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As 2011 comes to a close and the Victorian drift calendar comes to an end, this has given me some time to reflect in what for me has been the biggest year of drifting to date. I have been drifting since the start of 2003 when I was just 15, Sean our scrutineering manager used to pick me up and take me out to Calder Park to watch the drift and help out changing tyres and learning what it’s all about. In 2004 I purchased my own CA 180SX, now I can move up the ladder, and Sean was my guardian whilst I drive out to Calder on my L’s to enter my first twilight drift night. I had borrowed money, borrowed tyres and a whole lot of excitement that it was finally my time, this is what drift was all about.
In 2009 I got out of drifting all together. I had lost interest in drifting as I wasn’t happy in the way it was being run and I was frustrated so I got out. Mid 2010 comes around and I booked my ticket to Japan with Tony B, I headed to the holy land of drift, Ebisu ! We went over and it was as described, a wonder land. We stayed in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima prefecture with Chris Dejager and spent the best part of 10 days drifting and hanging out with some of the guys I watched for years in awe. The Insane drifters, Leighton fine, Christian pickering, Suenaga, Kumakuba, and Dejager. Hanging out with these guys reignited my passion for the sport and why I loved it. So I’ll open the pics, with Hai from the Insane Drifters beaching his car on driftland.
Just off screen you had Chris Dejager saying “the only way to get it back on track is to roll it over”. I’ve never seen Hai’s eyes well up.
This was the S14 on Driftland.
After my return from Japan the flame was re-ignited and all I wanted to do was become involved. So I went to the December Members day to check it all out. I ran the startline and had a ball as this is where I got to learn who the current VicDrift board was and I got excited. By February I had my sprintcar sold and a R32 Skyline in the garage and I was back!
First event back was the much anticipated Winton Drift Matsuri and my first as race control. This was to be the first Drift Matsuri in Australia, where we drifted from 10am to 10pm on Saturday and 10am to 5pm on Sunday. Both days were a roulette of weather one minute being nice and warm the next pouring with rain so we really had it all. The whole time there, we had cars on the track and everyone having a ball. We had people from all over Australia come down and some of my favourite cars were from the boys from Hit and Run. By the end of Sunday most people were out of tyres and most had taken up position taking a nap in the pits.
Christian Pickering in "Rusty"
Simon Michelmore before the 180 front.
This photo is my favourite, as it really sums up the end of a great weekend.
After the hype that was the Matsuri it was back to business in Victoria. VicDrift were asked to host the drift portion of the Top Gear Live Show. So Yoshi got on the blower and got some of the best drifters we have to offer. The Insane drifter Crew, Agges, Hai, Papa, Tim Koistenen, Nigel Petrie from team Engineered to Slide, Rob McLaren & Waz from Garage Low, Mark Ure and Steve Kae. Justin Power was out snapping photos of the event for us. The event was full of highs and lows as the event was under very strict supervision by the organisers. So as Yoshi always does, he did a very good job of keeping everyone in check. To the drivers credit they all put on a great show. The crowd was near non-existent when there was Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s and even the v8 supercars, but as soon as the drift cars cranked up the crowd came running from every nook and cranny from the Melbourne showgrounds to see the drifters unleash hell on the tight twisting top gear test track.
My funniest highlight of the event was when they decided to put the drift cars into a fast timed lap (well Steve beat most of the race Ferrari’s out there in his JZX100 chaser/taxi), but Agges came out of the blocks 1st, 2nd, 3rd **SCREECH** BARRIER. As bad as it was the sound of the car coming out of the gates, it is definitely something I will never forget. See some of the pics below by Justin Power photography.
Not long after this Chris Dejager asked me if I was interested in heading over to Drift Supercup in SA, and this was an event I had often seen but honestly never really took much notice of so I said “yeah what the hell”! We loaded up early and got on the road to SA which was a good 8 hour drive so we got there just as the sun set. Luckily we were able to enlist the assistance of Christian Pickering to house the car so it wasn’t out in the streets of Adelaide. The whole weekend it rained and it rained so it made track conditions quite interesting for all. One thing that amazed me was how this event was run. A lot of the drivers weren’t informed by running changes that were made by the organisers so some drivers unfortunately missed their practice. Sometimes things don’t always go to plan so hopefully for these guys they were just having a bad day. This event was one that I enjoyed but made me appreciate what we do down here in Victoria. The driving was still great with Michelmore taking the honours in front of Monkhouse and Pickering.
Our tow rig thanks to my work ARB Dandenong and Chris Dejagers race car.
In amongst the many practice Days and member’s days VicDrift also got the time to put on round 1 of the Federal Tyres Drift Attack which was run up at Winton Raceway but on the back section of the track. From a drivers perspective everyone fell in love with the sweeper as this was the first time it had been open for competition use. With one of the biggest prize purse up for grabs in Australia it bought some of the best drifters from around Australia, with an appearance from Blaze unit coming down from NSW and boy did they live up to there expectation.
Fine, Petrie & Weissel
Leighton Fine Vs Mark Ure
This just demonstrates how close the battles were.
Leighton ”leg” Fine, Nathan Wiessel and Benny Neal in the orange laurel also made the trek across to play with us. Our Vic guys put on a great show but in the end full honours from pro class went to Leighton Fine in the borrowed Team Peer onevia, with Mark “mooka” Ure second and Nigel Petrie third. Club class went out to Nic Ferroni, with Justin Stockly putting in a valiant effort for second place.
With Drift Attack 1 also came the exciting announcement there was going to be a new Australian drift series returning, and with round 1 being run at Calder Park, Victoria’s birthplace of drift.
Before we could get into the excitement of ADGP we were all eagerly awaiting Drift Dkills to come around up at DECA in Shepparton, as this was a first for us we all couldn’t wait for the day to get here. When the day finally came I got up at 3.30am jumped in the car and went around to Hai’s from the Insane Drifters to pick up him and his car and set away to Deca. When we arrived the rain that had been ghosting us all the way from Melbourne still hadn’t disappeared so for all the new drivers out there it would be an interesting welcome to drifting in the slipperiest possible scenario. As the day went on everyone was having a ball and although at this event I really didn’t have much input it was still great to be around and observe, not to mention it was a great time to just remember and reflect about how good the drift family is in our state.
Half way through the day and the rain was still persistent so we stopped to have some lunch with Nigel, Celia, Papa and Pinky on the BBQ this was a great opportunity for everyone to come together and talk about what they have learnt and get tips from everyone else all out there for the same thing, and with Hai, Papa, Agges, Nigel Petrie, Steve K, Heath Bailie, Jos, Waz and Viski all out there it was your best chance to chat and get some tips from Vic’s best.
It was very funny and great to see our club president who himself is a great lover of the sport but has never really drifted was out there having a crack and was also awarded the best brakie award for the day, and with many other awards handed out. It was a long day from start to finish so everyone was tired and definitely ready to call it a day.
After Drift skills it then was a quick rest and then off on the road trip to Eastern Creek for the World Time Attack Challenge. I had read so much online about this crazy RX7 that Mad Mike Widdet was bringing across the tasman and some other crazy cars that had never ventured onto our shores, of course there were cars coming from Japan aswell such as the Cyber Evo, Panspeed RX7 and of course Australias own full carbon R35 GTR. These events for me are a great opportunity to see how other events are run, so I can learn and make sure that I can do my part as best I can for VicDrift.
I jumped in the car with Yoshi and headed to Sydney where we were going to meet up with Sean, Tony, Papa and Hai. We woke up nice and early to ensure we didn’t miss anything and the first thing I did when we got there was head straight down into the pits and check out the cars, they were all there including Nigel Petries masterpiece, the drift ute.
Tarzan Yamada
Mad Mike and Jake Jones
Mad Mikes mental RX7
NZ champ Gaz Whitter
Nigel Petries Drift ute.
I met a lot of great people up there for WTAC and learnt some great things so now it was time to head home and begin the lead up to ADGP. Set to take place on the 24th and 25th of September. September 23rd had arrived and bump in was here for ADGP round 1 at Calder Park on the thunder dome. I was quite sceptical on the track layout which was going to be used as it was something never done here before, but when I got there and saw the way it was going to be run it got me thinking about how close the battles were going to be. On Saturday for practice and qualifying I was looking through the crowd from our VicDrift stand and it made me proud to be a part of the Victorian drifting community. All I could see no matter which way you looked was VicDrift members were there and wanting to be a part of something new and really wanting to kick start this exciting new point in Australian drifting.
On Sunday the weather was awesome and the Victorian crowd had once again turned up to see the drivers put on a great show. Manning the VicDrift stand with Tony was fun we had giveaways, cars and new people coming through wanting to know how they could get involved. Meeting people is one of the great parts about being a member of VicDrift and something I am definitely not getting tired of anytime soon. The Action on track was great with our very own Andrea’s Paraskevas (Aggess) getting 3rd place.
Christian Pickering Vs Aggess
Aggess after setting the track on fire…..Litterally!!
No rest for the wicked and I was on my way up to QLD for round 2 of ADGP, I was lucky enough to be asked by “ ilovedrift.com.au” to head up and help out on their trade stand at Queensland raceway. When we got up there late Friday night the weather quite frankly I had seen better, A LOT better. Up early Saturday we headed to the track, kicked Yoshi out and headed up to the hill so as we could set up our stand. Luckily the weather had actually turned and the rain went away but that just bought on the humidity, so unfortunately the crowds were happy to stay home. None the less we had our friends the Insane drifters on the right of us, and the Just Cars crew to our left so we definitely made the most of what we had, we had a ball. 3pm Simon from Just Cars comes to us and says “guys there’s some bad weather coming” so we thought to ourselves ok we will see how we go and if it starts to turn we will pack up. 3.30pm and the heavens unleashed! All the stuff off our tables was blowing away our marque was on its way out of the state with Hai, Papa, Simon and Cat all suspended off the ground holding onto our stand. So we threw everything into the back of our hire car and ran everything across into the shed, on the way back i did my best impersonation of a rally stage through the mud with a nice entry to our location in front of the marquee. Without the help from the Insane Drifters and Just Cars guys it would have been a disaster. This storm however closed the track down for the day.
Sunday rose to be a beautiful day, typical sunny no worries QLD day. Sunnies on, hats out and for some, skirts on, we were in for a great day. The action on track was just as hot with Fink throwing it in backwards every opportunity he had, Aggess putting in another impressive display. Unfortunately however the weather from Saturday still turned people away but there were still enough people out supporting their favourite drivers. At the end of the day it was another Fink victory as Boettcher retired with mechanical issues and Aggess once again finishing third.
These last two pics definitely sum up the weather.
Who’s excited? I’m excited!!! The Supreme Caravans Drift Attack round 2 was here. After months and months and MONTHS of planning the time had arrived. I don’t think I have ever been as nervous for a competition in all my life and I wasn’t even driving! The planning, advertising and man hours that went in to organising this event were nothing short of amazing, I was just hoping that the end result would be a great show.
We all arrived at the track around 6am to begin set-up, many hardly sleeping the night before, but we were all ready to go. Cars were coming through the gates thick and fast to get in and acquire prime pit position. We had Mez there to shoot the days preceding’s, Moz there to call the action as soon as it happened. About 9 came around and our 3 judges Jos Roder, Adam Newton and Kristian Appealt who came across the border from SA. The days started off very smoothly and you could see the excitement from each driver as they entered the first corner, Hai’s excitement even didn’t stop him ploughing through the barriers on the drag strip, soon enough everyone had dialled in and were ready to play ball.
The day was hard work to say the least at one stage I had 4 UHF radios going off, my mobile phone with people who couldn’t get through on the radio and throwing Moz info as well, but the whole day was just go go go, so you didn’t get a chance to relax or think about how busy you were, it just all happened. When the qualifying runs came around we enlisted the talented Amy Boatwright to assist in being the scribe for our judges. From my race control point of view it was great having someone who was able to take control of the judges and just let them do what they do best. As well Robbie Edmonds the CRO for the day was running back and forward organising the cars for battles. I swear the amount of running he did I recon most long distance runners would be proud of.
The day was long but finally the final battles were run with Jake Jones from SA taking out top honours with Aggess taking second and Nigel Petrie taking third. It was great to see Jones have a win after a long time between drinks. Another SA local, Chris Johnson finished 1st in street class. We finished the day off with an expression session which the crowd loved as this could possibly be the last time were able to use that last corner or “hell boy” as many would remember it from the old Fulllock days. After a long day we left the track at 7 and headed home, it was such an epic event in VicDrift 2011 calender.
Jake Jones
Sean Power
Ender
Jones
Andrew McNeill
Drift Attack was definitely a highlight but the action for 2011 still hasn’t finished just yet as we still have round 3 of ADGP which has snuck around quite fast, as it seems just yesterday at Drift Attack round 1 we were hearing about the announcement of this series and now were at the final round. So I took Thursday, Friday off work and flew into WA, which was new for me as I had never done the crossing over the Nullarbor, and Barbegallo was a track I only saw on TV.
Once again I really have to thank “ilovedrift” for having me as I really did want to attend all three events to show my support of our Vic boys and support our new Australian drifting series. The weather was beautiful all weekend, cool but still enough that you were running for your jumper. Crowds on the Friday weren’t allowed into the track before 2pm so drivers just had time to dial in their cars before qualifying began and the hordes of spectators rolled in, when 2pm finally rolled around I was amazed at the WA drift community as they flocked to see the best of the best.
Saturday was competition day and everyone was up and firing I helped set-up the “ilovedrift” stand and got ready for the day’s competition and if the crowd from Friday afternoon was anything to go by Saturday they just doubled (still nothing compared to Melbourne though) still very impressive. Driving styles I found in WA were very flamboyant and great to watch, being able to see Denzo who was one of the drivers I idolised when I first got into drift was there on his own turf. Once again the driving definitely was of the profession level you would expect from a national series. Carla Fry was out there in her new V8 powered S15, and Dan Rassle was out there showing us how you do it in a near stock S13 playing with the big boys. When the day was done Fink took 3 from 3 and took the championship in the Holford Motors S14 which sadly I hear is being retired to greener pastures.
I was sad to leave WA especially after all the fun of the weekend, getting to hang out with all the pro driver’s was something most people can only dream of.
As the year slowly comes to a close it leaves us with only 1 more drift day left and that’s our Vic Drift member’s day, and I was sitting in race control last weekend on the 27th for our practice day watching the winton safety crew clean up after a few spills and incidents and it really made me appreciate what we have here in Victoria. I have grown to really appreciate the safety crew at Winton raceway and they are a big reason as to why we can run 90 cars and have such good flow. So these guys have definitely been a huge help in how well Race control and our on track action flows, as I guess they can sometimes be forgotten.
Before each drift day I stare down the barrel of this gun, 90 hungry drifters ready to unleash hell can sometimes be quite daunting however most people understand and you don’t have many issues. As daunting it can be I do like being able to meet the people and let everyone meet me. If there’s any questions or decisions people don’t like they know who to approach. I do like having the open door with our drivers as this ensures we know what the drivers want and they know what we require.
The last 12 months I have made more friends and travelled the country chasing drift more than I could have ever dreamed of and I don’t regret any of it. I often think to myself that over the last year I have lived a life similar to the movie Endless summer, instead I have been on the pursuit of chasing drift and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Every Victorian drift event I go to and have the privilege of running race control I appreciate more and more what we have down here, as nowhere in any other state have I seen the drift community as close. People are really beginning to respect each other out on the track and even outside of the drift days.
For me I’ve bought an S15 that looked like this:
6 weeks later and it looks like this:
As the curtains are drawn on 2011 I’ve learnt some amazing things, I’ve met some amazing people and majority of these things will definitely effect how I do things in the future. So 2010/2011 had:
December Winton members Day
February Winton Matsuri
March Top Gear live festival
April Drift Supercup
May Winton Drift Attack
June Winton Open practice
July Winton members day
Drift skills Deca Shep
August World time attack Eastern creek
Winton Open practice
September Winton Open practice
ADGP Rnd 1 Calder Park
October Winton Open practice
Calder Park Drift Attack
ADGP Rnd 2 Queensland raceway
November ADGP Rnd 3 Barbegallo WA
Winton Open Practice
December Winton Members day
2012 for me has one large mile stone as I’m getting married but this is not getting in the way. I’ve already got Japan planned for November next year and getting my S15 finished, but none of this can get in the way of my drift plans.
So for all those who have missed out on any of the VicDrift events all I can say is that unfortunately you have missed out but make sure you’re there for 2012 as the events are going to be bigger and better than ever! So if you see me in the pits or on facebook come by and say hi! I would like to say a big thanks to all the VicDrift guys without the passion you guys have for the sport I definitely wouldn’t be here. My fiancé for putting up with me, always being away and to my friends and family thanks for understanding and going along with it, and of course “I LOVE DRIFT.com” for having me along to the interstate rounds of ADGP I really appreciate it.
Keiichi Tsuchiya has a famous quote “I drift because its not the fastest way around the corner, It’s the most exciting”.
As for 2012 all I can say is BRING IT ON!
Cheers,
Ben Shaw
Vic Drift board member
Race control
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