A CROSSROADS LIKE NEVER BEFORE.

Photo courtesy of Formula DRIFT.

Formula Drift’s track in St. Louis is set up and ready for battle.

The Pro Drifting Pendulum Swings West.

Formula DRIFT brought their series to St. Louis in 2018. Since then, the competitive drifting track at  World Wide Technology Raceway (WWTR) has gone through many changes, including an entirely new layout, implemented in 2019.

A DRIFTEM article published earlier this year featured Ryan Sage, Formula D’s founder and president, where Sage revealed the basic logic behind FD’s decisions around track changes. He also alluded to many updates that have been made to the St. Louis track over time, indicating the massive layout change between the 2018 and 2019 seasons for the CROSSROADS event, was necessary because fan attendance in St. Louis was larger than the original venue could accommodate.

As a result, WWTR and FD worked together to identify a track location at the racing complex, that with some repaving, could also accommodate a bigger grandstand. This is how the course we know today was born, but it has continued to evolve ever since.

As FD’s PRO and PROSPEC circuits journey back across the United States this year, on their way to The House of Drift at Irwindale Speedway where a 2023 Season Champion will be crowned, the CROSSROADS stop tips the season past the halfway point.

As fate - and FD’s conscious effort to continually improve their courses - would have it, the drivers of both circuits are in store for yet another update to the drift track at WWTR.

Dialing In A Drifting Track.

Looking back, the first year of the new 2019 layout, included two inside clips. One, at the late apex of the first hairpin, and another at the late apex of the last hairpin corner. Both corners had touch-and-go’s leading into them.

In 2020, the second inside clip was removed from the layout, and the touch-and-go leading into that clip was changed to a longer outside zone (OZ3), which filled the entire outside radius of the second hairpin turn. This layout went unchanged through the 2021 season.

Prior to the 2022 season, the course saw another change. FD decided to remove the remaining inside clip and repeated what they’d done at the second hairpin in 2020, creating another outside zone (OZ2) where the touch-and-go had been. This zone filled the outside radius of the first hairpin on the track, and the previous OZ3 was renamed OZ4, since a new outside zone had been added.

If you’re new to drifting and are wondering what all this outsize zone, touch-and-go, hairpin, and inside clip gibberish is about, you might be interested in reading our Fan Tracks Guide To Competitive Drifting. This article gives new fans an easy-to-read rundown of each term in layperson language, including what the terms mean, and how they matter in the competitive world of drifting.

For those who are tracking right along with us, this brings us to the current season and the most recent changes.

Photo courtesy of Formula DRIFT.

2023 Is The Year To BE …. Drifting At St. Louis!

Again, WWTR and FD worked together to make a layout change that we believe will make for closer and more exciting tandems. Our reasoning stems from the OZ3 getting pushed out much wider than where it has been in previous years, thanks to some new pavement. 

“The exit road from the hairpin has been widened, connecting what was once grass to the pit lane, and the final corner has been drain-proofed and rumbled in order to let drivers go to the edge of the track. All of these changes combined will provide a more natural, flowy track,” Sage explained.

In other words, these changes will allow drivers to fill OZ3 with more fluidity and angle, causing less forward bite in the car, and more momentum.

Since OZ3 was previously on a fairly straight part of the layout, the new pavement makes for a wider sweeping turn into OZ3 coming out of OZ2, enabling the cars to retain more speed. This also gives drivers the ability to have better timing for the transition coming into OZ4, and presents a better opportunity for faster, flicky transitions in this section of the track, without going off course or hitting the wall.

Photo courtesy of Larry Chen.

Cutting through the smoke.

Of course, smoke is a real demon for FD drivers, regardless of the track they’re battling on.

“What's really becoming the issue, now more than ever, is the smoke and the visibility. I have no solution for it and I don't know how to fix it, but there are too many drivers losing because of visibility rather than skill,” former FD three-time champion Chris Forsberg told us in Utah last year. “It's unfortunate, because these are drivers at the top of their game.”

The good news is a wider exit from OZ2, and the sweeping corner through OZ3 at St. Louis may also help with visibility. Additionally, the high-rate-to-angle transition to OZ4, should allow the chase driver to break through the smoke line more swiftly and cleanly, instead of having to deal with a bath of smoke before and through the transition.

In fact, as we looked back at footage from previous seasons, we noticed many hits and accidents happening here, so reducing the smoke screen coming into OZ4 may just be the ticket to fixing the problem.

“They say it will reduce the chances of a crash. You’ll definitely be able to see each other better, because of the new visual aspect of it coming out of Zone 2,” said Rudy Hansen, who is currently holding onto the #1 slot in FD PROSPEC. “The new pavement looks great; I expect a lot of grip!”

Also according to Hansen, the exit from turn 2 is much wider, because the course was pushed back. Explaining why he feels the visibility is far better now, Hansen stated, “Previously, as you were coming out of Zone 2, the wall was all you could see for a long time in front of you until you got down the straight. Now, Zones 2 and 3 are both less of a choke point, which should just make the track easier to navigate overall.”

Photo courtesy of Formula DRIFT.

A Drifting Track To Be Reckoned With.

DRIFTEM’s own Justin Fowler, who competes with a simulated drifting team on Assetto Corsa, can relate.

“I’ve driven the old St. Louis track several times on the SIM, and the biggest difference I’ve noticed is the line coming into OZ4, where the old layout felt pretty tight between OZ3 and the wall. After driving the 2023 track, it felt as if I had all the space in the world to time and line up the final transition,” Fowler said. “It’s awesome the track updates have already been made for the SIM, because the drivers who have to physically drive the track at FDSTL had the chance to also experience the feel of drifting on the track with the pavement updates.”

These changes will no doubt make the St. Louis CROSSROADS stop on FD’s 2023 circuit one of the most anticipated battle points of the season. Every PRO and PROSPEC driver has to be eager for the chance to slide more freely around this course in person.

Mark our words, these track updates will surely make this event one of the best FD events you could take the time to see this season! Don’t miss it - tune into Formula DRIFT’s livestream coverage to witness some of the most extreme driving skills on the planet!