rob whyte – Gripshiftslide

ADGP :: Round 3, The Twilight Throwdown

Grant — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 22:09:32 +0000

The Australian Drift Grand Prix has been up and running for the last five years. Every year, the competition continues to get more fierce, amidst competitors rebuilding their cars nearly every round. These cars continue to get lighter with new engine configurations every round that not only push the boundary’s but also push the budget.

Round 3 took place in South Australia at the well known Mallala race track, being only a one hour drive from Adelaide this track is very accessible for those who live in Adelaide. But, if you have driven from Melbourne it is a 9-hour trip with 3 cans of V and lots of bad food.

It was great to see that Micheal Bonney had made the trip up with his trusty s15! complete with new livery design and a few little aero add-ons.
Mallala is a very flat and open track, great if you’re trying to track predators yet not super interesting to the eye. The track is similar to Winton Race Way in the fact that it is a very dry wide open track, the advantage of this is if you mess up your not really going to hit anything but sandtraps.

In all my time I have never seen a temporary grandstand made permanent, constructed of compressed wood boards and scaffolding this grandstand had some serious character. Walking on this was like a chose your own adventure book, patched together like an inherited patchwork quilt. With every step you could feel this raw construction gowning underweight, with one wrong step and you could plummet to the ground!

Rob Whyte’s car looked as though it was having some early morning teething problems, yet i was confident we would see him and his wild machine on track regardless of any problems the car was having.

The always hard charging Micheal Rosenblatt was back in great form, the car looked fantastic and his driving was quickly on point.

This was only the second time Rob Whytes new car had competed this year. Although he has taken out the championship many years in a row this year looks to be his hardest on record.

This car is the second loudest car I have every witnessed with its all new modified sprint car v8! the sound literally causes your inner ear to retreat further into your skull for protection. Josh Boettcher is a serious contender! well traveled with a huge amount of experience and tonnes of talent.

Drivers had free run of the track most of the day with no local club traffic to deal with! this meant the pro’s could really get a great handle on the track’s layout. Getting as close to the clipping points while keeping up the speed on this track was the main aim! While many couldn’t get the snap transition into the second corner quite right, Josh Boettcher looked to have no trouble with this section at all.

After the middle snap transition was a long corner that seemed to continue forever, Some drivers could turn this into great angle near the end of the corner while other chose to maintain a medium angle around the whole corner.

Brent Gordon has really stepped up his game! Qualifying first! beating a whole host of super experienced pro’s while navigating the clipping points like his car was on rails.

Battle weapon always puts on a great show! Finny O’hare really know what he his doing behind the wheel yet when those competition nerves get the best of him sometimes he makes silly mistakes.
Putting down some solid runs Finny managed to Qualify tenth position setting himself right in the middle of the pack.

The R31 skyline is over 20 years old, but this chassis can still hold its own against some of the most modern cars of today. Jack Widdas keeps being knocked out by the top 5 drivers in the championship only because he often gets a raw deal when it comes to the top 16. We predict that next season he will move from the top ten group up into the top 5.

The top 32 battles were over very quickly with not many re-runs or stoppages during the competition. The top 16 grid looked ready for war with many of the drivers gaining surprise entry’s into the top 16. One being Catherine May who had earlier struggled with the course but now had forged her way up the ladder with some big names making mistakes early.

Being a great driver across many disciplines takes incredible skill! Shane Van Gisbergen is one driver that not only competes in V8 Supercars, but also has driven at WTAC and now has found himself a spot in the Australian Drift Grand Prix. Qualifying filth with some incredible entry speeds plus great proximity to the clipping points shows that Shane know’s how to play the game.

The most violent car of the day was Michael Bonney’s crazy powerful S15. Michael’s car had such an extreme transitional snap whenever the handbrake was touched! it was like the car could go from lock to opposite lock within a fraction of a second.

Already known as one of the nicest guys in drift Matt Russell ended up sharing his car with Jarred Klingberg due to jarred’s car suffering a major engine problem in the top 32 battles.

Matt Russell always finds himself up against a super powerful car and often the power outweighs the light nimble AE86. With Some great chase runs and plenty of flair Matt fought hard to finish in the top 8.

The hero of the day was Micheal Rosenblatt! like a possessed warrior he took down many high ranking officers. It was a shame not to see Beau Yates up against Rosenblatt! unfortunately, Beau could not get the new engine swap complete in his Toyota 86 quick enough to compete in Round 3.

A true nail biting set of finals were on the cards with Rob Whyte out the championship was suddenly wide open for Nick Coulson / Micheal Rosenblatt the winner of this battle would determine the current leader of the series.

Levi Clarke is a strong contented and it was no surprise to see him in the final of round 3 up against the hard charging Rosenblatt! Never afraid of a chase

A well deserved win went to Micheal Rosenblatt, he knocked out the best of the best to claim the win with Levi Clarke hot on his heels in second place. Third place went to Brent Gordon who along with Micheal Rosenblatt were the stand out drivers of the day. With only one more round to go in the championship and just eighteen points separating the top two drivers anything could happen!
Thanks for reading,
Grant

ADGP Round 3 :: Sydney Motorsport Park

Grant — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 05:57:44 +0000

Round three of the Australian Drift Grand Prix was set to be a very interesting round in the series after a not so predictable 2nd round in Western Australia.
The last round saw some fresh names on the podium at the end of the day, Matt Harvey took 1st, Victoria’s own Matt Russel taking 2nd and Dale Campaign scored 3rd.
So coming into the third round the championship points weren’t in anyone’s favor so all the drivers were going to be pushing their cars and their abilities to the absolute limit!!

The drivers are split into two classes, state and national. Those in state can try and earn their place into the national series which is usually reserved for those competing in all 4 rounds.
The schedule remains the same as any other round, one full day of qualifying and then a full day of competition.

Both days were scorchers with temps in the high 30’s the cars and spectators were feeling the effects of the sun all weekend long.

This was going to be an exciting round for us as we were cheering on our very own Jason Ferron who has become quite the wild card with some fantastic battles under his belt.

With every drift event held in Sydney there is always a heap of local talent present track side, something must be in the water here because they always have the best looking drift cars in the country.

Simon Michelmore was one to keep your eyes on with a fresh build completed in a new shell his S14 should be more competitive than ever!

The usual suspects of the national series during the drivers briefing.

Ryan ‘Slide’ Cummings is easily one of the best looking cars around.

With his fare share of mechanical miss-haps in the last 12 months we were hoping Ryan would finally have his day.

With last minute prep complete the drivers got ready for the practice sessions followed by qualifying.

Jarrad Klingberg took out the number 1 qualifier not only in his state class but was the highest score of the day beating Insane Drifters Agges by just 1 point!!

Agges put down one of the cleanest qualifying laps we seen in the competition. Here’s a video of the very solid run. Click here.

Levi Clarke in the stupidly photogenic V8 powered S15 pulled out number two qualifier in the national class and third highest for the day.

South Australia’s Jack Widdas scored a 67 which left him in 3rd place.

Cameron Mote took 3rd place in the state division with a score of 59.5 which would have put him in the top 10 of the national class to give you guys a comparison.

Matt Harvey missed the beat but still landed in number 7 spot.

Unfortunately Elliot Wylie had a spin and scored a zero. Points aside we have a big soft spot for this Laurel, after the epic David vs Goliath battle at last years Formula D event here in Melbourne where Wylie lent this car to Tom Monkhouse to go on to take 2nd place against Daigo Saito

Insane drifter Papa was also at the opposite end of the points only scoring 34, off a 4th place win form the previous round Papa had his work cut out for him.

It seems that the heat was getting to both the cars and the drivers with several spins and some break downs.

Ben Purtel was in fine form qualifying just half a point ahead of Andy Gray! Which landed him in number 9.

Nic Wilson was sporting a fresh make over on his wild looking Toyota Saloon. The JZX90 Chaser was wearing the wing of all wings built by Victorian specialists Topstage Composites.

Hit N’ Run drift crew’s Pistol Pete was out in force in the bedroom poster worthy 6 liter V8 equipped S15, yes it sounds as nice as it looks.

The only rotary of the competition was not off to a good start missing out on a spot in the 16 of the state division.

The drift Syndicate VE was still looking fresh after Max Orido put it through it’s paces during WTAC last year.

Steven Bramford placed 10th in the state division in his gorgeous sparkly Silvia.

We were drawn to his car like moths to a bug zapper, the electric blue paint was stunning from every angle!

Day 2 was the business end of the competition with the battles taking place and the usual affair of the pit walk and drivers signing session.

Klingberg’s hood art was being proudly displayed after yesterdays number 1 score.

Levi’s S15 is an astonishingly detailed car, we love the chrome elements on to the wing.

Ender was sitting mid field with a score of 47 from yesterday, his first battle was against Nick ‘The Drift Kid’ Coulson in his black VE Ute.

Ender straightened up on his chase run and then called a 5 minute rule after having issues with his gear selector.
On the lead run the 2J swapped S13 powered up the hill but Nick was right along there with him taking the win from Ender.

Who said coloured smoke tyres were dead? Sydney’s Drift Mob Anthony Bilic was frying them up the hill until he hit the dirt.

Blaze Unit’s Jabbit was looking good against Agges but unfortunately gearbox issues meant Jabbit couldn’t continue giving the Insane drifters driver the win.

In a battle of Aussie VS Import, foreign driver Andy took the win in his Toyota Chaser against Hayden Buckham in the blue VE Ute.

Papa was pulling out all the stops on his chase run against South Australian Dale Campaign…

Dale fought back on his chase run forcing a re-run. Which put the pressure on Papa…

Causing a spin which meant Dale went through in the grey Sileighty.

Klingberg’s winning streak didn’t stop taking the win against Jason Ferron thanks to some of the most aggressive driving we saw all weekend!

Schembri vs Michelmore was an extremely close battle which meant another one more time giving Simon the win after both battles.

Rob Whyte in the Achillies 350Z fought a hard battle against Dale and it was too close to call, after a one more time re-run Rob took the win.

Levi came back strong after several issues earlier in the day, however Chris in the Red R32 was hot on his tail.

The battle of the V8 swapped Nissans was won by Levi after a very, very close fight.

Matt Harvey’s little KE Corolla was all over Ryan ‘Slide’ Cummings S13 during the chase run, Ryan’s straighten up during Matt’s lead run sent Ryan home for the day.

Matt just couldn’t close the gap on Michelmores purple S14.

On Matt’s lead run Simon was just centimeters away in the S14, Simon’s performance gave him the win.

It seems that Beau Yates just hasn’t had enough seat time in his new 86, Beau spun on both his lead and chase runs.

Josh Boettcher was in the middle of a tough battle with dale when he missed a gear, according to the judges the pair would have gone again in a re-run if Josh didn’t miss shift.

Schembri stayed glued to the door of the GH Haulage Cefiro piloted by Justin Codr, Schembri took the win.

Nick and Jack fought hard and the judges called “one more” time, the second battle saw Nick Coulson edge away from the 31 Skyline giving the Drift Kid and the VE Ute the win.

Matt Russel fought the good fight in the little AE86 but lost against the might power thumping away under Levi’s bonnet.

Michael Prosnick was ahead after an awesome lead run away from Whyte, however on the chase Prosnick straightened in the NASCAR styled S13 and lost.

Simon and rob pushed so hard the two cars collided.

After a brief break the judges reviewed the on board cameras and deemed Simon to be at fault giving Rob the win.
Simon’s S14 was towed back to the pits were the crew rushed to get him back up and running for his final battle.

Now in the pointy end of the day cars were crashing left, right and center! Andy Gray had a huge hit with Levi Clarke, both cars needed to be towed back and the teams began mending the damage in a hope to get them both back out.

It seems you can give drifters a busted car, a pack of zipties and tape and they become master panel beaters. Levi Clarke was back out in force for a dramatic final battle with Rob Whyte.
If you look closely you can just make out Rob’s car in the smoke behind Levi’s car.

Rob over corrected and straightened up handing the win over to Levi Clarke, giving Levi his first podium finish in the series.

To end the epic weekend of skids, heat and dramas was a heap of trophies and ice cold champagne ready to shower the winners in.

All the cars looked worse for wear, you can’t be afraid to break a few eggs to win.

The winners of the national series.
1. Levi Clarke
2. Rob Whyte
3. Andy Gray

This was by far the most exciting round of the series yet and was a true show of great sportsmanship with the top 4 battles all ending in collisions and all the teams lending a hand to repair the damage to finish the show.
Ben Purtell lent his front suspension components to Simon Michelmore while Rob Whyte’s team helped repair Levi’s car before their battle together that decided the number 1 finish for the day!!
Where else would you see someone help their opponent out to effectively help them beat you?
Drift is only going up in Australia.
The next round returns to the Thunder Dome here in Melbourne where the top 10 all have a shot at being the series winner for 2014!!
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.
All photos courtesy of Robert Mochetti | Full Motion Photography

Formula Drift Asia :: Melbourne 2013

Grant — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:47:44 +0000

Last month Melbourne was blown away by one of the biggest events of it’s kind, Formula Drift Asia (FD). FD crossed the seas and arrived on our shore to set up camp at Melbourne’s Calder Park Raceway with quite literally the biggest names in drift motor sport. They were all set to compete as the worlds eyes were on this humble little garden state at the bottom of Australia.
If that wasn’t enough to wet your drifting taste buds, Melbourne goers were treated to a full round of drift battles the day before FD thanks to the Australian Drifting Grand Prix (ADGP) who were a massive piece of the puzzle for this monumental event.
You can check out all the action from our ADGP post coming soon (watch this space).

We arrived super early to see the course literally transformed overnight from the previous days’ ADGP layout. The new setup was a much needed injection of excitement from the now three year old ADGP course.
The new format was run backwards in comparison and had a huge slow speed hairpin right before the finish line and all sitting just beneath the grandstands! This was going to be the biggest drift event of its kind in Australia!!

Just across from us we could see the starting line. Here the judges and drivers began their track walk/drivers briefing and this was something we’ve never seen done here before and it really is a great idea.

Driver’s were taken corner to corner by the judges and given explanations of what exactly it is they will be looking for during their qualifying runs and of course their battles.

All the drivers were giving their full attention during the briefing. Mike and his spotters were all ears hoping to pick up some useful information to give them an advantage.

During the walk we stopped at each and every clipping point and all the drivers got a chance to ask plenty of questions. This is an approach we would love to see adopted by many of the drift competitions around Australia as the sport is really starting to mature and the drivers looked like they appreciated the extra tuition.

With the rules laid out in black and white, it was time to warm up some engines and win a drift competition!! Their faces said it all!

There was time for a quick pit walk before the practice session started and before any of the spectators were allowed in. So first up we stopped by to see Mad Mikes’ garage away from home. Everything Mike and the team touches is finished to an amazing level of detail, the teams tyre rack and tool box was rolling on cambered go kart wheels and was wrapped in vinyl to match the car!

Easily the biggest team at the event was RSR with the debut of their NASCAR powered Toyota 86, they weren’t running any risks and were constantly checking the cars’ fluids after each and every run throughout the day.
The team were all in uniform and even had their own scooters which they used to race up to the spotters tower when Fredric was heading out in the car for a battle.

The car and team that surprised us the most however was reigning champ Daigo and his monstrous Lexus.
There were no fancy uniforms or over the top tool kits, just the right people and one hell of a driver behind one of the best setup cars we’ve seen in person.

Not for the faint hearted, the original power plant has been ditched in favour of a 1200hp Toyota 2JZ with a massive single turbo hanging off the side.
All of this comes together and matches Daigo’s aggressive driving style to create a package that is extremely hard to beat!

Soon it was time to watch the practice laps and then the qualifying ones shortly after. One of the first drivers out on the track was the man himself, Daigo and only moments from leaving the start line there was an issue. The boot was not secured properly and lifted off the car taking the wing along with it and not long after that he came off track and the front bar also found itself detached from the car.
All this and just in the practice session! It was amazing to see someone with so many wins under their belt and surely a huge amount of confidence to still be driving to their limit!

Alex Kantarovski is a relatively unknown driver here but believe it or not, Alex is a local boy who competed in the early years of FD Asia back in Thailand. When he heard FD was coming to town he eagerly put his hand up!

Another crowd favourite that was also having some issues during the practice laps was Mad Mike. One of the first laps out on the track and he came off course destroying his rear bumper.

His crew looking on from the side lines began the quick sprint back to the pits to wait for Mike to bring the car in to asses the damage.

A rather exposed looking rear end after the incident meant we could get a look at the amazing work underneath all those panels, this is what a competitive drift car looks like underneath all the metal and fiberglass.

Not long after this though, Mike was back out on the track bringing his famous soundtrack of quad rotor goodness to our ears…

Regardless of how good the rotary sounded, it was just a tiny boombox compared to the rock concert that this American built 5.8L NASCAR engine produced!!!
Here you can see the Winters/ATS diff combo taking a beating on the rough surface of the Thunderdome and lap after lap the car continued the sparks show with no apparent mechanical problems developing.

However being the first ever event for the newly built 86 the team had a lot of fine tuning to do and there was no hiding that Fredric Aasbo was finding the car to be quite a handful.
This is really a testament to his driving though as the car looked faultless in each and every run but it took every bit of concentration to drive it and it was next to impossible to hear any information from his spotters over the radio in his helmet as the car really is that loud!!

Now on to some of the local talent. Six lucky drivers earned their Formula Drift license from the previous days battles during the ADGP round.
Agges from the Insane drifters was the last of the 6 to claim their entry into the FD competition and unfortunately he didn’t find his groove and made contact with a wall on his qualifying lap and wasn’t able to move through to the top 16.

Wild card Tom Monkhouse managed to win 2nd place at the ADGP round in a borrowed S14 and then with his FD license in hand he borrowed this clean Nissan Laurel to qualify 7th amongst many top level drivers!!!

Jarod and Ryan from Formula Drift USA were over from the states to help host the event with the voices we all know and love from countless early Sunday morning live streams from the Formula Drift website.

Before the comp really kicked off there was a lunch break and drivers signing session. Eager fans lined up to see their favourite drivers and waited in line for 45 minutes just to get an autograph.

Just moments before the race kicked off we listened into the final drivers meeting discussing the do’s and dont’s of the battles ahead.

Daigo doesn’t speak a word of English so he needed to have everything translated after the meeting.

Mad Mike sitting and listening in, we don’t get it though… He never seems all that mad?!

There was one last distraction between all the door to door, tyre destroying action. as all of the top 16 drivers gathered at the finishing line with their cars for a quiet moment as the Australian national anthem was played, something we’ve never experienced at a local motorsport event before!

After the Anthem each driver was introduced and then given some t-shirts to throw out into the crowd. In a flash the drivers were back in their cars and headed back to the start line for the competition to unfold.

Another fun element we saw earlier in the day was a team drifting mini competition. The aim was for drivers to pair up and attempt to overtake each other mid-drift through each corner like a game of drifting leap frog.
Here Mike missed the mark and just began sliding towards the wall, narrowly missing Jake by the smallest of margins!

Daigo went for his team drift run with local Achilles sponsored driver Rob Whyte in his 350Z. Daigo set it up with a perfect entry into the corner.

Rob gave the throttle a squirt and crossed in front of Daigo but over judged it and ran wide and off into the grass ripping apart his rear bumper and sending rocks and debris flying into the air!

Once Rob corrected though, he eased back off and Daigo went for his pass without a problem and both drivers finished relatively unscathed.

After the team battles it was time for one last lot of practice laps before the top 16 kicked off. This time the practice was in a battle format and Mad Mike went up with Khudar, one of the top 6 ADGP drivers.

Both drivers held back just a little as there was nothing on the line so it was all just for a bit of fun.

The RS*R FT86 stretched it’s legs around the walls of Calder Park deafening us as it transformed fuel into horsepower…

This is easily the most exciting new build in the drift scene worldwide. We can’t wait to see someone else try to top this combination.

We were hoping to see Daigo and Fredric go head to head here in Melbourne as just weeks earlier, the pair fought each other in a fierce battle back in the USA. Daigo took the win and Fredric seems to be the kind of guy who doesn’t forget these sorts of things easily.
You could see the determination in his eyes all weekend – boy was he was focused!!

Alex seemed to have brushed off any cobwebs by this point and was truly coming alive blazing the tyres in front of the grand stands.

Then all necks were snapped as the crowd realised Daigo and Mike were racing off the start line for a practice battle and it seemed this time neither driver was holding back!

Daigo powered past us chasing down Mad Mike with the red mist descending over Daigo it seems he missed Mike, slowing for the next corner and contact was made between the two cars…

There was a slight pause and then everyone rushed to the fence to see the damage first hand. Slowly Mike crawled out from behind the obscured corner with the damage hidden from sight and we all waited to see the front of Daigo’s Lexus to see how just hard the hit was.

It seems it was hard enough but realistically it could have been a lot worse. Both cars had no mechanical faults and the teams soon had cars un-crumpled and ready for battle action in the top 16.

Jake Jones seemed to be stumbling with some steering issues throughout the morning practice but after the lunch break he was back to his former self… Maybe he just needed a Snickers? Who knows, but the Drift Squid was back and killing it!

Josh Boettcher was showing no signs of fatigue after battling all day at the ADGP event beforehand. He was guaranteed a spot in the FD round after winning rookie of the year in FD Asia 2011 and getting close to a win at one of the rounds in 2012.

Little did we know that aside from the ‘hero’ drivers like Daigo, Robbie and Fredric there were also a heap of other international drivers competing as well which made for a massive surprise.
Nattawoot “Oat” Krerpradab was the most consistent of the unknown Asian drivers, showing great lines and a massive amount of smoke for good measure!

Another surprise driver from Asia doing remarkably well was Mico who was in a borrowed car from local Josh Boettcher. This also happened to be young Mico’s first ever Formula Drift event!! Not a bad effort for someone just 16 years of age!!

Homegrown SA drifter Tom Monkhouse took the win against Robbie Nishida moving into the top 8 and things were starting to get serious for Tom in this competition!!

One of the battles that is still being talked about since was this fierce battle between Fredric and QLD drifter Nick Coulson. The two V8 powered machines sent chills down the spectators spines as they thrashed their way around the Thunderdome.

The judges made their decision and gave Fredric the win as he had the better lines throughout the lead and chase laps but Nick really did the Aussies proud with one of the finest battles of the day!

Another exciting top 8 battle was Jake ‘Drift Squid’ Jones against Daigo!

Jake gave it all he could but was it enough to match Daigo ‘The Ninja’ Saito’s aggressive driving style?

The cars waited for the verdict… Daigo was awarded the win but Jake will get the opportunity to battle Daigo once again later this year for the drift challange at WTAC.

Championship winner Rob Whyte went up against Fredric and held on rather well for the chase run but it was no match for the proximity of Fredric on his chase run practically touching Rob’s bumper through each and every corner!

Mad Mike was knocked out early in a battle that pitted RX7 against RX7. Mike was chasing Thailand driver Oat into the first corner and he did not allow enough room for Oat’s trademark handbrake initiation into the first corner which meant Mike had no where to go and spun nearly smashing into the wall!
Mike was knocked out and did not progress into the top 8.

The top 4 saw Daigo and Fredric go door to door, this was easily the high point of the battles that day. This was drift racing at it’s finest!

Throughout the short track, Daigo did not leave Fredric’s side, giving Daigo the win!

Next we saw Boettcher battle Fredric for the final podium position.

Then Fredric the ‘Norwegian Hammer’ was knocked out by QLD drifter Josh and finished the day in 4th place. Not bad for a relatively brand new and untested car!!

With Josh sitting happily in 3rd place it was time to see who finished in 1st and 2nd. The final battle was between Daigo (no surprises there!) and Tom Monkhouse… Tom Monkhouse??? Yep local SA drifter Tom was now competing for a guaranteed 1st or 2nd spot on the Formula Drift Asia podium against the worlds number 1 competitive drifter… In a borrowed Nissan Laurel!! One of the best motorsport moments we have witnessed so far!
With some killer lines and proximity from both drivers we would not have been surprised if the judges declared a ‘one more time’ making both drivings battle again, after a short wait a win was decided and all the drivers were rushed to the stage for the verdict to be announced followed by a short award ceremony.

So who won?? Daigo took out 1st, Tom Monkhouse blew the crowd away and grabbed 2nd, Josh Boettcher in 3rd. Fredric and Robbie also scored the team drift award for their well executed performance together!

With the trophies handed out it was time for a celebrator champagne shower!!

After the award ceremony we headed up to the conference room to catch a few last words from our podium finishers, we don’t think that any of the nights proceedings had sunk in for Tom yet.
We’re sure he and his teammates and friends partied the night away to celebrate such a win, as for Daigo he is used to being in the number one spot and seemed humbled and content with his performance.
All in all this was easily the best event we have had the pleasure of covering, in the weeks that have passed since the big day we still find ourselves on a dizzying high looking over these images and we hope the crowds were large enough to entice Formula Drift Asia to return the series to our shores. Regardless of it’s return to Australia we feel a trip over to Asia will be on the cards to follow the series back home!
Until then we would like to thank the Formula Drift Asia and USA crews for putting on such a great show and all of the international drivers for coming out and giving it all they could.
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.

ADGP :: Australia Day Drift Festival

Grant — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:23:17 +0000

Australia Day, a day usually reserved for groups of mates to get together and have a few drinks, eat copious amounts of burnt meat and listen to the radio.
What more could anyone want you might ask?

Well 2013 would be the first year I broke this long lived tradition and as it turns out, I couldn’t have been happier!!
Sydney Motorsport Park has just undergone an upgrade and with construction now complete of the brand new south circuit section it was time to celebrate the opening of track! The Australian Drifting Grand Prix team was invited to host a drift festival on Australia Day 2013 to do the honours.

Delighted by the idea of a brand new circuit, 16 of Australia’s best drifters. guest judge Matt Powers (Formula Drift USA) and truck loads of Sydney’s locals coming out to destroy some tyres on the track. So we booked our flights and in the blink of an eye the date was upon us!
*Note how rich we are by our choice of airline… No expense spared!
When you buy GSS merchandise you help pay for our flights and rental cars when we travel to events all over Australia, so next time you’re thinking about grabbing a sticker etc from our store, remember that every bit counts!!

We arrived at Sydney Motorsport Park bright and early at around 8am Saturday. There is never any time to ease into it, so Grant and I began snapping away and filming the moment our feet hit the ground.

Some of the first cars we saw in the pits were the Hit and Run boys of NSW drift club fame and as you can see these cars are always a sight for sore eyes.
With some of the best wheels and kit choices, every car is finished in amazing detail and the boys in true drifter fashion have that unique ‘no care’ attitude with one goal in mind…
Drive hard, drive very hard!
By the end of the day the cars end up looking a little tired but that is all part of the fun and the team get busy making them all shiny before the next event again.

One of the overseas competitors in the top 16 was Andy Gray from Powervehicles.com in Japan. Andy had Australian drifter Christian Pickering oversee the Toyota Chaser’s build while he was still at home in Japan.
The finishing touch to this car was the very same graphics that Andy uses on his Chaser in Japan, confusing many thinking he had just shipped the whole car over…
Check out that lock! Andy has his finger on the pulse in regards to drifting in Japan so we were excited to see what he and the car would have to offer!

Heading team Melbourne was John from the Insane Drifters crew. Agges was M.I.A thanks to being invited to compete in the New Zealand D1NZ next month.

John was applying some new graphics and the car was looking immaculate!!

Coming all the way from South Australia and looking stunning was this Nissan Laurel, hands down the best looking one in the country and it’s a drift car!!!!!!!!!

A sad, sad day for QLD driver Ryan ‘Slide’ Cummings…
On his way to the start line for the very first practice session of the day the timing belt idler bolt sheared and the timing belt skipped.
The team thinks there may be some serious damage and wont know until they pull the engine apart. This is a true shame for someone who has dedicated a lot to the sport and traveled so far to be part of it.

Before the action kicked off the drivers had their morning assembly. Yoshi from Vicdrift helped keep the wild crowd under control so the meeting went smoothly and was very quick in the end!

With all the formalities done and dusted, we setup a whole heap of on-car camera’s thanks to the guys from ION. We had 6 ION Air Pro’s capturing some of the excitement and hope to have a pretty cool video for you guys to enjoy very soon! So keep your eyes out for that!

Without any warning at all, the cars started flying off the starting grid and began punishing those tyres!

Right from the start we could tell this is the course for tight battles here in Australia. The layout ensures that it is very hard for the lead car to race away and we were rewarded with some close door-to-door action even in the early morning practice sessions.

The course is short and looks rather simple at first with only four corners. With the majority set uphill, it meant a lot of smoke, even from underpowered cars as they raced up the incline.

Drivers took a ‘no fear’ approach and went flat out into the second corner knowing that further up the hill a lot of their speed would be washed off. This made for some hairy moments when the lead car would spin and the approaching driver had already committed to the corner and could not brake in time.
Thankfully though there were no major impacts over the day.

If the lead car wasn’t fast enough, the follow car caught up very quickly. I would not want to see that in my rear view mirror!!

At the top of the hill the course had a long sweeping corner and then it dipped back down which made for some dramatic images of the cars disappearing over the hill.

There were so many highlights throughout the day, with every practice session turning into a battle with drivers pairing up and testing each others skills.
Rob Whyte was king of the proximity and emulation card, shown here following Danny Williamson.

One of the most exciting pairs to watch was Christian Pickering and Andy Gray. They appeared like long lost brothers reunited and they clearly had a blast playing together.
The two have spent a lot of time driving together in Japan and it showed on the day. They were the most exciting to watch and I would have been happy if they were the only two drivers competing!!

Andy’s Chaser always made the most exciting exits over the hill!

One of the most photogenic cars on track was Levi Clarke’s fluro Toyota Soarer and he seemed to team up with Beau Yates in his AE86 with countless runs together in the practice sessions.

Levi has always had crazy colour schemes and graphics. His previous cars have had Ed Hardy inspired designs… I much prefer this one though personally.

The big wigs at Toyota probably never expected to see their two creations ever meet in such a way. The variety of cars competing is probably one of the biggest attractions to the sport in all honesty.
You can buy the majority of these cars for $20k or less and drive them on the street and enter the odd drift day or two in your local area, making it more accessible to just about anyone.

The only professional female driver in the ADGP series was Kelly Wong from South Australia.
It is always a pleasure to see Kelly roughing it with the boys out on track and we hope Kelly inspires more female drivers to pursue the sport as it’s probably one the most open and friendly forms of motor sport around!

I’ve managed to not mention the weather so far but it was horrible!
The humidity was obscene and had us drinking around 15 bottles of water between the two of us!!

Here we see Brett chucking his new 180SX over the hill. The car had a few teething issues but we expect some big things from Brett and his evil looking S-chassis later this year.

This was the last event the Insane Drifters will be using their current suspension setups at, as the team has been picked up by Shockworks and we are very excited by that here at GSS!!

ION sponsored SA driver Simon Michelmore was putting his S14 through its paces after installing a brand new gearbox and GKtech knuckle setup.

As the day went on, drivers were getting more comfortable with the new track and we saw more and more ‘dirt drops’ as each driver went for bigger and bigger entries into the first corner.
Sometimes with disastrous results…

This entry saw Jabbit from Blaze Unit mount a stack of tyres which meant the only way off was with a tow. Thankfully nothing was damaged and the Blaze Unit boys went on to become the crowd favorite between battles.
Instead of staring at an empty track while drivers changed tyres or waited for scores from the judges, the crowd was treated to an all out smoke show thanks to the boys tearing up the track in a 3 way drift train!

Mitch Bunney had made the trip over from Western Australia with his R32 Skyline and Mitch ended up qualifying 3rd with only one point between him and Andy Gray!

This S13 reminds me of Ender’s white beast back here in Melbourne. It is refreshing to see so many good looking cars in the sport!

Another from team Melbourne!!
Michael Prosenik in the Supreme Caravan’s V8 powered S13.

Michael was having a few fun battles with John and both cars were baking hard up the hill!

Everyone’s favorite V6 powered 86!!
That’s right, this little guy is powered by one of the newer Toyota V6 engines!

Some of the NSW drift crews were loving the new track although it really suited the higher powered cars with the uphill section. However, this S14 was putting out a healthy amount of power with around 400hp so it was lapping it up!

Levi was pushing hard in his Soarer until this happened…

The drivers side rear tyre came off the rim mid corner and sent him off track. Levi missed out on making it into the top 16 by only one spot, so sadly this was the end of the day for him.
Levi and the car will be competing at every round of the ADGP series this year so expect to see a lot more of him and his bright Soarer!

The stand out local car had to be Harry’s DR30 Skyline!

This thing looked, sounded and drove amazingly all day!

The engine is a combination of an RB30 with a 26 head for good measure.

The day was soon coming to an end which meant it was time to kick off the top 16 battles!!

During one of Andy’s ridiculous backwards entries he over shot it and went into the run off section.

The whole time Andy did not take his foot off the power and kept drifting through rest of the track!

Now Simon is known for having some over the top entries so all of the Media guys track side held their breath when they heard the announcement that Simon and Andy would go head to head…
Two of the wildest drivers in regards to top speed entries going against each other!

Hands down this was one of the best battles we have ever witnessed!!
Andy took the win but it was honestly very close and we would have loved to have seen a re-run.

Scott from Blaze Unit was drifting in true Australian spirit with one hand out the window flipping the bird!!

Later we saw him go head to head with Luke Fink who had actually entered his daily driven 180SX!!
Luke is the driver for Holfords Motorsport and since they have sold Luke’s usual competition S14, he is currently without a car.
The team has an exciting 350Z build in the works but we are unsure if it will be ready for any events soon.

The light was soon gone and we had the last few battles to watch.
Nick Coulson took the win against Beau Yates.

Nick then took the win against Andy after a fierce battle, both drivers were not giving up easily!

The final battle was 2012 champion Rob Whyte against Christian Pickering. This was too close to call and required a re-run before the judges were happy to announce a winner.

Christian was beaten by Rob for 1st place but Christian didn’t seem to mind all that much.

The ‘Straya Day’ podium finishers!
Nick Coulson in 3rd.
Christian Pickering in 2nd.
Rob Whyte coming in 1st.
So how can I sum up my Australia day??
The crowd was massive, the amount of cars on track was insane and the vibe was just fantastic!!
We couldn’t possibly fit everything into one post so expect some extras with our coverage of the All Stars car show and of course our video of all the action that unfolded throughout the day.
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.

Block Party :: Ken Block Live In Melbourne

Grant — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 10:12:30 +0000

Ken Block made it all the way down to Melbourne today to shred some tyres and scare some business execs.
From up in the seats it was hard to tell just how fast he was going… but up close it was a different story.

Ken Block welcomed the crowd, after a nervous entrance by the v8 supercars.

Warming up for the first run.

So close to the drums, I can only assume they are actually filled with Monster Energy Drink!

Close but not close enough says the crowd. His second attempt got him a lot closer though. If this wasn’t enough, the announcer jumped in between Ken and the barrels at one stage!

Ken followed a set course during the day, repeating it at least 20 times.

Even the pros get tired and by the end Mr.Block was getting his entries on the last barrel all wrong and on one run missed it completely. He had to pull a quick hand brake turn and go back and try again.

While he is known for tight maneuvers, it is easy to forget Ken’s Ford Fiesta can drift the bigger corners with the best of ’em.

This car was easily the most precise on the track during the drift runs.

A very tough Nissan 350Z piloted by Rob Whyte.

The 350z was rocking a supercharger too, this equals one happy passenger!

No car deserved the massive ‘Monster’ sticker down the side more then the Chevy ‘trophy truck’.

This Commodore was going flat out down the drag strip on the day, hitting well over 200kph

The speed this truck was getting on the grass was insane!

Huge air!

It’s amazing what a can of Monster Energy drink can do in your fuel tank.

There was a lot of support for our favorite gymkhana driver!

Most of the crowd stayed in their seats to see Ken around the circuit.

Others remained seated to try and win free stuff. This guy brought along the worlds silliest hat.

While this guy did a back flip off a wheelie bin for some giveaways!

Even the girls wanted to take their tops off for a Ken Block signature!!
Monster Energy and Ken Block put on a great show, definitely worth heading out to see the legend himself.
Thanks for reading and be sure to check out some of the cars spotted in the car park at the show in our upcoming post.
– Gwyn, – Grant.