calder park – Gripshiftslide

Keep It Reet Battle Royale RND#1 – 2023 – Run the wall

Grant — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 02:50:04 +0000

Keep It Reet – Friday Night Drifts

Grant — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 04:02:00 +0000

Friday night drifts are always full of good vibe’s and fun times. A mix of drivers turn up to the Keep It Reet Friday night event’s with pro drivers and beginners shredding tyre’s well into the night. Below is a selection of my favorite photos from the event

VicDrift Round #3 :: It's not all about constistancy

Grant — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 23:37:12 +0000

This year is soon coming to a close, Round #3 has already arrived although it only feels like June. As the VicDrift Championship heats up the big players cut groves in the bitumen and solidify their positions in the series.

The seasoned drivers have wasted no time fighting their way to the top of the leader board, preparation, a strong team and many hours in the drivers seat are starting to pay off. These events are more than just a drive, hang time with old friends and new friends are what make this drift community so strong.

Looking good in this sport is half the battle, a great looking car definitely helps with building traction while capturing some attention from sponsors. These two are a prime example of this, both cars just cause people to stop and stare.

Josh Robinson was back with a newly installed 6 speed sequential Pfitzner performance gearbox and carbon fibre doors which has helped him shave an extra 100kg off the car. This means more acceleration for josh! The bad thing is that he will have to buy more taillights, The concrete walls of Calder Park are not very forgiving!

Could this be a trophy or just a creative tow hook made out of a conrod? There is most definitely a story behind this yet we may never know why such a creative tow hook was born.

One last check by Troy’s pit crew to make sure that nothing has come loose and everything is safe to hit the track.

Because Calder Park Thunderdome is essentially a giant bowl, on a cold day with high winds conditions just get amplified! Everyone was wearing as many clothes as they possibly could to keep warm.

This particular track layout has not been used for quite a while, it is an original ADGP layout. When this track layout was first launched 3 cars were almost written off and one camera man got injured. But the skills of the drivers are a lot better these days!

Being a lot faster than most other Thunderdome layouts, with big scando’s, a large banked straight and wall scrapes this course has it all.

Up the bank on the exit of the large sweeping corner is where drivers like Michael Bonney and Jason Ferron really excel by getting on door while blazing up the forty five degree angle banked turn.

The looming concrete walls that surround the Thunderdome are the only thing that you really need to avoid! well that and the dirt pit to the right of the sweepa.

With no probationary licence this young man at the ripe old age of 16 made some of the experienced drivers blush. Having never driven this layout while up against true veterans this young guy really proved that the young can adapt and evolve very quickly to the situation at hand.

Sometimes when you play follow the leader your lines can get a little wild. Many drivers dropped a wheel or two in the same muddy spot chasing the lead car.

With the recent sale of Calder Park the future of VicDrift is looking a little bit shaky, this track is the main track used by VicDrift for the majority of their events. The question is how long until they build houses right on top of Calder Park? From the top of the hill you can see the city and the spread of houses approaching this piece of motorsport history.

Struggling to get heat into the tyres and high winds didn’t help Josh Robinson’s campaign, he was knocked out of the top 8 by bonney who’s aggressive driving style was making mince meat of the competition!

Warwick Fitzgerald who is one of VicDrift’s legends was back in the hot seat pushing his MX5 to the limit against much more powerful cars! He put on some seriously close battles and even exchanged paint with a few drivers but sadly he got knocked out of the top 8.

Nerves may have got the best of Justin Gruener with some big performances in previous rounds many expected him to easily make it into the top 4 drivers of the day. But some silly mistakes in the top 16 battles saw Justin out of the running.

The speed of this layout is much faster than the FD layout that is normally run here. The drivers easily were getting into third and even fourth gear towards the end of their runs down the back straight.

There were so many close battle’s throughout the whole day it was hard to see drivers making any major mistakes. Its a good thing i’m not a judge otherwise I would have had battles constantly re-run to force mistakes to pick the winner.

Westside Concepts are really coming up with some unique designs, take this one for instance a combination of Jim’s Mowing and the Big Lez Show’s (Mike Nolan).

Two of the crowd favorites entered into a 80’s style drift battle with their retro drift cars, John Dreyer ended up getting the win which helped propel him into the top four.

You may be thinking why does this commodore look like it is unusually squatting? this is because of an accident at Winton and the best fix was to weld the rear of the commodore at this strange angle so it could be allowed back on track.

Among the thistles and broken chairs you could clearly see a battle in the distance. Going to war in a concrete dome is one fun way to spend a weekend but watching others fight there way to the top of the battle tree is even better.

With Sharky hot in the rear-view mirror its hard not to have a quick look back to see how close he really is.

Among the sea of cars within Vic Drift is a little ford escort with the heart of a Nissan! We have been watching this car appear and disappear over the last three years and it is always a joy to watch.

The true meaning of relationship goals! That’s right what you are looking at here is boyfriend vs girlfriend with some rather close tandem action.

The peoples choice award went to a strong character of the sport Sharky in a battle that was re-run several times and each time Sharky was on door.

Showing the same form that he had in Round one, Bonney’s transition’s while chasing where so insanely close that he was only leaving centimeters between him and his competition. Bonney’s driving was flawless! It was great to see a well deserved win especially when he has been working so hard this season of the Vic Drift Championship.
Thanks for reading,
Grant.

VicDrift :: Rolling With The Punches Round #2

Grant — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 01:25:55 +0000

In typical Melbourne fashion things looked gloomy and overcast on the way to the track, was it going to rain? was it going to snow? or where we going to see sunshine? All signs pointed to rain! As i parked my van on the grass i herd a splash sound! i instantly tried to reverse but it was too late I had dug myself in!

Bogged within 5 minutes of arriving was not the start i had hoped for, things where about get better as I heard the beautiful song of an RB motor.

With drift practice on the Saturday and the main competition spread across two days there was almost 20 hours of drifting action to be seen at Calder park over the weekend.

Many of the local favorites showed up to defend their turf against the interstate invaders! Some even appeared out of the wood work. Stirling Wright is one of those drivers we haven’t seen for a good couple of years but when he heard VicDrift was running the FD ADGP layout he quickly signed on to drive.

It was great to see the classic layout back at the Thunderdome with the crowd super close eating smoke and cheering on their heroes.

3 Fingers Neat had made the drive from Sydney to support their mates Matty Hill and Scotty P, both cars looked amazing! Along for the ride was the large 3 Fingers Neat merchandise store with their huge clothing range on sale at the event.

The VicDrift president was having a great time on his mini quad bike until later in the day when it refused to start!
VicDrift popularity is really on the rise! This has to be one of the biggest attendances at a round that I have seen for a very long time!

Shortly after morning practice the drivers briefing was held on track, Chris Dejager told all the drivers they were approaching the drift line completely wrong. The judges wanted to see real commitment around the tight section! Marks were made on track to prompt the drivers where to place their front wheels to set the car up for the correct line.

Shortly after the briefing it took a while for the drivers to adjust their approach to the course layout. Those drivers who still babied their cars around the hairpin where soon kicked out of the top 16.

It didn’t take too long for everybody to get more confident entering the hairpin at speed with much better battles happening in the late afternoon.

With all the action close to the crowd they even get a chance to see the drivers return to the pits after their runs. This means the drivers get a good gauge for what the crowd enjoys and does not enjoy.

Unfortunately Adrian Ing got knocked out on a technicality! I had not heard of this rule until now, “if a driver consistently runs a tire of the rim throughout the day because of low pressure or too much stretch and gets warned but also does it during battles then they don’t get to take advantage of the new tire safety rule”. This was sad because Adrian Ing had been preforming well up until the indecent.

Many drivers where familiar with this track layout almost 20% of the drivers had never driven it. There were lots of spins early in the morning as the new drivers adjusted to this technical layout.

Michael Bonney was pushing hard early trying to scare the interstate guests and force mistakes!
With plenty of momentum from round one Bonney had his sights set on a podium finish.

Part 4wd part R34 four door this surprise entry from Sleeka spares had many peoples attention with its unusually high rear end but boy did it have some lock! And plenty of power to match.

Drifting with a live axle is no joke and takes a lot of skill. This SR20 powered Escort has been in the scene for many years but still proves to be competitive.

Bonney was pulling off some really quick entry’s into the large sweeper and his car wasn’t complaining about it unlike Khudr Elhaouli S14 which broke a tie rod on the dip at the exit of the large sweeping corner.

Over the years we have seen a few cars take flight on the barriers on the outside of the hairpin of this layout. This is the first dramatic roll we have seen off the barrier. Driver and passenger jumped out shortly after the roll and both where fine thanks to their full roll cadge!

After the track was clear of oil and car parts the drifting resumed with everyone being a lot more cautious about throwing the car wide around the hairpin.

With no qualifying during the main event the day ran above schedule, allowing the drivers an extra expression session which meant the driver’s who had been knocked out of the top 32/16 had a chance to burn off some more rubber.

Known as (The Peoples Champ) Michael Prosenik is one of only a handful of drivers to have ever represented Australia in overseas competition and he was back home competing in the very club that helped to launch his driving career.

VicDrift have has finally moved into the modern age by deciding to finally live stream their events! This is the first ever live stream of VicDrift! And the best part is you can watch all the action again! Right here

The Best part of the live stream is the fact the drivers will be able to re-watch their runs, see their mistakes and learn from the experience which will create better driving for all.

Michael Prosenik had lent his backup practice car to a friend from New Zealand who wasted no time getting used to the S13 in the warm up area. This car is known for having a mystery gremlin that like’s to turn off the power steering intermediately midway through drifts!

Matt Russell is one of the main organizers of VicDrift yet he still finds time to throw down laps and burn some tires.

Taking too much speed into the fist corner often throws the drivers across a deep edge and into the mud. Some drivers hold the drift others are not so lucky.

Drivers where rushed into the dummy grid for the top 16 where the cars were matched up for the next set of battles.

Michael Prosenik vs Jason Ferron was one hell of a battle! So good the judges couldn’t not determine a winner so the battle was re-run! With Jason Ferron coming out on top.

During the battle for second place Jason Ferron made an error on his chase run. Jason’s late turn in left him no time to get the car sideways this caused him to slam on the brakes to avoid more damage to both cars, Khudr’s door took the majority of the hit! this mistake handed the win to Khudr.

The one driver who was consistent and preformed flawlessly was Stirling Wright. He made it look easy while other drivers looked like they were struggling.

The day was full of action and with a huge crowd the atmosphere was amazing. The crew behind VicDrift has been putting in a lot of work behind the scenes to make the Vicdrift Championship the best it can be, the club’s momentum continues to impress with every event. Driver entries are continually maxing out the capacity for the current events scheduled leaving a huge waiting list! I have not seen the club so popular in the 5 years that I have been following their events!

Round 2 of the 2016 VicDrift Championship was one of the best rounds we have ever seen!
With 69 drivers competing over 2 days of competition and some very impressive driving the drivers who stood at the top over the weekend are:
1st – Stirling Wright
2nd – Khudr Elhaouli
3rd – Jason Ferron
Forced Motorworx Peoples Choice Award – Justin Gruener.

BONUS IMAGES

VicDrift RND#1 :: From Day To Night

Grant — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 10:53:45 +0000

Starting the day with a sleep in is the best! Getting to the track at midday was strange but awesome. A new year; a new system! The Dejager System!
Although the Dejager system sounds like some sort of Dutch mathematical term it really is a completely new way of organising drift battles and the competition tree.

With a host of new drivers competing in round 1 there were plenty of new faces that had travelled a long distance to tackle the infamous Calder Park.
This track layout has been run many times now and most of the drivers know it well however the cross over section can be tricky especially for newcomers.

Spotting a car you’ve seen on track years ago is like seeing an ex-girlfriend in a crowd of people. First you get flashbacks of the good times then you slowly release why you do not see them anymore.

Blasting out of the pits just in time for battle is the one and only Aaron Dewar in his new S14! If you’ve seen Aaron’s old car you will know he likes his cars on the more powerful side.
His new s14 build has all of the same party tricks and more.

Drift veteran Anthony Cece also made an appearance in his Kendra sponsored car. Coming all the way from Adelaide is a hell of a trip and it was great to see such a seasoned competitor showing the new drivers how it’s done.

Aaron Dewar wasted no time quickly thrashing the new car while ironing out the bugs.

Travelling from Radelaide Suspect Drift Team Joel Donegan was back to take on the Victorians at their own game. After impressing everyone at round 5 last year we can see he is back to do it it again while upsetting a few locals.

Greg Matthews in his neo s14 with a respectable 340kw from his rb25 powered rig. Not only does this car look the part it does quite well on the track!

Greg made good use of the cross over section of the track using his power to transition over the hill.

Waiting times at the dummy grid were a little lengthy because of the new system. At first winners of each battle were brought back on track to show the crowd who won but this really took too much time and was abandoned quite quickly.

Just like synchronized divers the SC team from Adelaide knew how to keep it together! Really one of the best, most in sync teams on the day.

Unfortunately, the Supra from Link Management that has traveled from NZ was having troubles all day but their trusty mechanic Mr Chicken was able to get the car running by night fall.

A new season and new graphics for the young and upcoming Alex Gouveia who is now battling against the best in this current season of the Vicdrift championship.

From photographer to driver Joey Canals was driving well the whole day and he even found time to check tinder between battles. Although he had never driven this track he quickly became comfortable with the layout.

It’s so good to finally see something other than a Nissan drifting on track! A BMW with a good old M52b28 engine and no dirty backyard sr20 job. The E30 is such a classic shape and we really hope to see more more of them enter the drift scene in the next few years.

Drift OG John Dreyer is making his return to drift in this classic Bluebird! He will be drifting the entire Vicdrift season in this very car. Whilst most of the top guys are running v8 powered Nissans John is going the low powered, skilled style of drift of the old days. We cannot wait to watch this car perform in the next up coming rounds.

The moment before Kevin Flynn from Driver Dynamics gave James Mackie a love tap leaving a permanent scar on his door. This was a close battle that got replayed several times. The battle was so close I don’t even know who won in the end.

As night fell it was clear that many of the cars had been poorly set up for the night. Headlights pointing toward the sky is a clear indication of a rushed night setup.
Vicdrift’s Facebook page exploded when the regulations for headlights were realeased with a ban on LED light bars! There were many angry drivers having to source OEM headlights for their cars in a hurry.

There was no shortage of skill on the night with the boys from Garage Worx / Team Elhaouli coming into the first corner full clip one handed while waving to the crowd.

Forced Motorworx people’s choice award! This was the chance for the crowd watching to give one of their favorites another chance. Bring back two favorite drivers to battle it out for the award that was live voted via Facebook. Amongst the public’s favourites were: Aaron Dewar, Adrian Ing, Luke Barbieri, Jason Ferron , John Capuano, Josh Robinson, Scott Dickie and Michael Prosenik.

There was not much light over the cross over section and a few cars nearly came unstuck. Luckily all drivers involved kept their wits and avoided damage.

Moe Elhaouli was down on power as his car had snapped its supercharger belt plus various other things had broken. He therefore had to nurse the car through the final battles against Justin Gruener. Although Moe’s car was down on power Justin’s car was still underpowered in comparison and he was lucky to beat Moe with his proximity and emulation.

Another great battle of the finals was between two well known characters of the club in Jason Ferron vs Matt Russell. Both pushed it to the limit with little to no mistakes making it very hard for the judges to pick a winner.

Michael Bonney has been on a tear in the last six months making a real charge for the spotlight and his confidence is growing with every win. His consistency kept him ahead of the field and it was enough to overcome Justin’s hard charging R33.

In the very last battle Bonney received a bump which broke all of his main exhaust mounts. This sent a plume of sparks along the track as his full exhaust was dragging underneath the car whilst he drifted towards the finish line! The crowd cheered as they were treated to a serious fireworks display.

Big changes bring big disruption. The new system made no new friends initially but many of the drivers grew to like the Dejager system by the end of the night; despite its initial technical difficulties. Let’s hope that round #2 runs smoothly and keeps the players happy.
Vicdrift Rnd 1 Results
1st – Michael Bonney
2nd – Tom Sabo
3rd – Justin Gruener
4th – Moe Elhaouli
Thanks for reading,
Grant.

DCA : The dome, round 3

Grant — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 13:28:04 +0000

DCA has been making its’ way around the country and has finally landed in Victoria. Everyone was excited to see Drift challenge Australia at the dome. And after seeing DCA at Raliegh raceway earlier in the year, I had some idea of what to expect.

There was a considerable line to get in to Calder Park, despite the early morning start. Once through the gates, the drivers scrambled to roll their cars off in time for the drivers briefing. The infamous battle master Stewy Byant had made the long tip to Victoria and was looking fresh, even if the car wasn’t.

Peering in through the window, I spotted a monster tacho along with many other gauges… but no speedo? This worried me! What kind of badasses were we dealing with? With lots of interstate drivers competing at the event, the mix of cars was inspiring to say the least.

Chelsea DeNofa, a well know Formula Drift driver from the United States, was the special international guest at round 3. This was the first time Chelsea had seen the car he was driving and he was a little underwhelmed with it.

In all the events that have been held at Calder Park Thunder Dome, never have I seen such an unconventional track layout. At first I was shocked, then confused, but once I saw a few cars run the track, it quickly grew on me! It was not the conventional FD Asia / ADGP layout we are all used to, it was something new with components of old track layouts

Simon Michelmore is never one to shy away from competition. This weekend he was driving his backup car, the R33 Skyline as his competition car was getting a much needed overhaul.

Luke Broadbent’s Nissan Cefiro is never short on power thanks to his super committed pit crew. Luke is a strong performer and he has the talent and car to take him to the top.

A surprise number one qualifier was Warick Fitzgerald in his giant sleighing turbo mx5. He stunned the judges with the most perfect run of Saturdays’ practice. He also won a $250 voucher to Cartel Online for winning qualifying.

A great thing about DCA is the fact that passengers get to ride all day long, even during battles! This is good for the passenger and the balanced weight factor.

Shaun Gilbert is one experienced driver who has driven all over the world. Here you can see him battling Luke Mudde for a spot in the top 16.

Shaun has not lost any confidence since a recent crash at Ebisu Japan, where he flipped his car and ended up knocked out for 4 minutes. He is a true warrior, with so many epic battles over the weekend – he has to be one of the best chase car performers of the weekend.

Tearing it up in your street car is what DCA is all about! Fun drifting – with no bullshit pressure.

The top 16 battles where hectic! And with so much talent and so many big names, one star was sure to fall. The unfortunate driver to make the mistake was Matt Russell in his mighty 86 up against a Cefiro that had at least twice the power of the 86.

Two of the best and most exciting drivers of the weekend had to be Simon and Stewy. Always on the edge, with full commitment and plenty of flare! This pair know how to entertain the crowd whilst managing to look cool.

The Calder Park Thunderdome can be very unforgiving and running too low here can cause all sorts of problems because of elevation changes. Yet we have never seen an ecu loom jump out and get chewed before. This little mishap caused Simon most of Saturdays’ track time! Rewiring an ecu loom is no easy feat.

Guest driver Chelsea DeNofa learned quickly to drive on the right side whilst driving a foreign car and if that’s not enough, he also had to deal with a crazy tight track layout.

Chelsea’s skills where evident! With top level hair splitting accuracy, he was involved in many drift trains and epic battles over the weekend – he soon mastered the track.

With enough power to launch a satellite into orbit, Michael Bony created artificial clouds all day long! He didn’t impress the judges though, hitting clipping points while keeping things smooth is what the judges where looking for, not a power display.

Our man Jason Ferron was out in his trusty R31. Having competed in every DCA round so far, Jason knew what to expect. But the unexpected happened! The welds broke on his diff centre, which meant he had to qualify in Justin Stocker’s rb25 Cefiro. After qualifying, Jason luckily got his mate to retrieve a minispool from Jason’s house. The car was repaired in time for his battle against Denofa, in which Jason spun on the lead lap loosing him the battle. This will be the last time we will get to see the old blue R31 as Jason is upgrading to a wagon and we cannot wait to see him back on track.

Ensuing carnage where ever he went, Johnny from Manic Racing sure knew how to get the crowd going! Not qualifying on the Saturday because of car dramas really didn’t hurt his enthusiasm on track.

On Sunday he was out again being crazy and putting paint on every wall! Johnny literately drove the wheels of his R34 Skyline, putting everything on the line, pushing all the boundary’s and smashing a new shape into the car.

Mitchell Sanders after staring out in the ke70 and not being able to make it work the way he wanted, cracked it and told organisers that he would be late for qualifying. He went and did a 2 hour round trip to pick up the cClica that had sitting on his front lawn, untouched since driving it back from DCA round 2. Once back at Calder Park, Mitchell changed tyres, fluids and the car felt better than it ever had! After putting down a few laps to get a handle on the layout, it was time to put down a qualifying run. The run was good enough for 14th place and a top 32 against Aaron Dewar, which he went on to win before being defeated by Jordan Graham in the top 16.

There was plenty of action on and off the track. The crowd on Sunday was a lot bigger than the crowd on Saturday, yet the action was equally good on both days. The harsh drop off on the dome was damaging all the cars, especially people who hit it on weird angles, they were bending tie rods, snapping wheels and bottoming out suspension.
Below are a few sample videos of what it looked like to drift the dome at DCA.

http://photos.gripshiftslide.com/uploads/2012/02/2014/11/dca_train_1.mp4

Chasing Warick Fitzgerald within the drift train.

http://photos.gripshiftslide.com/uploads/2012/02/2014/11/dca_train_2.mp4

On board with Warick Fitzgerald.

http://photos.gripshiftslide.com/uploads/2012/02/2014/11/dca_train_3.mp4

The view from the middle of the track.

These are your top drivers for round three.
1st Chelsea DeNofa
2nd Josh Robinson
3rd Moe Elhaouli
4th Jordan Graham
Round 4 is set to be one hell of an event with the promise of Ryan Tuerck as the special international guest. Drift Challenge Australia is really bringing the best drifters together into one competition. Luke Fink should be very proud of what he has created in his first year and we know it is only set to get bigger and better.
Thanks for reading,
Grant

ADGP round 4 :: The 2013/14 Championship Conclusion

Grant — Mon, 26 May 2014 08:53:58 +0000

With more than 40 cars due to hit the track and pit crews working feverishly, the morning air smelled like sweet E85. After a year the Australian Drift Grand Prix has traveled all around Australia and returned to Calder Park for the final round of the championship.

The pits were alive with the sound of wild horse power but the track was dormant. Soon thousands of dollars worth of tyres were about to be embedded into Melbourne’s home of motorsport Calder Park Raceway.

In the early morning many were hurrying to apply new sponsor stickers as they quickly unloaded their trailer loads of tyres and tools.

Prosnik’s car was running a different set of wheels this weekend making the S13 look even more aggressive than usual. This new bling helped to intimidate the competition whilst showing them that Prosnik is here to stay and is a real threat in the world of drift within Australia.

Beau Yates was finally back in the seat of his very well prepared Toyota sponsored 86. Probably the best modified 86 within Australia complete with the extensively modded Boxer engine. No cheating here; only hard work, dedication and a hell of a lot of testing / tuning.

This S14 is not just a pretty face! It is one serious drift weapon with years and years of high level experience. John Papadopoulos is the man behind this great looking Silvia. It was looking better than it had for many years but as we all know drift has a way of tarnishing the silverware.

A very strange Commodore was showing some Nissans how it’s done. A turbo Commodore? It is not a VL! How could this be? It is not a V8! It’s a Nissan in disguise!

A relative newcomer to ADGP; Finny O’Hare with his battle weapon r33 was showing the crowd how it is done. Because this course closely resembled the one set up for Formula Drift Asia it was very challenging for many drivers who had not experienced this type of layout before.

Ryan was throwing it hard at this wall and Andrew Hawkins took the opportunity to capture the action. Every driver has their own style yet the crowd really loves the drivers that show personality through their driving.

Ryan was looking good Saturday but by Sunday things started to go wrong. First there was loosing a lead run against Jabbot because of an intercooler pipe that blew off and then other steering issues. This was not what he had planned for the weekend.

The widest R32 competing in ADGP has to be Michael Rosenblatt’s. This car has seen its fair set of changes since the series started and I’m sure this car will continue to transform in the newcoming season.

Consistent performance is the key to success although Michael regularly places in the top ten during most rounds. His continued achievements over 2013 are setting him up for even better results in 2014.

Not only were the national drivers impressing the judges but also some of the drivers competing in the state competition like Brent Gordon.

Probably the best looking helmet design in ADGP John Papadopoulos knows how to present a professional drift team. Although helmet designs are something not all drivers think about it’s one of those things that can help set your team apart from others.

The cool elephant skin pattern also extended onto the car livery. John wasn’t hitting the clipping points as well as the judges wanted but he kept pushing it all weekend and soon got a good handle on this advanced track layout.

Josh was putting it all on the line desperately striving for a top result. His initial entries were ferocious! No one else was giving the first corner as much commitment as Josh.

On the Saturday the rain hit only for an hour or so but it was enough to drastically change track conditions for the worst. Some drivers could handle the damp track whilst others spun out more than once per lap.

The rain slowed down the drift action which gave the drivers a chance to practice wall proximity.

This was a sure sign that the grip was returning to the track. Having a tyre rip off your car while going sideways at speed is not all shits and giggles. Alex kept his drift on! The crowd loved it and cheered!

The track soon dried up and the smoke returned much to the crowds delight. From that point on the drifting got better and better.

For the first time the other side of the track was opened up to spectators. A serious portion of the giant thistles had been removed and new concrete seating had been constructed. This gave the crowd a chance to see the show from a new perspective.

James Abbott (Jabbot) certainly knows how to hype up the crowd! A great driver with more ‘flare’ than finesse; but super high entertainment value!

Here you can see Josh midway through a wheel throw. He was constantly attacking the course with the same intensity he arrived with.

This R33 was laying down some serious skids with plenty of gusto! It was making real power off the first downhill sweeping corner.

3 Fingers Neat always put on a good show! With plenty of 2j power Schembri would bake the finish line to give the crowd a good soaking of tyre spray.

An unexpected Jack Widdas took the #1 spot in national qualifying in the GH Haulage R31 Skyline.

With Rob Whyte looking on, Beau Yates managed to put in a killer performance during qualifying to secure #2 spot with Dale Campaign coming in a close third.

I have never heard of a drift car running off straight gas until now! Meet Sean’s crowd pleasing XP Falcon complete with Au 4ltr turbo engine.

Everything is getting better at drift events and even the food! That’s right we occasionally stop to grab a bite!

The defending champion was pushing hard to put points on the board. He suffered from a few car dramas over the weekend but held it together and put in a respectable performance.

Had Rob Whyte done enough to hang on to the championship for a second time? The points were incredibly close. Andrew Hawkins kept his cards close to his chest and we would only find out after the final battle.

Three top level drivers all in one shot. Unfortunately none of them could stop Beau or Prosnik from battling their way to the top.

This was the best drifting I had seen this year period! Beau Yates had the 86 screaming and scraping doors with Michael Rosenblatt. The battle got replayed several times and each time it was so incredibly close that the judges had a very hard time picking a winner.

When these epic battles were over the ADGP media crew rushed to interview them and to let Beau know that he was through into the next battle. Michael Rosenblatt performance was so good that the subsequent final battles were boring in comparison. Michael had stuck to Beau’s door like glue and nobody came close to repeating that feat.

Putting Victoria on the map was the peoples champ Michael Prosnik, complete with his own cheer squad / crew. He placed second over the weekend and third overall in the championship.

Beau Yates took out first place winning his first round of this season! The 86 did not miss a beat and it was great to finally see Beau back on the podium where he belongs.

Our driver Jason Ferron continues to kick goals with a third placing in the state competition. He had some seriously close battles against Brad Tuohy and Brent Gordon but luckily got himself onto the podium.

Rob Whyte almost lost the championship to Nick Coulson! However, he had just had enough points to win his second ADGP championship in a row. Winning back to back championships is no easy task. Can the man repeat his performance in the new upcoming season of ADGP? Only time will tell…

Video :: Round 2 VicDrift Championship and Practice session

Grant — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 13:24:35 +0000

Roadking Chassis Round 2 VicDrift Championship and Practice session from grip shift slide on Vimeo.

Run the Wall :: VicDrift Practice Calder Park

Grant — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 14:14:28 +0000

Winter is well and truly amongst us here in Melbourne, while temperatures drop into the single digits and rev heads go into hibernation the boys and girls of Vicdrift came out to play at Calder Park Raceway.
With the Raceway booked for the entire weekend and round two of the Vic Drift x Road King Chassis comp only needing one day, meant a full day of practice for anyone keen to enter.

Early on Saturday morning the gates opened and some 80 entrants arrived with tools and tyres in hand.
I was excited to see the XY again and could not wait to see it out on the track! Getting a larger car like this to drift is no easy task at all.

This is so much better than a pair of fluffy dice! This Nardi Driftworks wheel looks at home under the mirror in this drift ready Soarer.

At Gripshiftslide we like cars that are unique and a bit more individual! Take this gorgeous FD RX7 for instance… It’s got a great colour choice, nice kit and a mad set of steel wheels to match.

Everybody was excited to get sliding, this drift trike was laying down some serious pvc on the tarmac of the pits!

Not every car was ready to hit the track though. Denis’ E30 drift machine and former feature car was undergoing a few repairs before it was ready to go out and tear it up.

Who said drift was dead? With well over 70 drivers registered for the practice day, I think it is safe to say it is here to stay!

Only the brave take their daily drive to go do skidz! With as many tyres as the car could possibly carry, this man was ready to get the job done.

This Ke70 was bashing the limiter up the entire straight and the crowd was absolutely loving it!

Many of the drivers have been awaiting this day for several months and then when it was finally here, they couldn’t possibly contain their excitement!

Denis’ showing off his tremendous amount of steering lock!

The day wasn’t just for the amateurs though, it was a great chance for some of the pro boys to get a feel for the track and stretch their legs.

Entertaining the crowd will always get you some bonus points!

Adrian and his ke70 were at the Haunted Hills not all that long ago. Now he’s sliding the little Corolla around Calder.

Drift Cat was using the day to tune in her freshly installed Shockworks coilovers, so far she has been wrapped with their performance and cant wait to have the car ready for competition.

By the early afternoon the VL-VK was really baking the rear tyres!!

Camry drivers are always trouble even out on the track, After some technical difficulties this Cressida had to be towed back to the pits

The mighty LS7 powered S13 has had a makeover in the off season, much cleaner but still very raw… We love it!!

Really digging the twin pipes on this clean white 180SX.

A regular of Vic Drift days, this mighty S12 Silvia was bellowing out the smoke from the rear tyres all day long!

Catherine May has been driving exceptionally well of late, might have something to do with her latest sponsor R-Power Motorsport making sure the car is performing at it’s best.

It’s amazing how many cars make it out to these events, we’re constantly seeing new cars and faces at every track day.

The R33 seems to have gained a big drift following thanks to plummeting prices and a flooded second hand market.

Road registered skidder, living the dream!

We love this little MX-5, contradicting stereo types every single track day.

The FC RX7 going in for maximum attack…

Looking just as good sideways as it does standing still!

Tough as nails R31 running some very stretched tyres!

Drivers were loving every minute of the laid back Vic Drift practice day, maximum fun, minimum down time.

This Soarer was belting out massive smoke screens along the wall and well onto the straight.

Soon the day was coming to an end which meant the final session had drivers pushing their cars to the limit!

Hats off to the Vic Drift crew for another successful practice day, laid back casual fun all the day before round two of competition series!!
Stay tuned for our round 2 coverage.
Thanks for reading,
Grant.

Vicdrift x Road King Chassis :: Round 1 2013

Grant — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 10:48:01 +0000

The drift competition season has well and truly kicked off here in Victoria with round one of the VicDrift competition wrapping up just over a week ago at Melbourne’s Calder Park Raceway.
The track had been set on fire with non-stop drift action all weekend, starting with a full day of open practice on the Saturday and then the first of the three round competition on the Sunday.
There were plenty of familiar faces and also a whole heap of fresh cars thrown into the mix for Sunday’s competition.
(There’s load of extra pics hidden in this article, simply roll your pointer over a photo and chances are you’ll see another image load up… Magic!)

Arriving track-side bright and early, it was soon apparent just how wet the track was from the night of steady rain… this was going to make things interesting.

Khudar’s S14 was still wearing the FD banner from the Formula Drift Asia competition that was held here in Melbourne recently.

Justin’s R32 showing its’ battle scars with pride.

We were looking forward to seeing how Peter and his R33 would go as this is a driver that has really been killing it of late!

Drivers battled the freezing cold and wet conditions to get the finishing touches ready for the first practice session.

Interstate star and all round top bloke, Jake Jones, was revving the guts out of his RB powered Nissan Onevia in the early sessions. Some of the high powered cars struggled and the near stock ‘streeters’ seemed to flourish with the super wet conditions.

Some of the drivers got a little too excited with the instant horse power gained from the wet surface and found themselves a little too close to the wall.

The Insane Drifters are still one man down with Papa’s engine still being repaired after the ADGP/FD double header a couple of months ago.
Aggess stepped up to the challenge and was driving twice as hard in his proven and competition winning SR20 powered 180SX.

Things were starting to dry up but there were still plenty of wet spots with some huge puddles sitting close to the wall.
This caused some issues with cars going from dry to wet and back to dry, meaning we saw plenty of spins and near misses with the wall.

The award for the most interesting looking car certainly went to Scott and his Nissan Laurel. There’s more to this book than its’ cover or should I say camber”
The somewhat ‘missile’ like appearance hides a lot of ingenious and clever ideas on the inside. Everywhere you look there is something on this car that just works but looking at it your brain says it shouldn’t work at all!

Easily our highlight from the field was watching Chris chuck his Toyota Cressida into the wall all day. The expression session at the end of the day was quite an experience!

The biggest casualty of the morning was Adam’s S13, with a lock up sending him hard into the wall. After the impact, Adam managed to straighten everything up and make it back out on to the track but was plagued by issues all afternoon and eventually finished up the day early.

The still damp track made for some ridiculous entries into the huge sweeping last corner.

Matt Russel in his ‘little 86 that could’ was out in force and after finding his groove, qualified in 7th place.

The El Haouli brothers were setting the bar very high all day. As soon as the track started to dry out they were chalking up the track with a constant cloud of smoke trailing behind them.

Khudar started the day very strong after qualifying 2nd!!

After the practice sessions and qualifying rounds were done and dusted, it was time to check out the start line. Here the drivers were positioned in battle order and a quick drop of the arms sent the drivers flying down the straight towards the first corner.

The start line crew gave each driver some simple instructions before each warm up lap or battle.

All the while, they were paying close attention to the battle tree and making sure drivers were on time for each battle.

The energy from the start line was super exciting, waiting between each run there was this eerie silence that seemed to last forever and then bam! the radio would cut in “Send the next car”. Then an engine would fire up and the next car was waved through as it bounced off the limiter screaming up to a suitable speed to initiate into the first corner.

Jake’s Silvia – now available in ‘clean skin’. Jake is now a privateer driver and the car looks super clean without all the stickers, which is a welcome change.

Jake seems more determined than ever and we look forward to seeing him take on some of the biggest names in the sport later in the year at WTAC.

It’s the little details we love in some of these drift cars. Matt’s wheel of choice and signature finish to all his AE86’s… Impul Hoshino Racing <3

The Supreme Caravan Racing S13’s Nascar inspired theme always looks at home at Calder Park, given the brief history running Nascar in the Thunderdome next door.

Tension levels at the start line were very high at times. Here Scott can be seen taking a swig from his imaginary flask of whiskey. Everyone deals with the stress differently.

By now the battles were well and truly underway with the top 8 nearly over. After some fierce battles, we saw some big names knocked out early before the top 4.
Jake Jones and Khudar El Haouli were defeated in the top 8.

Aggess took the win against Russel leaving him in 4th place.

Prosenik took the win against Moe in the blue R32 which meant it was two of the home favourites going head to head. Prosenik and Aggess fought as hard as they could to win the top spot for round 1.

It was so tough to call that they ended up doing 3 re-runs!!! A total of 4 battles to decide the winner.

Aggess crept ahead taking the win by the narrowest of margins, it really could have gone either way.

The boys chuffed with their podium finishes. From left to right – Prosenik, Agges and Moe.

After the award ceremony there was a brief gap for drivers to re-fuel and change tyres so they could get the most out of their entry fee. It was of course time for a good ol’ fashioned expression session!

Cat used the last session of the day to shine, putting down some solid laps around the track.

Most drivers took it as a chance to drive until every panel came off!!

Every tyre was used to the raggered edge!

Everywhere you looked there was new damage after each and every lap.

The star of the day (well our favourite anyway) Chris kept coming in harder and harder..

Finally scraping the length of the wall sending sparks flying and then just drifting off like nothing had happened!

Pretty sure he started the expression session with two taillights and a bumper bar.

Prosenik even enjoyed a couple of quick celebration laps, planting the throttle causing many people to stick their fingers in their ears to block the deafening sound from the monstrous V8!

Loved the Mr Sparkle decal on the bonnet of this 180SX!

Most cars were already packed up by this stage and we were glad to be getting out of the cold.

Another massive weekend of driving and a great start to the VicDrift x Road King Chassis series. We will be following every round in detail this year and can’t wait for the next event.
Make sure you check out the VicDrift website and facebook page to stay up to date with all the latest and hopefully we’ll see you at the next round!
http://www.vicdrift.com/
https://www.facebook.com/vicdrift

The current standings after round 1 are as follows…

Thanks for reading, If you guys would like to see a bunch more photos then leave us a comment below and we might put the rest up on our FB page.
Gwyn.