Drift Movement in Ohio

Sometimes it’s strange how things come to be. All because of Instagram I ran into these guys. All because they liked one of my photos I ended up finding an awesome grass roots drifting event right in my back yard! The event is called Drift Movement based out of Columbus, Ohio. Unfortunately when I found them it was in the off season of  the cold Ohio winter, but I was able to make it out to their first two events this year and I had a blast!

 

Their first event this year was in April and I was just coming off my high from No Star Bash in St. Louis. It was refreshing to see some familiar faces in Columbus, but it was also awesome to meet new people as well. The one thing I definitely noticed about Drift Movement first was the homey feel that I got when I looked around. Everything was laid back, there was no competition at hand, everyone was just there to have a good time.

I made it out to their second event in May and was not disappointed yet again. The more I observed the staff and the fans I started to see that everyone poured so much support into every single driver. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best on the field or the worst. Everyone was fine with your best and pushed you to go harder. That’s what Drift Movement is all about. Instead of me sitting here telling you, I reached out to the two founders and owners of Drift Movement to tell you about their organization in their own words.  The two main people behind Drift Movement are Doug and Michael Hill. Yes they happen to be brothers!

1. What is Drift Movement first and foremost?

Michael: The main objective for me would be to grow the drifting scene in Ohio and the drifting community. I can remember Doug and I would have to drive to Beaver Run in Pennsylvania to get any track time.  Being in high school at the time, we never had a local track that catered to drifting. I would say it’s a pretty awesome feeling to give the local drivers the opportunity to get more seat time and see improvements through some of the newer drivers. We may have started Drift Movement, but the drivers, volunteers, and supporters are the true people of the Movement

Doug: Michael is right.  We just want the grassroots scene to grow in Central Ohio.  Actually, in all of Ohio.  A lot of drivers might feel discouraged or intimidated by showing up to a pro/am event by the talent of the drivers or the cars that are being driven.  We want to be the stepping stone to those events.  We want to drivers to come and learn how to drive their cars, learn the culture, have fun, and share the Drift Movement experience with everyone else.

2. What made you want to start Drift Movement and how did it end up getting started?

Michael: I helped doug promote by making flyers and working the first event we had any involvement last October. With an amazing turn out from that october event we knew that we had something from there. Through the Winter, Doug had some ideas and I just tried to add to them and make them come to life. With Doug and I being very busy outside of Drift Movement, we had to work on it any hour that we had available. We have put a lot of time into Drift Movement, but seeing the community react and support what we are doing is what it is all about!

Doug: There have been a few other promoters come through the area and promote events.  I remember going to the Outbrake events at Circleville and other grassroots events hosted here in Columbus.  We owe a lot to those promoters, whom alot of people learned drifting through.  Those events were great, but it always seemed like such a small part of the drifting community showed up.  We had an opportunity to rent the track out last October and the turn out absolutely stunned us.  It really just snowballed from there!

3. Even though the organization is young how do you feel it’s coming along so far?

Michael: Doug and I have worked a lot of jobs together from local pizza shops to dealerships. I wouldn’t consider it to be your typical “family business”. We know each others weaknesses and strengths and what I may be lacking will be Doug’s strength and vice versa. We also need to acknowledge a lot to the volunteers that are able to come out on open drift days, we would be able to organize it with out them. We are excited to see how the season continues and being the first time Doug or I have done anything like this I think we have made a great platform for Drift Movement.

Doug: I am very pleased with everything so far.  Like Micheal said, we do work together very well and everything seems to always fall in place.  I remember how excited I was when we had 100 “likes” on facebook, and now we are at over 700 “likes”.  We still have a lot of room to grow and I’m excited to see what happens.

4. Where do you want to take Drift Movement as you grow?

Michael: As Drift Movement grows I would like to see some local drivers make it farther in the series some of them may be in. I also want to see some of are newer drivers keep improving and pushing themselves harder, which we are already starting to see! I would like to expand to different regions and tracks in Ohio and do some specialty events. I would like to get local shops and forums involved with what we are doing and maybe down the road start joining some of the competitive series.

Doug: I think that we don’t have any huge ambitions like taking on Formula D or anything like that.  From the time that Drift Movement was formed, our focus has been on the drivers.  I would be estatic if we had a driver who is successful enough to be featured in a magazine or blog and say “I got my start at Drift Movement”.  I thinking we are looking at expanding to different tracks around the state and have different kinds of events, but our main focus is always to provide the grassroots learning experience.

5. Any last words you may have for people wanting to learn more or attend a Drift Movement event?

Michael: If you don’t know what we are doing hopefully you have a better idea after reading this. We are about growing the drifting community, Even if you are not Ohio based this doesn’t mean you can’t join the Movement. Get involved through your local tracks, forums and shops! For all the drivers that are coming to our Open Drifts you guys are the start of this Movement. Thank you so much and we wouldn’t be able to do this without you! We have our 2013 schedule posted on our website: http://driftmovement.com, if you are able to come out we would love to have you! Thank you Everything Drift for this opportunity. Be apart of the Drift Movement!

Doug:  Michael and I have really worked hard on putting this together, but we wouldn’t be able to do anything without our volunteers.  We have had the guys from OhioDrifting come out and help us as well as Tater Drift.  Pakie, Brooks, Anthony, Dave, Cody, Justin, Laura, and anybody else that has helped really deserve a ton of credit.  Thanks to all our volunteers, drivers, and supporters for getting us this far!

I want to thank Doug and Michael for sitting down with me to talk about their event. Make sure you check out their website and Facebook page for information on their events in Columbus, Ohio this year. They have one event a month all the way through November.  Oh did I mention? Spectators are free! So there’s no excuse if you are close to Columbus not to come check out this awesome grass roots drifting event!

Check out the full photo gallery on our Facebook page here!!