To say that the second round of the Autotrader SupaDrift series held this past weekend at Kyalami was interesting would be an understatement. It was billed as a huge extravaganza and while the entertainment and activities were by no means in short supply, the drifting was very different to what we’ve seen in the past.
Let’s get the first thing out of the way; the track was fast – in my opinion, too fast for the average skill level of the field. It had the makings of a great drift section as the Mineshaft and bowl of the famous race circuit were utilized but instead of in reverse to normal ie: uphill, the regular anticlockwise direction was used making it a blistering downhill into a tight right, accentuated by a mid track clipping point.
Without a practice day, the majority of the drivers were going in blind. This resulted in a lot of experimentation in the morning practice sessions with only a mere handful getting to grips with the speed and dedication needed to complete a run, let alone score a respectable qualifying score.
It was in the qualifying sessions that the surprises started with many of the more experienced hands running into trouble and battling to post a decent run without mistake. It was clear that the majority were out of their comfort zone. There were a few surprises though and the downhill speed meant that the underpowered cars fared pretty well. Both Mathys Naude and Jethro Schwartz pulled out all the stops and showed amazing courage as they came tearing into the course with complete and utter commitment, something too many of the other drivers were not prepared to do. Dave Nel also put in an amazing showing, quickly cementing his place in the hearts of the crowd.
Eliminations saw carnage, as if the multitude of spins in the qualifying rounds weren’t enough. This can largely be attributed to the big variance in speed of the top 16 drivers. Lowest entry speed of a top 16 driver was 109km/h while the fastest was 168km/h – not safe nor controlled by any stretch of the imagination. With a larger field it would have been possible to better match the speeds in the upper rankings but the number of retirements didn’t allow for this, resulting in a number of slower cars being paired up against some serious quick drivers.
This is where things got entertaining. Hannes Frans was forced to take evasive action as was Wade van Zummeren when slower drivers took the lead. Jacques Lemmer was not so lucky and in an attempt to avoid Pieter Smit, the two collided in one of the biggest incidents SA drifting has seen to date.
In a bid to impress, the bigger names eliminated themselves either by running wide and off track or by mowing down cones. Included in this list are Otto Graven, Dave Nel, Adam Scheffer and Charel van Biljon. This meant that it was the unusual suspects that were left to battle it out for top honours.
The final boiled down to a tsuiso battle between Pieter Smit and Mathys Naude and by the end of their passes it was a single point that separated them. While according to the rules a One More Time should have been run, time restraints meant that the judges decided to award the victory to Pieter Smit and Mathys Naude would slot into second.
SA Drift Blog would like to thank all the drivers that travelled great distances to be there. These include:
Wade van Zummeren
Jacques Lemmer
Michael Radloff
Jethro Schwartz
Otto Graven
Ronnie Graven
Ernest Page
Mark Weyers
Faizel Remutula
Zanil Satar
Ikram Sulemane
Pictures courtesy of:
Elize Mare
http://ecmphotography.blogspot.com/
Ian Genis
http://www.iangenis.co.za/
Chris Wall
http://kkrutch.deviantart.com/
