduring just to continue these activities at the stadium. And I have not made a single penny off of any of this.

Les and I have spent a lot of our time, our own money that we will never get back and I will not tolerate any disrespect to any staff, volunteers or sponsors. That is uncalled behavior and unlike the other forums, that will not be tolerated here. I had to endure an older gentleman at one of these board meetings " YELLING " at me that Drifting is NOT a sport and when I am explaining to him he keeps yelling at me "I don't believe it ! !" And then he lies about seeing an event in Japan where drift cars killed spectators and me explaining to him other wise. Or a lady accusing me that a car will lose control and crash through the fence and get onto Salt Lake Blvd and kill people and I had to explain we have a Speed gun, that drifters speeds were slower than the SCCA etc.

A lot of the NEGATIVE posts on other forums directed to us was not called for and shows total disrespect. Come to us with your suggestions and ideas so we can make it better for all of you guys but slamming us from behind your computers is not productive.

Let us together keep this constructive. I will also need your ideas on how to keep the judging "FAIR" as we all know what happened in the past and I will make sure that will "NEVER" happen again.

We will host a general informational meeting again hopefully before the end of June like what we did last time. That is all I can think of for now but we will keep you posted as more information becomes available.

Again I thank all of you for your patience and together with all of you continue to grow the sport and be positive role models in the community.

Mahalo,
Tracy Arakaki
Executive Producer
PunishUM Motorsports

punishum

06-02-2007, 12:08 PM

We will be posting the NEW rules shortly. Because we now have the experience, we will be relaxing some of the rules to be similar to what the SCCA requires for Solo II for those who are "NOT"going to compete in tandems for the points series.

But all the previous rules in regards to tandems will be required. Some exceptions like drivers side cross bars will not be required as we know that was a point of controversy and will hurt those who want to compete and use their cars as street vehicles. AS having such a requirement will make the vehicle illegal for street use. WE made the first set of rules above and beyond any sanctioning bodies requirements. But I hope you all understand we needed to be overly cautious at that time. Now that we have shown the authorities what to expect, and that we now have a proven track record the safety requirements, we can now fall inline with other sanctioning bodies safety rules that are proven because they have an even longer safety track record.

That is why those who have competed before we are open to and value your input into what you thought was excessive but still within safety limits for tandem competition.

A complaint that came back from the managment of the stadium was that there was some oil trails. We will be more diligent in looking out for that. The vehicle caught leaking will then be sent back to the pits and will not be allowed back on to the track until the repairs are satisfactory to race officials. That vehicle will then be under closer scrutiny to make sure that the leak was properly fixed.

Again guys I want a democracy here and you guys are the ones drifting so my door will always be open to YOUR suggestions.