Drifting

Drifting is an international motor sport. Professional drivers turn their steering wheels so that they cannot control the back wheels of their cars and then turn corners while they are driving very fast. Of course, their cars are specially designed to make them safe.

Drifting started with a Japanese motorcyclist called Kunimitsu Takahashi in the 1970s. He made the new sport famous in his country. Then, in 1996, there was the first drifting race outside Japan. This was in California. Nowadays, there are races in Europe, New Zealand, Australia, China and South-east Asia too.

Drifting is very popular in Saudi Arabia but there are no special drifting races for professional drivers. Young men meet on wide, straight roads and race. Their cars are ordinary ones that they rent from a company. They are not specially designed for drifting and so they are very dangerous. Because the cars are rented, these young drivers don't pay a lot if they crash them. Of course, sometimes, a young man takes his father's car for drifting and has an accident. There are a lot of very angry fathers after long nights drifting on the roads of Saudi Arabia.

Young Saudi men, especially from Riyadh and al-Qassim in the centre of the country, drive very fast - sometimes at 250 km an hour - and move across the road from one side to the other. Often, they lose control of their cars and crash into other drivers or into people who are watching them. It is very, very dangerous and there are many videos on YouTube to show what can happen. A lot of young drivers die or are badly injured.

The police try to stop drifting but it is very hard. When drivers see the police coming, they drive away. Maybe the best thing is for Saudi Arabia to make special drifting races for professional drivers. In this way, they can cut the number of injuries and deaths. And Saudi Arabian drivers can become the most famous drifting professionals in the world!