It was Aug. 14, 2004. The setting was the D1 Driver Search at the California Speedway in Fontana. The thermometer hung in the near-90-degree range. It was hot in the sunlight. I wiped my forehead, daydreaming about leaving for an air-conditioned home. I don't like to get too much sun. Like a grape shriveling into a raisin, I don't like to stay out in blistering heat for too long. Sweat pours profusely from my body very easily; I bet even my fingernails sweat. It gets pretty ugly. I swear off bright light and tanning. Yeah, so I'll look like I came straight out of the movie Powder, whatever. Better than being out here in Satan's tanning salon.
A screech, a slide, lots of smoke, a face full of rubber flakes, and I regained my focus. I remembered why I was here. With 82 drivers from all over the U.S. and Canada showing what they were made of, the event promised to bring amateur drifters into the spotlight. An exhibition, hosted by such notable drifters as Rhys Millen and Samuel Hubinette, came early to show the crowd exactly how the drifts should be done through the cone-lined course. Then, a D1 professional driving clinic with twin drift instruction started shortly before the elimination rounds.
But the day wasn't just about vaporizing tires. Cruising through the Speedway's massive Lot 12, I saw the Driver Search event was half show and half drifting. Music, vendors, and plenty of fixed-up spectator rides on display ensured that there was plenty to see in Fontana-and that's not mentioning the drifting action.
With judges Keiichi Tsuchiya, Nomuken, Manabu Suzuki, and announcer Toshi Hayama watching, all 82 drivers threw themselves at it for a chance to compete in the Dec. 11, 2004 Driver Search championship, which then qualifies drivers to be in the Dec. 19, 2004 U.S. versus Japan drifting battle.