XDC Drifting Series Announces Some Drivers for 2010
Posted by Wrecked Magazine on 09 Feb 2010 at 09:40 am | Tagged as: Grassroots
The XDC Drifting Series announced it has some drivers who will be committed to running the full 2010 series. Irwindale Speedway is the debut event of the series and it is coming to Irwindale Speedway on March 20th. Some of these names will probably look familiar.
Forrest Wang
Quoc Ly
Chelsea Denofa
Mark Manansala
Lance Feliciano
Aaron Losey
Gary Lang
Will Parsons
Texas representing! Should be an interesting series.
Texas FTMFW! looking forward to this series.
Sweeeeeeeeeeeet!! Can’t wait for Jersey and West Virginia!!
Gary Lang. So cool.
Not.
Mark Manasala is reppin the East Coast!!
2010 is shaping up to be a great season for NST!
MIKE @ NST
http://www.NonStopTuning.com
kick some ass gary!!
This might be a stupid observation but everything about the xdc is saying its for grassroot level, am to pro blah blah stuff…
Forrest is better than most pros, and I think all these drivers have fd licenses already.
lol this actually kills all the ams chances of getting licenses by placing pro-level drivers in there
USA, this will most likely be the the case if the drivers that are already FD licenced do not compete in FD in 2010 or do not score enough points.
JTP competed in nopi in 07 with a FD licences… cam back and got his licence at pro am. No one had complaints about that anything about that.
This is geared more towards drivers that may not have major (or any) sponsor backing, unlimited pockets, full crew staff, etc… Chances are, those that already have that are competing in FD and place in the top 16 at the end of the season. If they aren’t then obviously something may be missing in their equation to run a top 16 team. There are plenty of drivers who compete on a grassroots level that I feel could do well on the professional level, however, for whatever reason, they aren’t doing so. This could be because of exposure, desire, money, work, prior commitments, etc… This series is designed to give drivers the chance to show what they can do and hopefully earn some money. There are plenty of drivers in NASCAR who compete in the truck series or the Nationwide series and never go on to the Sprint Cup. There’s also drivers who compete in all 3. In baseball, players go from the majors to the minors and back all the time. I think this series will help fill a gap between the grassroots and the professional drivers. There doesn’t have to be a dividing black and white line that says drivers are one or the other, there should be some gray area of overlap.
I know Forrest,Aaron,Chelsea are really good drivers not sure on the others but I know from what I saw of Gary at Road Atlanta I wasn’t that impressed,who know maybe he could do better in this.
Filling the gap of Pro- and Am….
the major issue with pro is the distance and expense of travel. its not the car build, or the crew, shit I could one man it if I could afford to show up. XDC is still spread all over the place = big dollar travel.
and JTP competing in NOPI is far different since NOPI wasn’t awarding a pro license for FD to top finishers. If we held an amateur basketball tryouts for a NBA deal and Kobe Bryant showed up and won, it would be the same thing- pointless. I agree that this series might have something to offer the lesser known or lesser backed team, but its a strange circumstance.
StreetWise drift (where 4 of the 5 events are in NorthCarolina) is also giving out FD 2011 licenses right? Not the So if you live in NC or anywhere in the NorthEast US you have plenty of shots for a FD 2011.
DMCC has east and west, why cant the US have a group hold legitimate a regional series in the 4 corners + middle of the US, then have a final where the top 8 of each are invited? THAT would really get grassroots involvement and bring out regional ‘leaders’ rather than financial leaders to travel a national circuit.
I’m not hating on XDC, but a national series cant be a ‘grassroots’ series imo. you might get the local grassrooters to show up to that one event near them, but thats not getting them a FD license at the end of the year.
That being said, I want to compete in XDC still haha.
NOPI 2007 Championship (if you recall) was WON by Bill Sherman, a FD driver at the time and still is today. others include Blake Fuller, Kenji Yamanaka, JTP, Papadakis, Chris Cook, Ryan Hampton, Kregorian, Hubert Young, and im sure others, ran one or more of the nopi events that year too.
nicely put jiovani
for what i know about driving and being from such a middle ground like minnesota is that even getting the opportunity to drive with pro level drivers allows you to push harder and try new things which you may not be doing simply cause your the “best in your area” D1 being example also no matter what you have you what sponsors you may or may not have having a “grassroots” feeling tour allows for rough look into what pro drifting is which is traveling across country and paying lots to do so. so if this is just to tough then pro level may not be for you. think of Xdc as college courses in highschool
hopefully i can run this as well as FD for more seat time 
for what i know about drifting and being from such a middle ground like minnesota is that even getting the opportunity to drive with pro level drivers allows you to push harder and try new things which you may not be doing simply cause your the “best in your area” D1 being example also no matter what you have and or what sponsors you may or may not have having a “grassroots” feeling tour allows for rough look into what pro drifting is without contract and strict tech and mandatory crews n such. PRO DRIFTING involves traveling across country and paying lots to do so. so if this is just to tough then pro level may not be for you. i got my license on 3rd year in pro am and on the year i finally decided to travl and hit faster tracks and events like D1. Think of Xdc as a college courses in highschool
hopefully i can run this as well as FD for more seat time 
wow this reply thing is crazy = my bad g’s lol continue
I understand the whole regional idea, and trust me I’ve tried it for several years, but there are plenty of reasons that hasn’t worked yet. I’d love for it to work, I wouldn’t have to burn most of my sick and vacation days traveling a day or two early to an event. First, sponsor money, I’ve never found a sponsor that was willing to spend money on a regional level to make a worthwhile regional series happen. Second, it’s hard to find enough suitable venues to run a regional series. NASCAR and their whole regional startup model in the 50′s and 60′s in the South was easier cause they just run on an oval and there’s 100′s around the Carolinas. For drifting, it’s not so easy to have a viable track. Then once you find enough suitable venues in a region, they have to be in or near markets that appeal to sponsors, and will guarantee that you bring in spectators. Lastly, many regions do not have enough drivers to warrant a competitive regional series, drifting is still less than a decade old here in the US. Look how long it took for NASCAR to officially make it big. In the short time span drifting has been here in the US, I’m amazed at how fast it has grown.
Has anyone heard who will be judging this series and what the format will be? Same as FD?
I’m not spending a dollar on registering until I know who is judging the XDC.
Jiovani – if you think you can be competitive and one-man it in FD, you’re fooling yourself. Only 1 person has ever podium’s in FD while one-manning it, and that was Stephan Verdier last year. Even then, he had 3 years of experience in the sport and the help of Cooper Tires teammates to help him.
FD isn’t just about skill, it’s an information competition. It’s about knowing how fast your competitor enters, what line your competitor runs, where you can suck in on them, where you should leave space, etc…. the top teams have just as much if not more information about every other driver after qualifying than they do on their own driver. A one man team won’t fly anymore. You may qualify, but you won’t get any further than top 16 (unless, of course, your competitor spins. Cue Matt Powers / Joon Maeng’s only successes in 2009)
Why go to California and Nevada. They already have a FD regional series?
Ed>>
I never said I’d be competitive for the Championship, but I would go without a crew and drive.
If the choice was hire a crew and not afford FD or goto FD solo, I wouldn’t think twice.
i will pretty much be solo lol… so ill let yah know how that goes