"RDS has brought Russia to the top of the world of drift"
In 15 years, the Russian drift series has gone from a small championship to the largest professional motorsport project in the country. Today, RDS gathers full stands, airs on the federal TV channel and sets international standards. Dmitry Dobrovolsky told Izvestia in an exclusive interview how the series copes with economic challenges, what is the "Russian style" in drift and why you want to live thanks to drift.
"Only in this kind of motorsport are the stands full"
— Tell us, what is drift and why is it so popular?
— First of all, drifting is beautiful, and it's the best thing you can do with a racing car. The format of the competition is clear to the viewer: every hit is here (a pair race. — Ed.), when the pilots ride in the role of "leader-pursuer", and then they switch places and ride a second time, and it is a kind of mini-race. It's immediately clear who won and moved on. Unlike circuit disciplines, for example, Formula 1, where all cars follow each other on time. Without the help of telemetry and a commentator who explains a whole set of important parameters, the viewer will not understand which of the pilots is going first and which is second. It's not like that in drift. The most important thing is the beauty that the audience sees through their eyes. That's why people are happy to come here, and only in this kind of motorsport are there full stands. I've been doing circuit racing myself for most of my life, but the ring is a race for pilots, and drift is a race for spectators.
— What about the rally?
— The same thing, you can't see anything at all in the rally, because it's impossible to block everything for 10-15 km by putting up a fence. Some people always come out of the woods and stand right under the passing cars to take pictures. That's how children like to scream and run away when something scary happens- it's the same here. But it's terrible and very dangerous, the audience is dying there. Moreover, it is impossible to watch the entire rally race live, there is no understanding at all of where the beginning is and where the end is. In general, all motorsport disciplines are interesting, I love them very much and I enjoyed participating myself, but nothing can compare with drift.
"If you compare it to hockey, it would be the NHL"
— In 2015, you became the owner of the Russian Drift Series, how has RDS changed in 10 years and what is RDS today?
— I would like to say that everything has changed. As soon as I became the owner, I immediately sketched out a strategic plan for myself. Now we have solved a huge number of these tasks, but we are still moving on. We can't say that we started in 2015 and are now finished in 2025 and are following the beaten path, no. Every year there are changes in the regulations, in the rules of judging, in the principles of pilot selection, race tracks and the calendar of the season change. If that's the case, according to Hamburg's account, then the most important thing I've managed is to turn drift in Russia into a professional sport, and it's probably the most professional of all motorsport disciplines right now. That's the first thing I'm proud of. Motorsport is an extremely expensive story, and no one has ever managed to get rich from it. There's a famous saying, "Is it possible to become a millionaire in motorsport? Of course, you can if you were a billionaire before that." That's all about us.
— The second story is that I managed to bring our championship to the strongest level and to the first positions in the world. Until 2021, RDS was definitely number one in the world in terms of the quality of participants. If you compare it to hockey, it would be the NHL. We had more than a dozen foreigners who were top drivers in their countries: James Dean, four—time winner of the American Formula Drift Championship and winner of the 2021 FIA Intercontinental Drift Cup, Masato Kawabata, three—time champion of the Japanese D1 Grand Prix and winner of the 2017 FIA Intercontinental Drift Cup, Daigo Saito, the first drifter to win two of the most prestigious D1GP and Formula Drift championships at that time, Jack Shanahan is a two—time British drift champion and many others. Unfortunately, they cannot come now, although they really want to, but sooner or later, I think we will achieve that we will overcome all unfair sanctions, and people will start coming to us again.
— Another important achievement is that I managed to reach an agreement with the best racing tracks in the country. Nowhere in the world have the stages of drift competitions been held on the current Formula 1 track.
— Our media part has also started to grow. In 2015, no one was interested in drift, but now for many years RDS has been shown on the federal channel. This is the basis for the popularization of drift to take place in the right, natural way, without unnecessary pressure. We need to inform people and tell them what it is. And the most important thing is to show it, because drifting is very beautiful.
"Thanks to you, I want to live"
— Your personal journey is amazing: from a racer to the head of the country's largest drift series. Which turned out to be more difficult for you: winning on the track or managing such a large-scale business and sports organization?
— I am still a pilot, I continue to ride in the RDS Open drift championship, and the main reason is to be able to be on both sides of the barricades. I need to have an understanding of what is not working well for me as an organizer. If we compare, then the unequivocal answer of anyone who has been in these two guises is, of course, it is much easier and more interesting to be a pilot. When I come to the RDS Open, I force myself to disconnect from organizational processes, but it doesn't always work out. There are times when I stand on the track in line for the start and radio in about problems that need to be reported to headquarters and promptly fixed.
— What is the most memorable thing for you in your activity?
— The biggest reward has always been and will always be a satisfied audience. Sometimes people come up to the pilots' parade and tell heartwarming stories. One incident hit me right in the heart, when a girl came up to me, it was obvious from her that she was seriously ill, and she literally said the phrase: "Thanks to you, I want to live." And for the sake of this, I am ready to endure, as they say, all the hardships and hardships of serving as director of the Russian Drift Series.
"We remain open, anyone who wants to ride at a global level, come to us"
— The 2025 season is at the finish line. What are its main differences from the previous ones?
— The weather is terrible — that's the main difference. Last year we were lucky, we had almost all the stages sunny. Even if it rained somewhere, it was for a maximum of one day, and the rest of the days were dry, so the audience was satisfied. This year we have already passed three completely rainy stages and it is not clear what will happen next. In general, the weather decided to train us seriously. From the point of view of the sports component, there are many more participants in the Grand Prix series (RDS GP). We have returned to competitive qualification, that is, when not everyone gets to the main stage of the doubles races. And this, of course, increases the level of competition and responsibility, pilots are very serious about setting up.
— Even this year, I felt a global change in interest from the media. Completely different publications come to us for the races, our press service, run by Olga Lenina, provides access to a wide range of information about the series, and thanks to this, everything has changed for the better.
— In the current economic and political realities, many projects face difficulties. How does RDS solve the issues of financing, logistics, and attracting sponsors? Is there a response from large businesses that see RDS as an effective platform?
— The current economic situation for motorsport is really difficult. This is due to the fact that when there are no large revenues in the company, management strives to reduce costs. The CEO will come and ask where 20% of the business budget goes, it turns out that they sponsor a racing team, and accordingly, this will be reduced. Sponsored stories are pure PR, where it is very difficult to calculate the conversion. Although the exhaust from a competent sponsorship campaign is much greater than from direct advertising. So it turns out that now the incomes of companies have fallen, many sectors of the national economy are experiencing difficulties, and therefore the financing of motorsport is decreasing from year to year. Nevertheless, we are committed to full-fledged work. Yes, we will also cut back on something, tighten our belts, so to speak, but there is no life without drifting at all. None of those wonderful people who are among us at RDS now have the opportunity to give up drifting, because this is our life.
— From the point of view of the political situation, I would not say that everything is difficult for us, on the contrary. We believe in ourselves a lot more, and we no longer have this blind worship of foreign stars. In the international "drift" media, they write that the RDS is actually the coolest of all. Everyone knows us, they watch our broadcasts. An English-language live broadcast is saved on our RDS TV platform, and statistics show that a couple thousand people continue to watch. We are being watched not by the audience, but by international experts and participants. They sort out the stages, the driveways, look at what speeds they drive in the RDS, then distribute them there, in their circles. This is very good and useful for our country and for Russian drift. We remain open, everyone who wants to ride at the world level, come to us on the best tracks, where the best drift, the best rules and the best judges. Welcome.
— Does RDS have to take on the functions that were previously performed by the FIA and international promoters on its own?
— It's no secret that most of the international rules on drift were written by me as a member of the FIA International commission. I was in charge of the rules and requirements for the tracks. It's much easier now, you don't have to coordinate it with 15 different representatives. We make the rules that we consider necessary, and we have already moved ahead of international standards. We have requests for our RDS Drift Dynamics telemetry, but I'm not eager to provide this data yet. It is simply physically impossible to send our specialists, because they are needed here, at every stage of the RDS. In any case, sooner or later it will be clear whether we really did something cool or no one needs it. Just as we learned from the mistakes of Japan and America, so we managed to create a unique Russian championship unlike anything else.
"We want as many people as possible to know about us"
— In addition to summer, there is also winter drift. Is this our Russian cultural code, or do such competitions exist somewhere else in the world?
— If it is in the form in which we have it, namely the Zhiga drift on the Zhiguli, then winter drift, of course, is a completely Russian story. An important component is that all auto parts for the popular drift VAZ-2102 and VAZ-2104 are sold in any car dealership: something broke, I went and bought it. Availability and cost make it possible for anyone to become a participant, and we are proud of this.
— It would be untrue to say that ice racing is purely our invention. In the Scandinavian countries, all the major car brands flood the ice fields and drive there, but this cannot be called a drift, rather a rally or emergency training. But it is a full-fledged official competition, like the RDS Winter Cup, with all the achievements and awards, of course, only with us.
— From a strategic perspective for 3-5 years, what is the main challenge facing RDS?
— Our main task is, of course, media coverage. We want as many people as possible to know about us both in our country and abroad. From the point of view of sports, we may not be taking such broad, but consistent steps. Our drift is becoming more beautiful, clearer, more aesthetic and more spectacular every year. Therefore, no revolutions are expected here. The main thing is that more people know about RDS and about drift in general — that's the most important thing.
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