Saturday 03 April 2011 The Rock Raceway hosted the second round of The Japan Auto Series.

What started off as a hot, sunny day later turned around in a cloud burst that left a lot of people worried. Spectators were concerned that the races would be cancelled due to the rain. The beauty of drifting is that it is an all weather motor sport so it was easy to assure the spectators that racing will continue regardless. Worries were that spectators were going to be chased away by the rain but it was proven that drift spectators are true supporters and, come rain or snow, they will stick it through to the end.

Before qualifying rounds there was promise of 21 competitors but due to mechanical problems and the weather only 19 competitors remained to take part in qualifying. A late start to proceedings gave a few competitors the opportunity to fine tune and prepare their vehicle for what was to be a testing qualifying session. The half wet, half dry track tested the driver’s concentration with the wet sections catching many out. Two such competitors, Roelien du Toit and Imtiaz Dali fell prey to the damp sections and spun out on both their official qualifying runs, resulting in a zero score. They were not the only ones to suffer at the hand of the testing conditions. This resulted in a sudden death qualifying session for the two final spots in the top 16. Richard Holtzhausen secured the top spot in a brilliant display of concentration and discipline.

Read the rest of this entry →