It is believed that the first recorded instance of drifting in modern motor-sports took place in the mid to late '70s when Japanese driver Kunimitsu Takahashi started over-steering on purpose to create a sideways drift that enable him to speed through tight corners on the race-track. While Takahashi was the first to use drifting in the race-track, he was not the first ever person to perform the drift manoeuvre - there is plenty of apocryphal evidence of drivers drifting around corners in performance vehicles going back to the '40s.

Originally a motorcycle racer, Takahashi found fame in 1961 as the first ever Japanese rider to win the Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix on a 250cc Honda. A serious injury in 1962 cut short his motorcycle racing career and made Takahashi switch to racing in cars. While racing the Japanese circuits Takahashi began using various drifting manoeuvres out of necessity to take on tight corners while maintaining speed. Not only did it help Takahashi win races, drifting on the speedway also won him many followers among the fans. Fans were excited by this brand new style of racing and Takahashi's crowd-pleasing antics on the track filled the stands.

ambitious young street racer, Keiichi Tsuchiya was a devotee of Takahashi's drift techniques. As an up-and-coming racer in Japan's Formula 2 circuit, Tsuchiya sought to refine Takahashi's techniques of drifting around corners during races. In doing so, Tsuchiya created something wholly unique, elevating drifting from a mere racing technique to a complete sport in its own right. Tsuchiya's early practice runs on Japan's twisty mountain roads have become the stuff of legend - the Japanese term for mountain pass, Touge, has entered street racing vocabulary in countries and languages all over the world.

Tsuchiya soon found backing from Japan's leading car tuning and racing magazines to produce a short video highlighting his drifting skills. This video, called Pluspy, became an instant hit among racing fans and muscle car aficionados, inspiring many amateurs to become drifters later on in their careers. A year after releasing Pluspy, Tsuchiya and his backers went on to organise the world's first drifting tournament called the D1 Grand Prix. Held for the first time at the Ebisu Circuit in Fukushima, Japan, the D1 Grand Prix was a massive success and has grown into the leading drifting tournament in the world.

Since the first D1 tournament in 1988 drifting has made a huge impact in the world of automotive sports. Drifting pervades modern car culture at every level; drift-racing take place in D1 sanctioned tournaments at the world's biggest race-tracks and also on impromptu races held illegally on public roads. Unlike Formula-1 or stock car racing the ease of entry into drift racing means that there is a thriving, yet highly illegal, underground drift racing scene where amateurs race each other in modified Japanese imports on the open road.

D1 Grand Prix Tournaments have gone beyond the borders of Japan and are now held in countries around the world. Past Championships have been held in the United States, UK, Malaysia and New Zealand - countries with a massive drift-racing following. The success of the sport has also lead to the growth of many local and regional drifting clubs and associations, outside of the D1 banner. These organisations have grown very influential over the years, often rivalling the D1 Grand Prix in terms of market share on their home turf. Some of the more powerful home-grown drifting organisations are the D1NZ and NZ Drift Series in New Zealand, Pro-Drift Mania in Canada, Formula-D in the US, Superdrift in Italy, and the British Drift Championship in the UK.