Long Beach Streets Kick Off Formula Drift Competition Friday, Saturday

Sliding, skidding and drifting around part of Long Beach’s Grand Prix track this weekend will be competitors in the 13th annual Formula Drift kickoff competition.

The cars take over a portion of the track, turns nine through 11, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, April 8, and Saturday, April 9.

“Long Beach is always interesting for us because it’s the first event (of the season) for the sport,” Ryan Sage, Formula Drift vice president and co-founder, said. “All of the new cars are coming out and we’re seeing all the new products they’re using.”

Seeing the danger is also part of it.

“It’s one of the only venues with a really cool feel for drifting,” Sage said. “No matter where you sit in the venue, you can see the whole competition and the runs are highly risky… It’s one of the only venues that has all cement blocks. The drivers have to come into the season and not want to trash their cars.”

For Ken Gushi and Kyle Mohan, the Long Beach track is very familiar.

Gushi is a veteran of Formula Drift — he was at the first run in 2004 and started even before that, as a 13-year-old with his father, he said.

“He was always pushing me to do rally racing,” Gushi said. “But at that time, drifting was popular in Japan.”

Mohan, 34, was born and raised in Bixby Knolls, and said his father took him to the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach every year of his life.

“It’s always been like a family bonding trip,” Mohan said. “I would always tell people I wanted to be a racecar driver when I went to school.”

Later, Mohan said he discovered he really liked the hands-on aspect of building cars and completed a racecar when he was 20 years old.

Read more from this article…