The sport will die if drifters dont work together. Especially with how small it is. I think the scene is smaller now than in 2004-05. That was when it was booming down here.
This is what I have been saying for the last year or so.
On national, big drifting boards, people still act as if drifting is "too big".
In reality, drifting has shrunk, BIG TIME.
in 2004-2005, it was at mega success. Regular events (like Ocala) sold out within hours - usually no longer than a day or two at most. They would have ~40 spots. The spectator lot was basically full of people just going to watch.
It was all good. The scene had rapid growth, everybody loved it.
Then came the F n' F movie.
People got an elitest attitude with drifting, and denied new comers. I will admit, I still have not watched the movie, and was not crazy about a big budget movie about our sport coming out, but I was also as nice as I could be to new comers because back in the early 2000's, drifters, like boxmod, were nice to me.
Still however, people act all elite in the sport. It is like a keep all out mentality, like some people want to be apart of some special group.
Seriously, the scene is at a minimum. Before the F n' F 3 movie, you had a good scene of mostly people who liked to drift. When the movie came out, about %50 of that original scene left, because they liked the image of being into something not big. They were replaced by the new people who were inspired by said film. A year or two later, the fad movie people left. So we lost some of the original scene + the newcomers = shrink.
Want proof? Look at sites like drifting.com. Back in ~2004, 2005 drifting.com forums would change every second. You hit refresh, a million new threads were there. It was huge. Now, they have only a few post per day. Even the same can be said for SFLdrifters, floridadrift, tamparacing, southeastdrift, etc. It is crazy how much they have changed.
I don't care personally about the image. I drift because it is fun. I drift because I enjoyed when I was way younger, meeting some really cool people at events and experiencing cool stuff. People need to get back to this. You are not cool or elite because you have a RWD car and you like to drift. This image needs to be shed. It needs to just be fun again, everybody needs to go tell their neighbors/friends/family about it and try to get people excited.
It has been recognized by a few, but many people still think it is "too big". Seriously, drifters need to do as we use to, and promote it better. Make it fun for everyone again, make it a big deal again, invite new people. This sport is in serious threat of being in that "fad" zone so many people tried to say it would end up in. Every drifter said it would never happen. Don't prove the doubters right.
but I will support bigger events in South Florida. I think we need this.
I also agree with this statement.
There needs to be more epic events in FL (and everywhere) for that matter.
Big, well publicized (in the scene) events getting people from all around FL.
We don't have the huge epic events (kind of like ocala use to be) anymore.