On a scorching summer Sunday in the backwoods of Eastern Kentucky, Drift Appalachia made history, hosting the United States’ first ever sanctioned drift event on public mountain roads. The first American Togue if you will: Presented by Drift Indy. It truly took a village to pull it off. 

Drift Appalachia is a coalition of 3 organizations… 

Who are looking to bring new & exciting experiences to drifters in the US. Together, they have decades of experience orchestrating motorsports events all across the country. 1) Edgar Sarmiento of Drift Indy and 2) Brian Eggert of US Drift have worked with countless organizations and venues in drifting. They’ve been on the forefront of this thing pretty much since it landed stateside. The final & arguably most crucial piece to the puzzle is an organization called 3) Backroads of Appalachia. 

Backroads of Appalachia is non-profit organization… 

That works to drive economic development in impoverished areas of Appalachia… through “motorsports focused-tourism”. Which is honestly just such a sweet idea. Backroads executive director, Erik Hubbard, took an interest in Drift Indy staff member Derek King while King was actually competing in a hillclimb that Hubbard had helped organize. Hubbard approached King with the idea of drifting on mountain roads… that’s the dream, isn’t it?

It took a year… 

Of scouting, planning, meeting, and communication with local & state officials. And finally, it all culminated on a monumental weekend for Drift Indy… in conjunction with their first-ever ‘traveling round’ of their Street League competition. From this pool of vetted & fierce Street League competitors, only about 25 drivers were hand-selected to engage in vehicular combat in the hills of Kentucky. A secret meeting was held after DISL podium ceremonies to discuss the location, as well as basic information for the following day. The mountain roads are not forgiving, and only those that needed to know were in the know on where & when we were headed the next morning.

A couple parking lots off Main Street (in town) were used as the paddock…

Drift Indy’s GM, Dan Perlenfein (recently featured in S3 with his SC300), ran a very serious driver’s meeting… where the reality of the day truly started to set in. The course would be roughly a half-mile long with six turns. The road would be blocked off for 45-minute sessions, then reopened to allow traffic to pass in accordance with state legislation. In each session, 10 drivers at a time would advance to the hot grid and follow the pace-car of Shawn Allgood’s Ecoboost-swapped E36 (also recently featured in S3) up the mountain… with Clay always rounding out the back of the pack in his Fiesta ST as the “sweep car”. The ST designated that everyone had made it through the run safely. Flip around at the top of the course, and then rinse & repeat back down the mountain. Chelsea Denofa also offered words of wisdom:

“Wherever you look, your car is gonna go. Especially if you’re on throttle… which you should be.”

I grabbed a quick bite & and a few bottles of water… 

And media personnel began to load into a handful of vehicles to begin their trek up the mountain. Packed into Mario’s truck bed like soldiers headed to battle, a lot of us got our first look at what we would be documenting… and the reality of the day REALLY started to set in. Rock-lined cliff faces behind deep ditches on one side. And a guard rail with a several-story fall on the other. I’m not sure anyone was truly prepared for what we were getting ourselves into. The location we were in, the consequences that were involved, and the ground we were breaking… it didn’t feel real. We waited for what felt like days for those first cars to get sent up the mountain as we got ourselves familiar with the landscape. 

We debated on our positioning & whether or not we thought it was safe… 

Then suddenly silence was ordered as Dan called out “Lead car is coming up” on the radio. The next few seconds felt like an eternity. The tension in the air felt as thick as yesterday’s lingering tire smoke. We had no clue who was coming up that hill, or how they would fare on their ascent. Finally… 

The silence was broken by a dozen drift machines… 

Along with some of the best drivers the Midwest has to offer. Together… screaming up the hill on their way to make history. As I saw Shawn’s E36 crest the hill, I felt a sense of relief and invigoration at the same time. This was really happening, and I got the opportunity to stand on this treacherous hill and capture it to the best of my ability. 

Drivers were understandably hesitant on their first pass… 

But even still, some were clutch-kicking or hand-braking into turns to get an understanding of how the road felt. Before I had enough time to even fully process the first car, all 12 cars had passed… and the echoes of their exhausts started to fade further up the hill until there was silence once again. The first successful run was finally completed, and I think we all felt a weight lift off our shoulders. But the day had only just begun.

Over the course of the next few passes…

Drivers began to build confidence while traversing these winding roads. They began extending sections longer, diving-in tighter, a few even beginning to link turns together until everything came to a screeching halt as we heard that someone went off track… 

With absolutely no sight-line to the incident, all we could do was wait…

Eventually, we saw a war-torn BMW crest the hill on its way back down to the paddock. And a look on the driver’s face that I will never forget. Yet he still drove the battered unit back down the mountain under its own power. The course reset & activities resumed. But shortly after… another BMW went off into a ditch on the downhill-run right in front of us. Seemingly unphased (and the car relatively undamaged), Dylan hopped out to hook his own car up to the recovery vehicle. He got pulled out, and drove back down the mountain. But after two wrecks in the very first session… another drivers meeting was held to collect the thoughts of the drivers & staff. 

A lot had been learned in the first session…

Mostly that the downhill section of the course was a significantly different beast than the uphill. The drivers discussed concerns & techniques to handle the course, and then everybody took their positions to get ready for the next session. Even still, 7 more drivers would fall victim to the treachery of the mountain pass. The next few hours went by as fast as those cars went up the mountain. 

Drivers began getting bolder & more confident in their abilities…

Really leaving everything they had out on the road. I think those that were the MOST confident ended up with damaged cars and egos. But hey… that’s drifting. You risk it all for the thrill of a lifetime driving with your buddies. Crashing sucks, but it’s part of the sport. You put the car back together and you do it all over again. 

But this wasn’t just any drift event…

These drivers made history that day, and they’ll be remembered for it. Some might even say those chosen few are now immortalized in a certain sect of US drifting. And anyone that wasn’t there will never truly know how fantastic, terrifying, and spectacular that day really was. Even now over a week later, everyone involved is still trying to wrap their minds around what happened on that hill. I sat down to chat with my long time friend Edgar Sarmiento of Drift Indy to get his thoughts after the dust had settled. He had this to say:

“I have not been this happy about drifting in a very long time. I’m beyond proud of myself & my entire team for everything we did that weekend. Thank you to Dan Perlenfein, Derek King, and the rest of our staff for an incredible weekend. Also, thank you to Erik Hubbard of Backroads of Appalachia for being a mentor. Thank you to the people of Jackson County and Corbin, Kentucky, I have never felt more welcome. The Bluegrass state, I fucking love you.”

Edgar went on to inform me that “the train has already left the station” for another event under the Drift Appalachia moniker, slated for later this year in November. And he left me with these parting words: 

“Let’s do this for OUR Motorsport. For drifting. Let’s reevaluate what drifting really is, and make sure the sport we love is sustainable. Innovation on this level is what will keep this sport alive, and we are happy to work with anyone riding the same wave.”

Thanks to…

None of this would be possible with out the support of State Representative Tim Truett, the Jackson County Fiscal Court, fire & rescue, and the City of McKee police department.

 

Words & Photos by Sam Igel II

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