~ by Chris #16 Demaras ~
The October 9th–11th Thanksgiving weekend marked the last big drifting event of the year at Shannonville Motorsport Park. Top-level drifters would be running tandems on the big track all weekend, sliding sideways at ridiculous speeds. But Friday was reserved for a new batch of gearheads learning the fine art of destroying rear tires at the FDF Drift Academy. My son Daniel was one of them, and I’d be there to cheer him on.
I’d bought Daniel the six-hour Drift Academy course as a birthday present. After a summer of racing that ended with an Enduro Elite championship, I wanted us to spend a weekend at the track without worrying about lap times, finishing positions or championship points. No pressure, no competition, just a father and son having some fun together.
Event organizers FDF Motorsports certainly know a thing or two about getting a car sideways. Josiah Fallaise founded FDF RaceShop back in 2015 and, with his brother Joel, turned a small garage operation into a worldwide supplier of steering angle kits and suspension components. Josiah has competed internationally in Formula Drift and even appeared in Sung Kang’s 2026 movie ‘DRIFTER‘. Now the brothers are sharing their knowledge with newcomers through their Drift Academy at Shannonville.
Of all the cars Daniel could have learned to drift in, what are the odds he’d end up in a BMW 128i! That’s the same model he’d been racing all summer with DriveTeq. But rather than chasing Porsches around the racetrack in the No. 822 BMW, he’d be learning how to deliberately make the tail-end kick out. It was familiar territory, but with an entirely different objective.
Of course, the FDF drift-prepared BMW was nothing like our Enduro Elite race car. One was built to grip the pavement, the other to slide across it. The controls were familiar, but the driving techniques couldn’t have been more different. About the only thing that worked exactly the same was the windshield wiper switch, and that would come in handy later in the day.
With five years of motorsport experience, Daniel understood the fundamentals of car control. But drifting turns conventional racing techniques upside down. On a road course, spinning the rear tires and hanging the tail out usually means you’re losing time. Racers work hard to hit their apexes, maintain traction and put the power down smoothly. Drifters deliberately break traction, then use the steering wheel, throttle and brakes to keep the car sliding through a corner. Watching Daniel learn to forget some of his racing instincts was almost as entertaining as watching him learn new ones.
After burning through a set of tires on the BMW, Daniel climbed into an Infiniti G37. Now we’re talking! The Japanese coupe had considerably more horsepower than the little Bimmer, and that extra muscle would make getting sideways a whole lot easier.
While the BMW 128i’s naturally aspirated 3.0L inline-six produces a modest 230 HP, the Infiniti G37’s legendary 3.7L VQ engine cranks out approximately 330 HP. That’s a hundred extra ponies available to turn expensive rubber into smoke! Josiah spent time showing Daniel how to use the handbrake to initiate a slide, and how a proper clutch-kick could send the rear tires spinning. It was fascinating watching my son take the skills he’d learned in circuit racing and apply them to something completely different.
Now, I had every intention of being a spectator that Friday. After all, Drift Academy was Daniel’s birthday gift, not mine. But we met a mother-and-son team who’d driven all the way from Nova Scotia for the event. The mom, Sarah, made a comment about what a goof she’d be to drive all that way just to sit around watching everyone else have fun. She was already signed up for the school, and her words got me thinking. Here I was, standing at a racetrack with my son, surrounded by drift cars, and I was going to spend the day taking pictures? Screw that! Before long, I’d signed up too.
My weapon of choice was a beautiful World Rally Blue first-generation Subaru BRZ. With less than 200 HP and nearly perfect balance, the little Subie was ideal for learning car control. My first few attempts weren’t exactly graceful, but once I figured out how to balance the car on the edge of traction, I could drift endlessly around the pylons, practically steering with the throttle pedal. I was having an absolute blast! Not bad for a guy who’d only planned to watch.
Then, without much warning, the skies opened up and a cloudburst soaked the skidpad. Most people would consider rain a disaster during a track day, but for us it was a gift from the motorsport gods. The fun was just getting started!
Suddenly, even the modest Subaru BRZ had enough power to light up the rear tires. Breaking traction required so little effort that it almost felt like cheating. All those lessons about weight transfer and carefully upsetting the car’s balance were still important, but now the slightest application of throttle could send the little Subaru sideways. I was laughing at how ridiculously easy it had become to initiate a drift. Just mash the gas pedal and hang on!
While I hid from the rain in my pickup truck, Daniel wasted no time jumping back into the powerful Infiniti G37, where the soaked pavement made all that extra horsepower even more entertaining. With 330 HP available, too much throttle would send the Japanese coupe spinning like a top. Watching Daniel balance the car on that slippery pavement was a real treat. I’d spent years watching him race, working hard to find every last fraction of a second. Now I was watching him throw a car sideways just for the fun of it. No lap times, no positions to defend, just power and control.
With the skidpad thoroughly soaked, instructors set up an impromptu course using pylons, and we all took turns trying different cars in the wet. Unlike traditional motor racing, there were no lap times to chase, no pole position and no race leader. Nobody cared who was fastest. We were simply experimenting with how far sideways we could get without losing control. For someone accustomed to spending race weekends worrying about results, it was a wonderful change of pace.
Josiah even managed to get an old-school 1996 BMW E36 back into action, giving us another rear-wheel-drive machine to try. Classic BMWs have been favourites in the drifting world for decades, thanks to their balance, predictable handling and willingness to get sideways. Naturally, everyone wanted a turn behind the wheel of the classic German machine. I couldn’t believe how many different cars we’d had the opportunity to drive in just one afternoon.
By 3:30 PM, with only half an hour remaining before the four o’clock bell ended the day’s activities, ten newly minted drifters were still having a blast. Tires were spinning, cars were sliding, and the blue skies had finally returned overhead. Daniel and I had come to Shannonville for a little father-and-son time, and somehow we’d ended up spending the day learning to drift together. Neither of us wanted the afternoon to end.
There’s something incredibly freeing about forgetting the perfect lap, ignoring the racing line and not worrying about hitting every apex. Drifting takes all that horsepower engineers worked so hard to create and wastes it in the most spectacular way imaginable. It’s loud, ridiculous and completely addictive. No wonder the sport has become so popular in the 20 years since ‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift‘ hit movie theatres. After years of serious racing, it felt good to remember that motorsport is supposed to be fun.
After the training session, we headed back to the Holiday Inn for some well-earned rest. It had been a fantastic day, and getting behind the wheel myself made the experience even better than I’d planned. But Saturday would be a different story. Daniel was graduating from the safety of the skidpad to the actual racetrack, where he’d be drifting alongside some of the best drivers in the province. Suddenly, the reality of throwing a rented race car sideways at speed was beginning to sink in.
How much is that deductible?
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