By Benjamin Moment

Photography: Ted Rossino

Formula Drift traces its roots from the art of Drifting or “hashiriya”, which originated on the streets of  Japan more than 15 years ago. It has earned a place in professional motorsports and is gaining international recognition from around the world. Since 2004, when the first Formula Drift season was launched,  the series has nearly doubled and now has seven events across the nation scheduled throughout 2012.

Over the years, Formula Drift has brought together professional race drivers from around the world with auto race fans that represents a diverse array of automotive backgrounds and gearhead interests. Redline Review is excited to provide overage of this year’s Formula Drift. We look forward to sharing this high energy fresh motorsports action with our readership. We hope to see you at Long Beach on the 6th and 7th of April for this year’s season opener.

Get the Fast Facts on Formula Drift:

• Created first ever drifting world championship; brought together 32 drivers, 17 past and present championship, from 12 nations, representing 12 series
• Created Formula Drift Asia Championship; first Pan-Asia professional championship
• Created Formula Drift Pro Am Affiliate Network; bridge together various regional level series, the “minor league” for Formula Drift
• 7-stop Championship Series travels across the United States
• 87% of Formula Drift Fans are between 18-34 years old
• Formula Drift is one of only a few sports to see a growth in attendance during the economic downturn in 2009 and 2010.
• FIRST drifting championship in the world to be sponsored by non-endemic companies such as EA Games
• FIRST drifting championship to have factory backed teams
• FIRST drifting championship in the world to have an official, sanctioned competition on city streets
• FIRST drifting championship to be aired on national cable & syndicated globally with a dedicated series of shows
• FIRST drifting championship to be filmed and featured in high definition
• FIRST drifting championship to be filmed and featured in 3D
• Formula Drift has the MOST diverse driver field (nationality, age and gender) of any drifting series in the world and field of competition cars (year, make and model) of any drifting series in the world
• Responsible for holding the MOST professional drifting events than anyone in North America
• Held the HIGHEST attended drifting event ever