Here’s the thing about auto races:  

They’re just glorified parties.  

It’s true, race fans!  Before you stone me to death.  The act of racing, and designing, prepping and practicing, is a carefully orchestrated game of high-risk and extremely high reward, undertaken by only the best of the best.  And Long Beach attracts the most talented auto racing specialists in the world.  Yes, racing is complicated and tough work.

But a race itself… that’s just a big party.  If you’ve ever noticed those t-shirts hawked by vendors that read “My drinking team has a racing problem,” then you know what I mean.  No coincidence.

The drifting-spec Porsche & Nissan valeted outside of Smooth’s.

So it was only fitting that Smooth’s Bar & Grille on Pine host the Formula Drift Drivers’ Party on the restaurant’s rooftop, celebrating the drivers and crews of some of the most insane machines on the planet.  And trust, any machine that is designed to travel over 100 mph while sideways – not to mention the person driving the car who is willing to sit inside it – is insane.

“If you don’t have control, you’re going to be in the walls,” said Samuel “The Cray Swede” Hubinette when I caught up with him on the rooftop.  “If you misjudge a turn, or go too hard… I mean, a lot of times we’re a foot away from the wall.  Or less.”

The Swede!

The 2008 Formula Drift will take place this Friday, April 12, as a sort of preclude to next weekend’s Long Beach Grand Prix festivities.  

“To be in control of something that most people see as being out of control is really unique,” says Hubinette, who will be driving the Mopar Viper on Friday as his team finishes building him a brand-new Dodge Challenger for competition.

“Anyone who is planning on coming can expect to see the ultimate car control show.  It’s definitely America’s most talented drivers handling high end cars inches away from each other.”

Sounds like a party to me.

Disclosure:  Smooth’s Bar & Grille is an advertiser of the lbpost.com