The final round of the 2011 Carnival City Drift Championship took place this past weekend at The Rock Raceway. There was one difference this time around though… We had a grand finale!!!
We were joined by two very well known, respected and highly regarded people; Hiroki ‘Sleepy’ Furuse, Team manager for Team Orange and international drift judge as well as 2006 D1GP champion, Nobushige Kumakubo, owner of both Team Orange and Ebisu circuit.
Terry Grant and Nobishige Kumakubo
With 20 competitors entered, qualifying runs were ready to roll and ready for their close ups, each going out there to get the highest score possible. Unfortunately, there were drivers that DNQ (did not qualify) or DNS (did not start) due to spin outs and / or mechanical failure but we had our Top 16.
The Top 16 were as follows:
Richat Khan - 93.00
Ernest Simpson - 90.00
Aubrey Hiles - 88.33
Zanil Satar - 86.66
Riaan Stokes - 85.00
Tim Stephens - 77.33
Shaun Cornelius - 76.33
Issufo Usseman - 72.66
Imtiaz Dali - 72.33
Roelien du Toit - 72.00
Chase Audagnotti - 70.33
Fredrick Cooper Jnr - 70.00
Corne Pretorius - 66.33
Joshua Beyleveldt - 50.00
B.G. Smit - 45.33
Dennis Palm - 26.00
Welcoming some new faces to the ladder, tandems battles were ready to commence and we kicked things off with our first pairing, Richat Khan in his Pearl Nissan Silvia S15 going up against Dennis Palm in his Nissan Skyline GTX. Unfortunately Palm spun out and the win went to Khan who went on to the next round.
Next up saw Issufo Ussuman in his Nissan Skyline R33 paired up against Imtiaz Dali in his Toyota Soarer. Ussuman had the advantage and went on to the next round. Thereafter, a mistake from Fredrick Cooper Jnr in his rotary powered MkII Ford Escort gave Riaan Stokes in his Turbo Toys / K&L Nissan 200SX the advantage as well as the win.
Zanil Satar in the Nissan Skyline R34 and Corne Pretorius in his Nissan Skyline R33 were paired next. A spin from Pretorius cost him his race and saw Satar progress to the next round. However, the next pairing was interesting. Tim Stephens in his Nissan Skyline R33 went up against Chase Audagnotti in his Nissan Skyline R33. Stephens had the advantage in the first run but luck turned for Audagnotti when straight lining from Stephens gave Audagnotti the advantage and a 1 point lead. Enough to make it through to the next round.
Aubrey Hiles in his GWT / Sonar Tyre S13 Nissan 200SX lined up to tandem battle against Joshua Beyleveldt in his S13 Nissan 200SX. As a result of straight-lining from Beyleveldt, Hiles took victory and progressed through to the Top 8.
Shaun Cornelius, in his GWT Toyota Soarer, was paired up against Roelien du Toit in her Nissan Skyline R33 and she wasn’t going to make things easy for him. Both runs were extremely close and at the end of the tandem, 1 point separated them. The advantage went to Cornelius when du Toit straight lined and lost 1 point which declared Cornelius the winner.
The last paring for the Top 16 was Ernest Simpson in his Nissan Silvia S13 against BG Smit in his Nissan 200SX. Again a spin cost a driver a victory and that was the case here when Smit spun out and Simpson went on to the next round.
It was at this time that the entertainment changed up a little from the usual fare offered. International stunt driver, Terry Grant blew the crowd away with death defying driving while behind – and not behind – the wheel of the LiquiMoly Legend racecar. Spinning around its axis, the Legend was left unmanned while Terry entertained the crowd. It was then joined by Terry in a second Legend car in counter rotating donuts.
Nobishige Kumakubo amazed all when he did a demonstration run in Khan’s S15 Silvia. Precision driving and a healthy dose of speed set a standard that many would aspire to throughout the rest of the night. Two suicide rides were also carried out – the first with drift nutter Marietjie Barnard in the hot seat and the other with MC Chad Luckhoff relaying the information to all and sundry. Excitement at its finest.
In the Top 8, the first pairing was Khan and Ussuman. Yet another spin claimed a driver’s run when Ussuman spun out in the 2nd tandem run allowing Khan to move onto Top 4. We then saw Stokes and Satar go up against each other and then gave each other a good run. It was however a straight-line from Satar that saw his chances of progressing foiled and Stokes claiming a spot in the Top 4.
Thereafter Audagnotti was faced with Hiles. Hungry for victory, Audagnotti held up well but Hiles had the higher advantage and straight-lining from Audagnotti saw Hiles take the win. It was Cornelius and Simpson that showed how much they wanted that last Top 4 slot. So much so, that the 1st tandem race was called for OMT (one more time). The OMT was the decider as Cornelius straight lined and Simpson clutched at the last spot. In the greater scheme of things, this was all Simpson had to do to claim the championship for 2011. With a 5-point lead going into this round, he merely had to score a single point in order to set himself far enough ahead not to be caught.
We entered the Top 4 elimination round and the lineup proved to be an entertaining one. We had Khan against Stokes and Hiles against Simpson. Khan and Stokes proved it so entertaining that we saw two OMT’s run between these drivers. In the final OMT, we saw Stokes loose his drift and straight line, which was the tie-breaker between the drivers giving Khan the win and the spot into the finals. Simpson saw his finals spot get very dim when he lost his drift and straight lined which meant that Hiles had won and earned his spot in to the finals for 1st and 2nd.
Semi finals were run first and had Stokes and Simpson battle it out for 3rd and 4th place. This paring saw themselves also face a OMT. What could’ve been a nasty accident was actually very well avoided from Stokes. As Simpson exited the last corner and went in for the home stretch to the finish line, we saw Simpson nearly overcook it but corrected it by coming off of the power and correcting it. But at that Stokes was barreling into the last stretch and nearly didn’t see Simpson. The only way not to hit Simpson was to spin out and Stokes did exactly. Due to Simpson’s straight line, Stokes took advantage and was declared 3rd place winner with Simpson taking 4th.
Last but not least our finals had come. Hiles vs Khan. Two forces not to be reckoned with and here they were, face to face. Both drivers were so equally matched but unfortunately Khan lost the plot when he straight lined. Hiles had 1 point advantage and that was enough for him to secure the win and take 1st place!
Hiles climbed out of the car in front of the stands and thanked GWT, Sonar Tyres and Monster Motorsport for helping him take this win but as it was to be, his night was not over. With a single announcement, the crowd U-turned and packed against the fence. Hiles had just been challenged by Kumakubo.
Kumakubo led first and Hiles did well to maintain a close gap and even apply pressure from time to time. The true thrill cam in when Kuma was following and diving into the first corner, initiated simultaneously and remained there for the entire run.
Without any prompting, the stands erupted with collective chant of “One More Time” to which both drivers agreed to. Even closer this time round, the crowd could not contain their excitement any longer. In the second last switch, the two cars came so close that a race rub resulted in both cars losing their bumpers and exiting the track in a plume of tyre smoke. A better ending one could not have scripted.
A massive thanks goes to CarnivalCity, The Rock Raceway, Team Orange, Sleepy Furuse, Nobushige Kumakubo and Terry Grant for a fantastic event.
Congratulations to Ernest Simpson on taking the championship for Team Drift Spec, Drift Performance Parts and Nigel Tyre Traders.
Pictures courtesy Ultimate F-Stop and Barend Craven. More picture to follow shortly.
