14.10.11- Dori Puri 2014 from Drifting Pretty on Vimeo.
Today’s post is written by a very special guest blogger: Nadine Sachiko Hsu, Founder & President of Drifting Pretty.
Something that Drifting Pretty has made possible here in California is all-woman track days. No where else in the USA are there events like these. Every year, we host “Dori Puri” (Japanese for “Drifting Pretty”), which is our all-female track day for women only. This year, we kept the event private, to give our students privacy and ample track time.
This event was free for all Drifting Pretty members, thanks to the proceeds from our 10th annual banquet last December. Anytime we fundraise, all donations go back to Drifting Pretty’s scholarship fund, which funds events like Dori Puri for our members. If you attended our banquet last year, then thank YOU for making this event possible.
Dori Puri was also an invitational, where we invited a few of our top supporters out to drive. Half our supporters who drove hailed from the Northern California area. What an honor it is to have people drive from a far to support us!!
This year, we hosted at a new track in Apple Valley, CA called “Grange Motor Circuit.” Pronounced “Gron-Jay” as corrected by the track’s owner. It is a purpose built kart circuit that can accommodate street cars. Tucked away off a 3 mile unpaved dirt road is this mecca.
Since we had an entire circuit to ourselves, we chose to cater to grip/time-attack racing as well as drifting. We split the track in half for the AM sessions and tackled the track corner by corner.
In the PM we opened up for full run sessions. For half the drivers, it was their absolute first time on a track, for the other half, these ladies were our more experienced grip and drift drivers. We had so much track time we almost didn’t know what to do with it.
For myself, I brought my ex-Formula D competition car out for the first time in 2 years…drifting is just like riding a bike, you never forget. For the rest of the gals, some had new car set-ups or even new cars to test and everyone got to enjoy sitting with each other during their runs. Our instructors were hard at work helping the gals hone in on new techniques and racing skills. But there was plenty of dancing, cheering, selfies and above all, FUN.
At the end of the day we handed out some awesome awards to the drivers:
- Lead Foot (driver who wasn’t afraid to put the accelerator down) to Sonya K. in her Nissan 350Z
- Juggernaut (hard charger award) to Rochelle D. in her BMW E35
- Tyte Ryde (most likable car) to Sarah B in her Miata
- Spirit Award (best attitude/ most enthusiastic) to Debbie M. in her Toyota Corolla AE86
- Smooth Operator (smooth driving technique) to Jessica W. in her Nissan S13
Everyone walked away with a new plethora of racing skills, added hours in the driver’s seat, bald tires, and a feeling of fulfillment.
Please join us Saturday, December 6th for our 11th Annual Banquet, to celebrate our achievements and to raise more funds to make events like Dori Puri possible. More information to come, but please, save-the-date. Thank you all deeply for your support.