Written by special guest editor Carter Jung, editor of Import Tuner. Carter is an automotive enthusiast, journalist and photographer.

Popularized by Hollywood, drifting is the latest motorsport to emerge onto the U.S. scene. You can find it on the big screen and small screen, online and in magazines, and if you want to see drifting in person, there are two major sanctioning bodies, Formula D and D1GP, that take drift competitions across the nation. And with its screeching tires, plumes of smoke and side-by-side sideways action, it’s a spectacle that’s best viewed live.

Unlike other forms of automotive racing, drifting isn’t the cut and dry, whoever crosses the finish line first or has the quickest time wins this type of competition – it’s a judged event. If we were to compare it to an Olympic sport, think of it as diving – only both divers leap off the springboard at the same time, inches apart.

The way drift competitions works is this: two cars are paired for battle in tandem drifts (referred to as tsuiso, a Japanese term for “to chase”) where one car leads and the other one follows for one lap, and on the second, the cars switch, giving each drifter an opportunity for two laps to impress the judges. Being an elimination format, the winner of a round moves on, and the other is removed from competition.

So how is drifting judged? There are four basic criteria that the judges look for. The first one is speed. How fast is the drifter around the course? This is measured by either a radar gun or a telemetry machine hooked up to the car. Second is angle. How sideways is the car getting, and how much counter-steer is there in the front wheels? Third is line. How close is the drifter getting to the inner and outer clipping points on the course? Lastly is the overall impression or style. The most subjective of the four, the judges are looking for how exciting the run is, assessing how close the driver got to the opponent’s car, amount of smoke, general feel, etc.

Now that you know how to watch drift, check out Formula D (www.formulad.com) and D1GP (www.d1gp.com) for their schedule. Just make sure you don’t have any adverse reactions to the scent of burnt rubber.