DRIFT 101 Where Should I Go Drifting? Part One – West Coast
It can be hard to find a place to go drifting if you’re new to the sport. However, it has become popular enough that there are drifting sanctions all over the U.S. East Coast, West Coast, and Mid-America all have places you can go drifting. We’re going to start with the West Coast.
Southern California
You have a lot more choices than you think in the West Coast and Southern California in particular. To start, you have Just Drift run by Charlie Ongsingco and is also home of SoCal’s Formula Drift ProAm known as Top Drift. Formula Drift Pro and Top Drift Judge, Taka Aono, also runs the Drift 101, a school for beginning drifters and all of this takes place at Willow Springs Raceway.
There is also a relatively new series run by Xtreme Speed called Spec Drift. If you really want to get grassroots, you can head over to Riverside, CA and find Adams Motorsports Park. They hold drifting every Thursday night on their kart track. Finally, a new venue has opened up for grassroots drifters this year at Irwindale Speedway known as Thursday Night Drift.
Northern California
You have quite a couple of options when you head up towards Northern California. You have Golden Gate Drift which has regular events at Stockton 99 Speedway. It is also a Formula Drift ProAm series. Then at the legendary Sonoma Raceway (previously known as Infinion and Sears Point) has its own series known as Sonoma Drift.
Vegas
Of course, just a drive up the 15 and outside of California is VegasDrift at Las Vegas Motorspeedway. It’s also home to VegasProAm, the Formula Drift ProAm for Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and middle California.
Oregon
There are few options here. First is Pat’s Acres which is a 43-acre kart track that hosts the Oregon State Karting Championship series. Pat’s hosts drifting every month on its big track. Drift Evolution in Medford, Oregon drifts on the Jackson County Sports Park kart track. No Discrimination will hold events at Douglas County Speedway in Roseburg while Portland International Raceway will drifting action from time to time.
Washington
About the only venue now open to drifting is Evergreen Speedway. It runs the Evergreen Drift series which is also a Formula Drift ProAm feeder.
Utah
Here you have Salt City Drift and they use Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele.
Arizona
Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler holds regular events and offers paid testing for those who are interested.