This is a brief introduction to R/C Drift Competitions. What are they doing, and what is the goal.

What is an R/C Drift Competition?
In a nutshell, an R/C Drift Competition is where competitors meet to demonstrate their style and precision control they have over their R/C Drift Car.

Drift is a game of extremes, how much angle can you hold, how hard can you “flick” your car, how close can you get to the wall, how deep can you get into the zone, how close can you drive to your competitor, etc. I think of it as everything conventional racing is not.

Racing is about who can go the fastest, get away from the rest of the drivers, and get across the finish line first. Drift is eventually getting across that finish line, but how close can I drive to my competitor, how close to the walls can I get, how much angle can I get, and how much style can I show while doing it.

The Course
Typical R/C Drift Tracks are set up where drivers can do continuous laps while practicing. For competition, only a section of the track is used. Normally 4-6 turns are used for the competition course. Within the course, there will be 3-4 Zones designated, as well as the Qualifying Line.

Scored Zones
Scored Zones are areas that are scored by the judges for Line and Angle. The expectations are either marked in the Zones themselves, and /or explained in the Drivers Meeting before the competition. Basically, the deeper the car gets in the zone, the higher the score. When it comes to angle, the closer the car gets to the designated angle (or more) the higher the score awarded will be.

Qualifying Line
This is the line that all competitors should be striving to follow. Deviating from the Qualifying Line will be a deduction from the overall score of the run the competitor receives. Style is judged throughout the entire run, so any deviation from the Qualifying Line will impact the Style score.

R/C Drift competitions have 2 very different and distinct stages. Stage 1 is the qualifying and stage 2 is the battle stage.

Qualifying (Tanso)
The first stage of a Drift Competition is Qualifying. This is where each competitor completes a designated number of solo runs (Usually 2). The objective during qualifying is to run the Qualifying Line as accurately as possible while making it look good.

The Qualifying Line will take the competitor through all the Scored Zones. The competitors are scored in 2 ways in each of these zones:
Line - How deep are you in the Zone. The more extreme the better the score.
Angle - How much angle are you holding through that Zone?

The third judging criteria is Style - Style is judged over the entire course. How aggressive the competitor drives and transitions (switch from one direction to another), how close are they to the walls and barriers, how smooth and committed are they driving, how good does it look, how well do they follow the Qualifying Line, etc.

All of these are combined to create a total score of 100. The scores from the qualifying stage are used to seed the brackets for the second stage of the competition.

The Battles (Tsuiso)
The second stage of a Drift Competition is the Battles. Based on each competitor’s score from Qualifying, competitors are seeded into the bracket to fight their way to the top.

Each battle consists of 2 runs. One competitor is the Lead and the other is the Chase. After they run the course, the competitors switch positions and run the course again. Typically the Lead runs are compared and the Chase runs are compared.

The Lead’s objective is to run the Qualifying Line as accurately as possible, including the Zones. The Lead runs will be compared and are judged on “who did it best” according to the rules.

The Chase’s objective is to use the Lead Car as a moving clipping point, while maintaining tight proximity (Close position), and matching their angle as well. If the Chase car can maintain tight proximity, match angle, AND get deeper in the zones, this is the ultimate goal of the Chase. This demonstrates not only that they can accomplish what the Lead is doing, but that they can do it better. Again, the Chases will be compared and judged on “who did it best”. This is not only based on the rules, but also the Wow factor. Was the Chase simply trying to keep up, or was the Chase aggressive and putting pressure on the Lead?

Once the 2 runs are complete, the runs are compared and a winner is decided. The Winner advances to the next round, and the Loser is eliminated from the competition. In the event the judges cannot make a decision, they will call a OMT (One More Time). This means they will do it again, with no consideration for the previous battle.

This continues until there is ultimately one person who ends up the winner by eliminating all other competitors.

“I hope this helps to clarify what is going on next time you see an R/C
Drift Competition. Next time we will visit QUALIFYING and exactly
how are the points accumulated to arrive at the final qualifying score.”
-Steve Fujita | Super G