FIA Announces Intercontinental Drifting Cup
A bit of a surprise in my recent news feed: The FIA announced it will be holding its first Intercontinental Drift Cup at the end of September right here in Tokyo.
From the article, the FIA states that it chose Sunpros as the promoter. If you didn't know, Sunpros is the organizing body behind D1 Grand Prix, so they know how to run a competition. But, does that mean that they will actually be organizing the event, or will they just be the promoters?
There are many questions that accompany the news of FIA running a drifting competition. Here are the top five:
Question 1: How do they decide on the drivers?
If this is supposed to pit the best "intercontinental" drivers against each other, will they pull the top drivers from the various series around the world? That we would love to see.
Question 2: How will they judge?
D1GP uses computers to judge qualifying runs and humans to judge the tandem battles. Overall this principle works well, but critics argue that some cars take advantage of that scoring system. Perhaps a mix of computer and human judging during qualification would resolve some of those criticisms.
Question 3: What will the vehicle regulations entail?
The FIA is well known for their regulations. Their regulations help to even the playing field, ensuring that the motorsport competition is about drivers' skill and not a technology arms race. If they implement power and weight restrictions in addition to manufacturer limitations, the Intercontinental Cup may be very interesting.
Question 4: Will this just be an annual event?
It would be OK with us if this were just an annual event pitting the best drivers against each other. I think it would be a shame and also budget-unfriendly to have a year-long series. Unless we are missing the budget of drifting these days, it just feels that it would not be feasible.
Question 5: What other venues will it be held at?
Odaiba is a nice, central venue within Tokyo — easy access but a bit disappointing because it is not a circuit. We would have loved to see the inaugural event held at Tsukuba Circuit, Fuji Speedway or even some of the smaller circuits that have a long history of drifting. We do concede that Odaiba does allow them to put on a bit of a bigger production. (Think motocross.)
After Odaiba, it will be interesting to see where it goes. If you follow D1GP, we suspect it may end up in China. If it follows D1 history a bit more closely, it would be in the U.S. We will just have to wait and see.
