skids – Gripshiftslide

VICDRIFT :: Round #4 – Things get serious

Grant — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 10:58:44 +0000

The year is quickly coming to an end, it’s this time of year when all the motorsport events start to fire up as the weather begins to get warmer.
Round #4 of the Victorian Drift Championship was held at Calder Park in front a strong crowd and a large amount of eager drivers.

Every year we seem to see a changing of the guard, a new champion and a new set of hungry drivers ready to take the title of Victorian Drift Champion.

This is the second last event of the championship, the time to count points, the time to patch the car up and hope it holds together for the upcoming battles.

The day had just begun, it was time for the drivers briefing which was held on track. The drivers were about to learn what exactly the judges wanted to see from them, some divers attentively listened to the judges while others were just talked smack to their mates.

Last year round 4 was won by this man; Adian Ing, he surprised everyone by beating out some very seasoned veterans of the sport. This year he has found him self in a new car for the season and has been looking to steal another win.

This layout is as fun for the drivers as it is for the crowd! Having to throw the car with full commitment straight at the crowd then transitioning up and around the bend makes for an exciting spectacle.

Some of the higher powered cars tended to bog down and lose momentum on this particular track layout. The higher grip lower powered cars were impressive as they are able to catch ground quickly on their high powered rivals.

Jason Ferrons new rig has had its up’s and down’s! Haunted hill’s really made the car look like a half crushed coke can. With help from friends and a lot of talented people the R33 sedan was fashioned back together in time for round #4.

Be gone shabby paintwork! The boys over at WrapedUp did an amazing job making Jason’s car look like it was straight from the paint shop.

Nissan is still the dominate platform for drift around Australia and in many other places around the world. With so many options for custom aftermarket parts made especially for drift I don’t see this trend changing anytime soon.

Choonga the president of VicDrift has had enough of sitting behind the sidelines and organizing everything.
Round #4 saw him borrow a friends R32 four door to jump in the mix with some of Australia’s best drivers.

Everyone was pushing hard during qualifying, Justin Gruener took the top spot followed closely by Christopher Schulze and Matty Russell rounding out the top three.

Every year I watch drivers come up through the ranks and overtime see their skill’s develop.
One of the drivers who has been very impressive in the last six months is Zac Bongnar. Although his name sounds like an evil villain straight from a bond film his driving is aggressive but not demonic.

Alex Gouveia has been charging hard all season! His battle’s are always super entertaining, he is one driver we will be seeing on the podium next year for sure! He put down plenty of great runs during the day but was knocked out of the top 8 by Justin Gruener.

The judges where wanting drivers to run wide on the first corner and touch wheels on a patch of concrete just at the start of the corner. To do this it required a fair amount of speed! Here you can see Zac Bongnar and Christopher Schulze’s first initiation before the cars even get to the corner. Zac’s battle against team mate Christopher was re-run it was so close! Eventually Christopher Schulze ended up winning this battle.

Top 16 and top 8 Results where read out right in front of the crowd sitting on the above hill. Drivers sat side by side as they were read their verdict.

Big power versus no power, Kevin Flynn almost ran into trouble narrowly missing Julian Di Battista on his run. The crowd cheered as they thought they were about to see carnage, yet Kevin Flynn’s years of experience kept him from binning the unique 2JZ S15.

I can’t imagine the thoughts going through Christian Stella head moments before he was to battle his long time friend and Vic Drift President Mathew Choong. Do you push it! Get on door? Or leave a safe distance?

Thankfully Christian Stella did all of the above without damaging the car that Mathew Choong had borrowed especially for the event. It was a great battle that was re-run it was so entertaining! Christian ended up taking the win and moving all the way up to the top 8.

The people’s choice award was voted live on facebook by the crowd watching the event, they chose Mathew Choong and Warwick Fitzgerald as there favorite divers of Round 4 Vic Drift Championship. This then meant that the two would have to battle to the death for the audience’s affection! Both drivers put on one hell of a show with Warwick taking the win in his small but mighty MX5.

Justin Gruener has been hard at work all year! Hey has reached the VicDrift podium many times in the last couple of years yet he has never been able to get the win. This time however all his stars aligned.

Not only did he take first qualifier and impress the hell out of the judges! But he also took the win at Round #4 and the best part is it was also his birthday! What a hat trick!

So who will take the crown of Victorian Drift Champion for 2017? With many regular names missing rounds of the championship its anyone’s game! The 2017 championship definitely looks like it is favoring the underdogs this year. The last round is quickly approaching and we cannot wait to see who can take the win this year.
Thanks for reading,
Grant.

DCA :: King Of The Hill

Grant — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 07:04:11 +0000

Drift Challenge Australia has done it! The first official drift event held on public roads. In the beautiful town of Mt Gambier, South Australia an event was about to take place like no other!
One that would leave a mark while also opening up new possibilities in the world of drift.

Luke Fink has picked one of the most stunning venues to hold a street drift competition. Lake Valley is located just next to a well known tourist spot that is a crater from a volcano “Blue Lake.” It is such a cool location with the lake just near the pits and lookouts right around the venue.

With a full three days of drifting on the hill spectators and the town of Mt Gambier had a great opportunity to see drifting for the first time in this area.

I arrived on the Saturday morning to find many cars in disrepair. With the track opening soon I was surprised that these cars were not being worked on. Kris Griffith had blown an engine on the Friday and was planing to do a full engine swap after drivers briefing! Remarkably he knocked it out of the park completing the job within four hours and was drifting the car just after lunch.

Stewy Bryant had a radiator leak in his green Cefiro on the Friday and spent the early morning re-installing the fixed radiator for Yoshinori to drive. Yoshinori heard that Luke Fink was running a street drift competition and he instantly booked a flight from Japan to come and compete against Australia’s best drifters.

Just like Initial D or an Option touge battle streams of highly modified Japanese cars were carving their way through the dense forest.

In the morning briefing drivers were instructed to not use their handbrake. The judges wanted to see full commitment with wide lines into the clipping points to allow the chase driver to get on door during the battles.

With drift practice on the Friday, qualifying on the Saturday and the main competition on the Sunday this gave drivers plenty of time to get used to the track.

The track conditions quickly started to change with light rain at first making the track really slippery. The one driver that was not fazed by the weather conditions was the local bus driver!

That’s right; along with 500kw monsters going sideways down the hill was the local bus route. Every thirty minutes the track action would stop to let a bus through; this is something I have never seen before and may never see again on a track.

The technical layout of this street course combined an up hill section with a steep down hill into the largest corner of the layout at the end of the track. The elevation changes and the tight track all combined to create a drift course that requires full commitment from the driver. Any mistakes and a driver could see himself bouncing rail to rail bumper bowling his way down the hill.

Bus loads of people kept arriving despite the rain as nobody was going to miss the wet and wild action. Many drivers struggled in the wet weather condition not being able to get traction. Not being able to get into third gear meant that a lot of drivers had to stick to ringing out second gear.

After light rain and a brief bit of sun it suddenly poured down for the next 3 hours. The on track action had to be stopped for an hour so the flash flooding could drain off the track; just like the cricket we had to wait for the pitch to dry up.

Lots of media had turned out to see Australia’s first street drift event! The small army of orange vests i.e. the media could be seen recording every moment and when their real cameras ran out of batteries they resorted to using their phones, not wanting to miss a second of the action.

Despite being told not to use their handbrakes the drivers were forced to use them, because of the weather and track conditions, just so they could get around the track safely.

By Sunday the weather had cleared up and it was business as usual. With the grip returning to the track the divers started to get comfortable and more confident as the day wore on.

With so many of Australia’s biggest names in drift fighting it out for a position in the top 32 it was hard to pick the top qualifier of the day. Many great drivers where knocked out of contention. Those who adapted to the ever changing track conditions found a spot in the top 32 with Blake Patterson taking the 1st place in qualifying.

A short practice season in the morning allowed the drivers to hone their skills before they were paired up in the battle tree for the top 32 competition.

The special guest driver for this round of DCA was Shinji Minowa. He is a well known driver from D1GP driving for TEAM POTENZA. We thank him for coming all the way from Japan to help make Drift Challenge Australia a memorable event.

For DCA Jason Ferron installed another turbo with a smaller front housing and larger exit. With a quick re-tune thanks to Chequered Tuning Jason was able to lift his torque and response which made a good difference against some of the best drifters in Australia.

Putting it all on the line takes a special breed of driver. One that is not afraid to sacrifice everything to get their hand raised and to step on the podium.

In typical DCA fashion every driver turned it up to 11! Sunday saw top 32 battles like no other! Luke Fink was literally screaming on the microphone in excitement because of the close intensity of the top 32 battles.

As the intensity of the competition rose the drivers started to suffer under the immense pressure causing numerous spins and unforced errors leaving some drivers with copious amounts of damage.

Two of our local heroes from Vic Drift were up against each other in one of the first battles. Jason Ferron and Moe Elhaouli really pushed the limits. Jason Ferron after qualifying 13th fought his way through mutable re-runs advancing himself all the way to the top 8. There were no easy battles!

A drivers performance tends to change under the pressure of competition. Those who drive well in practice often do not make it to the top 8. The Top 16 battles really shake the field apart until all that is left are four of the most talented drivers of the day.

It really all comes down to the final battle on the final day of competition. Who can keep up the concentration and focus to take the win.

In the end it came down to Joel Donegan and Blake Patterson. The days driving had taken a toll on both cars with Joel’s suffering from gearbox issues leaving him only with 2nd gear to compete in the final battle for 1st.

Blake Patterson was the undeniable winner of DCA- King Of The Hill! he qualified first and continued his amazing form the entire weekend.

After the victory burnouts there was enough time for a final expression session. This is where all the drivers are invited to use up there remaining tyres and go wild for the crowd.

Running drift trains of up to ten cars was really an amazing sight! To say this event was a success is an understatement. Luke Fink has proven time and time again if you bring the best drivers you get the best competition! He continues to break new ground in the drift community bringing a breath of fresh air to a sport that has needed a shake up for a long time.
Thanks for reading,
-Grant

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 :: Walls festival

Grant — Sun, 20 Dec 2015 09:09:10 +0000

They say practice makes perfect! Although when the track layout gets changed and new obstacles get introduced things get interesting. Drift Challenge Australia was back again to take over the Thunderdome! With big names like Matt Field, Chelsea Denofa and a host of Australia’s best drivers. Luke Fink has taken DCA all over Australia and the brand is starting to gain momentum with help from our friends at Vicdrift DCA is really starting to pull bigger crowds.

The Elhaouli brothers sitting eagerly on the start line were ready to take on the interstate competition and defend victoria against the foreign invaders. Coming off the back of a win at the Jamboree drift competition at this very track was Moe Elhaouli in his newly refreshed V8 Rocket Bunny S13.

The track started to get dirty very early in the day with plenty of cars off due the technical track layout. The clipping points on the track were set rather high to increase the driver’s angles but many drivers had trouble carrying enough speed into the higher parts of the corner to really hit the clipping zones.

As the day wore on the drivers got more confident and comfortable with the track layout running full drift trains with low and high powered cars!

Thomas Sabo is no stranger to drift competitions, regularly attending VicDrift events throughout the year and placing well in many events.

Passengers are a big feature of dca its the only event that allows and encourages passengers to ride along during qualifying. They not only get to see the track up close but they also get to see the drivers at work.

Unfortunately the only real high speed section of this DCA layout was the initial back section. From the start line up the bank and down into the first corner was the fastest part of this track layout.

Amongst the various cars entered into Wall’s Festival there was one that stuck out of the pack, Katie’s carbon fibre 180sx with its sneaky SR20DET.

The raw gloss Carbon fibre look is really aggressive! Not the type of car you would expect a lady to be driving.

From up high on the bank you could see one of the major clipping points, many drivers found it hard to push right up to the fence and get inside the zone.

For such a challenging layout there were not that many incidents. Until the drivers got too confident and some even launched and mounted on the last corner barrier.

Going three deep into the finish line right in front of the crowd! With our driver Jason Ferron heading up the back of the train! Just like synchronized swimming everything has to be on point to pull off this massive feet.

Transport problem solved! no more walking! these classic Honda pocket bikes were awesome! Later in the day I saw them dragging each other in the car park for bragging rights.

What is an old Ma60 Supra doing driftting? Good question! this is not your average Supra! It is more a hybrid fordyota! Inside you will find a Falcon straight six with a massive turbo hanging off the side.

The Supra had so much torque that it launched its rear end into a barrier! Losing its big wing which meant no track time for an hour or two while they fixed the damage and got the car back on track. This car had traveled a long way to be here and was not going to end its day after one hit! He is one of many Tasmanians that made the trip out to DCA.

Luke Mudde is just 1 of many south ozzys at Walls Festival, his car is looking as good as it had on the very first round of DCA.

Michael ‘PROZ’ Prosenik had come straight off the plane from NZ to compete in DCA. Known as the Potato! Prosenik’s practice car was called into battle as Dazza his competition car is still in NZ.

In the same way a lion chases a gazelle Stewey Bryant chases his prey! As the prey is pushing its limits, making mistakes Stewey is gaining distance and proximity.

Ripped out of place only the wire remains! With no night drift happening tail lights were not really needed.
Qualifying pulled all the drivers into order with our local hero scoring the top position.
1 – Michael Prosenik
2 – Matt Harvey
3 – Josh Robinson
4 – Stewy Bryant
5 – Tom Sabo

Saint Side had a custom show bike show down near the pits. The quality of the bike builds were unbelieveable! from Rat style to Bling there was something for everybody.

Only a concrete barrier separates the drivers from finishing and returning their runs. This is such a great setup because the crowd gets to see all of the action in one spot.

Great to see the fans supporting us! at one of the events we most enjoy! if you like the look of these snapbacks you can get them from our online store.

Wisefab has really made the impossible possible by creating the ability to get more steering lock where there hasn’t been before.

The proof is in the pudding, this s15 was hitting angles a lot harder than many other cars on track with its impressive Wise Fab setup.

Matt Harvey ended up being the winner of walls festival, the boy has skills! take a look how close he is to the wall without any real damage.

With a great crowd and plenty of action Justin Gruener took out the $500 venue voucher for the Watergardens Hotel 60 Minutes to Win it!

This was the last round of the current 2015 DCA Championship. We look forward to seeing the 2016 season for DCA and we know there are bigger and better things on the horizon for this new drift promotion.
2015 Championship Results.
1st place Thomas Sabo
2nd place Brodie Moore
3rd place Stewy Bryant
Final Round Results
1st Matt Harvey
2nd Chelsea DeNofa
3rd Luke Broadbent
Thanks for reading,
Grant