"DRIFT IS FAMILY"
Photo courtesy of Lake Erie Speedway and DRIFT PAOHNY
An ode to drifting, Lake Erie Speedway, and DRIFT PAOHNY from speedway General Manager AJ Moore.
Drifting Takes ‘Community’ To Another Level.
I grew up around motorsports and can say firsthand that the drifting community is one of the closest motorsport communities I’ve ever been around. This is where "Drift is Family" came from.
I’m not saying that other forms of motorsports do not have the family feel, but drifting takes it to a whole new level. Drifting is about having fun, helping others, and getting others involved. In other motorsports, you may see others helping others, but not to the caliber of drifting.
Photo courtesy of Lake Erie Speedway and DRIFT PAOHNY
Who’s That Drifting Around The Corner?
In the Winter/Spring of 2015, a group reached out to set up a time to meet at the track to discuss "drifting". This was very new to us at Lake Erie Speedway. We’d been running a weekly oval track series from 2002 through 2014. In 2015, we changed our business model to run special events, so it was perfect timing for them to reach out.
The group was from a diverse set of areas in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio. They later officially became DRIFT PAOHNY, and the DRIFT PAOHNY group and Lake Erie Speedway have been putting on events together ever since.
For the first event, which we held in 2015, there were 12 competitors. This past fall in 2022, we had 180 drivers competing. It has been seven amazing years of growth and camaraderie, and the amount of support the drifting community brings the DRIFT PAOHNY staff and Lake Erie Speedway is truly tremendous.
We host three events throughout the season; all of which are three-day events. The series is called MatsErie and the events happen in Spring, Summer, and Fall, respectively.
Photo courtesy of Lake Erie Speedway and DRIFT PAOHNY
Expanding The Track’s Drifting Repertoire.
The track and DRIFT PAOHNY also started hosting Drift Clinics. These days are designed to get new people involved in drifting, or to give those who are relatively new drivers, more seat time to learn from the DRIFT PAOHNY staff.
Additionally, 2022 was our second season hosting the ‘Smash-O-Lantern’ event in October. At the end of the Saturday night drifting competition, we see who dares to smash pumpkins that are hanging from the wall with their cars. Needless to say, it’s pretty entertaining!
Photo courtesy of Lake Erie Speedway and DRIFT PAOHNY
In 2019, we had our first Tandem Competition, which gave Lake Erie Speedway a ‘first taste’ of this type of competition style. Then, COVID hit. In 2020, we just did what we could to make it through the season, and then as the MatsErie events continued to grow, we ended up having to cap the events.
In 2021, we came off the line with a new, three-round Tandem Competition. These rounds were formatted to run with a Top-16 Bracket and mirror our MatsErie weekends.
The inaugural season ended with our podium showcasing Fred Maybach in first place, Dave Nashwinter in second place, and Casey Rodriguez in third.
Photo courtesy of Lake Erie Speedway and DRIFT PAOHNY
Enter Formula D!
After Formula DRIFT made a visit to Lake Erie Speedway in 2021, we had some discussions with them about making our Tandem Competition a PRO-AM Series. They agreed, so in 2022, the Great Lakes PRO-AM Series was formed.
There were a lot of moving pieces with the Great Lakes PRO-AM Series, and the staff did an amazing job switching gears to make it all happen. Scott Petty did a great job taking the lead for the PRO-AM series, making sure the flow of the competition went well. He did a lot of the behind-the-scenes work to make sure the live stream with Propped Productions went off without any issues.
As with everything new, there were some glitches/issues, but we all learned and grew to make everything work the best it could. Nevertheless, for the first season as a PRO-AM Series, I felt the staff, judges, and competitors did an outstanding job.
The four-round series included three Top-16 rounds and one Top-32 round, and it was simply amazing to see 30 competitors battle it out for three Formula DRIFT PROSPEC licenses, a $5,500 Point Fund, and a PROSPEC Link ECU (awarded to the top three).
The 2022 Great Lakes PRO-AM season podium went to first-place Daniel Malvasio, second-place Andrew Shorkey, and third-place Fred Maybach. We are so proud to announce that Daniel Malvasio was also selected to further his drifting career and use his Formula Drift PROSPEC license for 2023.
Photo courtesy of Lake Erie Speedway and DRIFT PAOHNY
Drifting Unity.
It is truly amazing to see the growth of the grassroots drifting community in our area and at Lake Erie Speedway, and I know I only had a small part in the success of drifting at our venue.
We had a group come to us looking for a home and we gave it to them, now they are family. I am just the guy who works at their playground, this is their venue.
To the DRIFT PAOHNY staff, volunteers, Lake Erie Speedway staff, sponsors, and the near 450 competitors that have shown their support since 2015...Thank you!
