World Drifting Championships in the USA

It was an intense four days of competition, I burned up sixteen brand new tires and there were over fifteen cars smashed on the unforgiving concrete walls of Irwindale speedway.

The event started with two days of hard practice, as the worlds best drifters worked on their technique and car set-up, for the kiwi drivers it was a foreign concept, drifting on the speedways banked corners, making for some scary moments in practice.
 
Qualifying was the next part of the event that we needed to get through, with a field of over 40  of the worlds best drifters it was crunch time as only 16 of the field where to be selected. Qualifying started, I could see the competition would be fierce, the  judges where wanting us to drift as close to the walls as possible and be no more than 30 cm off the clipping points, a radar gun was used to make sure our speeds didn't drop below 125 km/h, if so we wouldn't make the cut. With 3 laps to prove my worth I pushed the car to its limits hitting the clipping points and scraping the walls to gain maximum points. After loosing some paint and overheating the engine it was all worth it as I qualified 14th and the only kiwi to get through, and to be ranked in the top 16 in the world was a massive achievement for me.

Next where the battles, I watched as top drivers like Reece Millan were beaten by the unstoppable Japanese drivers, I watched their lines to maybe gain an advantage. In my battle I came up against the BNR 32 skyline from japan, I chased him hard staying no more that 1m off his rear bumper and on the 3rd turn I snuck  up on his inside and passed him, but I was carrying to much speed and lost my tight line giving him the advantage. On the second run I drove a clean fast line and didn't let my opponent pass me, but its wasn't enough to  turn the judges.
 
So in conclusion I did very well for my first attempt at going against the worlds best and have learnt allot, the Japanese have said that all I need is more experience at that level but I have the skills to be a champion.
 
So thanks for all your help and look forward to seeing all the media coverage that will be out soon...
 
Thanks....... Sean Falconer