THE DARING ART OF DRIFTING
Meet-up at Houston’s Police Academy steers fans to safer racing option
Blake Francis couldn’t read Japanese, but he loved the photos of the cars in his dad’s Japanese car magazines: They were low-slung and had a certain sleek style that traditional muscle cars didn’t.
So he looked them up online, and that’s when he found drifting.
On Saturday, Francis and two of his friends went to a drifting event hosted by Sidewayz Cartel at the Houston Police Academy’s training track. Drifting is the art of gliding in a car: Oversteer your car enough around a corner to lose traction while keeping control. It originated in Japan, where one particularly daring driver got famous for drifting on mountains, and made its way to Hollywood with 2006’s “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.”
Francis’s dad was around cars. He took Francis to his first (legal) drag race when he was 6. Francis was scared for all of a few minutes — mostly by the noise — and then, when he saw the cars zoom by, he was enthralled. Francis, now 20, has been drifting for the last four years.
Saturday’s meet-up featured fathers with their children, a mom out to support her son while clutching a small dog named Critter who shivered from the cold, and teenagers whose cars were painted with anime characters. Some cars left smoke in their wake as they squealed around the track. Cars spun out — a miscue in drifting — and quickly started back up again after turning a full 360 degrees or more.
Joe McConaga came out because of his 8-year-old son, Daylin. He’s not sure where Daylin got his car enthusiasm from, but if something screeches and has wheels, Daylin loves it.
Daylin studied one white car racing around the track as fast as it could and tugged on his dad’s sleeve.
“Why doesn’t he want to
drift?” he demanded.
Abel Acosta, who started Sidewayz Cartel, said drifting is more accessible than traditional speed racing because it doesn’t rely on how tricked-out a car is. It’s the equalizer of car sports — at least, where money is concerned.
“It’s not about the amount of power your car has, it’s about the
“Driving is a very mental kind of sport. Think about when people go and ride a bull. If they ride for 5 seconds, it feels like 5 minutes because they’re on the bull.” Abel Acosta, who started Sidewayz Cartel
amount of control you have,” he said.
Drivers can only learn with more “seat time,” he said. Spin out, learn what it feels like, and learn to drive just under that limit.
“Driving is a very mental kind of sport,” he said. “Think about when people go and ride a bull. If they ride for 5 seconds, it feels like 5 minutes because they’re on the bull.”
Like Francis, Acosta, 31, got into cars because of his dad. He grew up around Houston and tagged along to drag races with his dad. Even the illegal drag races had a more chill culture back then, he said, with older people playing with cars they’d fixed up. He got into drifting himself when he was about 15. He didn’t have much money to blow, but that was something he could afford.
He started drifting — “sliding,” he called it back then — on the streets, which was a fast way to put people in danger. He sees his role with Sidewayz Cartel as giving people a safe area to practice and welcoming new drivers. Drivers paid $60 to get on the track — a relatively low entry fee for track access.
“It’s the way you can practice without killing someone,” said Samuel Leisey, 19, who came with Francis. Leisey grew up driving with his dad, usually on a track at College Station. The track closed down in 2017. Without events like Sidewayz Cartel’s, the only way to practice is on the street, in parking lots or inside abandoned warehouses.
Leisey and Francis put on their helmets and petted Leisey’s 8-month-old boxer, Buttercup, before getting in their cars.
“I’m ready to break my car,” Francis joked.