Tandem drifting has always interested freshman Adit Swami, and now he gets to help a local drifting team.

Tandem drifting is a type of race where there is a lead car that does multiple tricks to impress the judges. The follower car has to try to match all the moves of the lead car. Judges then give points based on how closely the follower followed the lead. After this, the lead and follower switch roles and go again. 

Swami was able to get into the team because of his brother’s karate coach. 

“My brother had a free trial for karate. His karate teacher was actually the drift team owner and he hooked me up with their team. So I got an internship with them. I just help them swap engines and do whatever kind of maintenance or upgrades to their car. I’m getting training from them. They have a connection with Formula Drift. So I might even be able to get on a higher level with the RTR Mustangs and all that stuff,” Swami said. 

Tire smoke is known to cause cancer, as it has similar components to cigarettes and vapes. Despite the risk, Swami still enjoyed the experience and was able to learn a lot from the opportunities. So far he has been to a couple of events. 

“The guys over there were nice and if you ask some questions, they show you around the car and everything. So they’re open to questions is very unusual in other places,” Swami said. 

The event he went to on March 24 was just a practice race, so he could see many cars with engines like V8 swap, 350z, E36 with turbo and M3. 

“In the April event, there were a lot more cars since the real competition was right around the corner. There were a few more colleges participating in the drag racing event going on behind the drifting,” he said.

This event was Swami’s favorite because he got to see cars drifting and lots of modded cars.

“There wasn’t much to do since we already fixed the car up. I just watched [the competition] that day.” Swami said.

Swami hopes to continue helping the team and learns more about drifting. He currently only helps with maintenance work and is not able to drive yet because of his age. 

“I might. I’ll just do it for fun. I’ll probably not become a driver. I like to do the modifications, the engine and stuff, not necessarily driving. It’s too late to get into driving, anyway. If you want to be a professional driver, you have to be doing professional go-karting at the age of 6. Plus you gotta be like a millionaire because the races cost like $250,000 every time you race,” Swami said.