Pro Tour Round 5 Top 8 vs Nick Coulson
Here’s the on-car video from the top 8 battle against Nick Coulson at Round 5 of the Pro Tour at Stanthorpe’s Carnell Raceway. It was a tight battle, with Nick pulling some really good angle (as you can see in the vid). But the judges decided my follow run was strong enough to make it through to the top 4!
1st Place Pro Tour Round 5!
I had a great day today at Carnell Raceway in Stanthorpe at Round 5 of the Stadium Drift Pro Tour. After some really tough battles and just before the heavens opened, I took 1st place! It’s great to get back on the top step of the podium, and close the gap in the series. Series leader Danny Keneally was a very close 2nd and team-mate Rob Whyte was 3rd. This result brings Danny’s lead down from 30 points to 23, and with 3 rounds left, I’m going to push as hard as I can at each round to bring back the gap.
Pictures and full report to come!
4 BIG EVENTS in 3 WEEKS: 3 down, 1 to go!
We have just finished two huge weekends of drifting! With both the King of Drift competition and Round 4 of the Australian Pro Tour Drift Series being held on Sunday the 31st of July and less than a week later, the Tectaloy International Drift Challenge at Eastern Creek near Sydney on the 5th & 6th of August. But we’re not done yet, we have Round 5 of the Pro Tour coming up this Sunday at the wonderful Carnell Raceway in Stanthorpe!
With all the preparations going on before and during these events, I haven’t had a lot of time to keep you up to date, so here is a nice big run down on the first weekends events; Round 4 of the Australian Pro Tour Drift Series and the 2011 King of Drift…
King of Drift combined with Pro Tour Round 4 was always going to be a busy day, so we made our way to the track nice and early to set up and be ready for the 9am practice session. We were chasing a good result to catch up to Danny Keneally in the series. After practice the car was feeling good, and the GT Radial HPYs were helping me put on a great smoke show! So we went into the battles confident of a good day.
After all the heat battles were done, I was tied with Danny for 1st place! It was time for the top 8 battles. We lined up against Trent Wooley.
During the first run, I was trying to go a little faster through the cross over and took off my front bumper on the tyre stack that was marking the clipping point…
On the next run I was able to stay right beside Trent for most of the run, but it wasn’t enough, the judges decided that the mistake on the first run meant I was out. That left me in 5th place and with Danny going on to take the win, it’s going to be a hard task to catch him now, but I’m not giving up! There are 3 rounds left in the 2011 series, my focus will be on top results at each individual event. I believe we are still in the race for the title. We are currently in 2nd place 30 points behind Danny’s 92 points, on 62, and my teammate Rob Whyte in a close 3rd on 61. But with 75 points still up for grabs, neither myself or Rob will be backing down from the title fight!
King of Drift is a stand alone event held once a year at Queensland Raceway. This year it was a top 16 knockout competition with a random draw deciding who would face who in the first top 16 battle. I wasn’t given an easy run, with my first battle against a very hard charging young drifter, Nick Coulson. He made it very tough in the first round, taking it to a re-run, with only a very small margin getting me through in the end. After that, my top 8 battle was against Matt Hambridge, another tough Pro Tour competitor. With Matt driving really well, it wasn’t easy, but I was able to put together 2 solid runs to make it through to the top 4!
In the top 4 I was up against Eugene Arendsen, I knew this wouldn’t be easy, and Eugene would not be taking it easy. I chased in the first run, Eugene was fast but I was just able to keep up with him.
On the second run I went in as fast as I could, and Eugene charged right up beside me, but and ended up spinning out. I was through to the battle for 1st place! But yet again, it wasn’t going to be easy. To take the King of Drift title, I was going to have to take it from my teammate and 2010 King of Drift, Rob Whyte!
In the first run, I was able to stay close to Robs rear bumper, but he was super fast, and it wasn’t easy. On the second run, I was leading and knew I had to push harder still to gain an advantage. I went through the dipper section faster than I had all day, but there was a bit of debris on the track from the previous battle, and I couldn’t slow the car down enough for the next corner and I spun out. That’s racing unfortunately! So my teammate Rob Whyte is the 2011 King of Drift, and I as in second place, a great event for the team!
It was a huge day of drifting, but there was a lot more to come, and there still is. I will have a report on the amazing World Time Attack and Tectaloy International Drift Challenge we have only just returned from in the next few days!
STAY SIDEWAYS!!!
