Red Bull World Drift Champs 2008

Hey Team,

After spending a few days checking out the amazing SEMA car show and sites of Las Vegas we headed back to California to meet the delivery of our container to unload our car at the purpose built drift track on the local docks of Long Beach. For some crazy reason they don't have swing lift trucks to remove containers off the trucks and we had to unload the 40ft container with two fork hoists! I'm sure you can imagine my nerves watching the hoists try to find the centre of gravity with one on each side while the truck drove out from underneath it!

Friday With a huge amount of media and a lot of hype anticipating the presence of MADBUL it was great to fire it up and head out for testing. The track layout was to my liking and I found it flowed nicely with 100+mph entry speeds and clipping zones located on the outside solid concrete walls setting it up for an exciting event from the get go. After our 1st test I felt confident on the track but our motor temperature kept rising. On our next run we blew the electric water pump to pieces and with no local supplier for a replacement we had to use 'knead it' to repair it for the scheduled hot-laps that afternoon. Dave Mateus Red Bull USA's Marketing manager chose me to take top FMX Red Bull athlete and world record holder Robbie Maddison for a couple of laps battling with 06 Formula Drift Champ Samuel Hubinette in the MOPAR Dodge Viper this was an awesome opportunity and a very memorable moment over the entire event. Hopefully Maddo can do the same for me and double me over a 322ft gap. Hahaa Lucky for Dave he also got a lap in MADBUL before surprisingly our repair exploded again! We patched up the broken one again with more knead it just to get the car mobile for the police escorted parade through Long Beach City to the opening party for the event, fortunately for me fellow kiwi drifter JT (now living state side) said I could borrow the pump off his RX7 which was not far from the track at Rhys Millen's shop.

Saturday The schedule was for one test session in the morning then straight into qualifying. We plumbed up JT's water pump and managed to get in a couple of good laps then 'BANG!!' we blew that pump as well! So in the end I didn't get to complete a qualifying lap at all. As the car rolled back into our pit bay there were plenty of people from the big American teams such as MOPAR, Burgenholtz racing, Rockstar, RMR and Mazdatrix all offering full support and usage of parts or their facilities. Hell the MOPAR guys even loaded the car onto their back up trailer behind their big Dodge dually and were prepared to take it to the HQ in Ontario until the announcement that all the highways had been closed due to the California fires. The Burgenholtz team had their record breaking Mazda drag car on display and before I knew it they were pulling off their electric pump for us, Rhys Millen then gave us some fittings which chromie and the MOPAR guys fabricated in their trailer to make this loaned pump work. By 8.30pm we had finished it and were ready for competition tomorrow.

Sunday This was the day that one of the top 32 drivers would be crowned a World Drift Champion. They gave us 1hr of practice in the morning and after completing a handful of solid laps our temperature was looking good and I was feeling confident in front of the huge crowd. Unfortunately as we didn't complete a qualifying lap my end qualified position was 29th meaning my 1st battle was up against Paul Vlasblom who qualified 3rd.

The judges were very strict and said that in battle the chase car must maintain 90% of the qualifying line meaning you still need to scrub the outer walls, clipping zones and clipping points rather than choose an inside line to catch up and close a gap. With my mind set and fully focused we were off head to head. I started with the chase and was right on Vlasblom the entire time while keeping in the clipping zones then on my lead run I managed to pull a car length on him and I advanced through to a top 16 where I was to meet NZ drifter Carl Ruiterman. I was pretty disappointed with this draw having just traveled to the other side of the earth to battle a fellow kiwi!!!

Fortunate for Ruiterman he got an automatic advance to top16 as Luke Fink had engine problems and couldn't compete in battle.

I was determined to put 110% in and keep focused to make sure I was not going down to a kiwi drifter. Knowing that Carl is a very talented driver as he won all 3 of our NZ championships in 07 I was not to give him an inch and was not afraid of losing my rear bumper on the wall to get maximum line, speed and angle points. Both lead and chase runs were close and the judges called 'one more time' With Carl leading we flew into the first corner both of us pushing the limits Carl slid into the wall and I slammed my left side into the rear of his car I just kept my foot flat down on the throttle to complete the course then when I switched left I realized I had no steering because my front under tray was under my front wheels - spectators said as I flew past they could see the front wheels motionless sitting on the under tray causing me to skid off course sending the plastic water filled barriers flying, one of them landed in the centre of my windscreen making a huge concave spider web effect but luckily for me all the window stickers held it together and with that pass we advanced to the top8! I drove back to the pits and we fitted a new body kit on the front and had to vacuum out the glass chips and tape up what was left of our windscreen then it was back up to the grid where I would meet up against the two time USA Formula Drift champ Tanner Foust in the Rockstar energy drink 350z.

The American teams have a strategy laid down for every battle and every competitor. Toni was situated in the spotters tower high above the track and told me that Tanners crew amongst others record every drivers speed, line and where their weaknesses are they even noted where I change gear down the entry straight. This caught me out as we had been full throttle up to the top of 4th gear to get maximum mph all day and then with my battle against Tanner he knew this and slowed down just as I changed up to 4th so I came off throttle and at that moment he put his foot down and gained a few car lengths on me before the initiation for the first corner. I knew in these split seconds I had to try and out brake him to make my ground back but I pushed myself a bit too hard hitting the solid concrete wall - the crowd went buzurk as I continued my drift tapped on full throttle the entire way around. Poor MADBUL was really starting to look beat up by now. Now with my lead run, I initiated the car into a drift for the first corner the car slid with much less grip, I had broken the wing off on our previous pass therefore reducing the traction on the rear - it wasn't until I was mid drift I remembered this!!!

But once again I held the throttle wide open and the crowd went crazy once again up on their feet as I plowed the barriers out of my way with the rear of our car and scuffed the rear bumper the entire way around the wall at full throttle (still maintaining my drift!). Sadly as both my rear wheels were out of the judged section I was scored a zero and Foust advanced to top 4. I drove the car back over to the pits to be greeted with a whooping crowd that had come over to show their appreciation and even hung about while the finals were running.

Though I did not come home with the World Title I had so much fun and this was definitely the highlight of my career now ranked in the top 8 in the world of drifters. With all the hype from the impression we made things are looking great to shape up and compete in the 2009 Formula Drift Championship series.

A HUGE thanks to my fans and supporters, Formula Drift and Red Bull for putting on the event and making it a great success, MOPAR drift team, Burgenholtz racing, ASD, Rockstar drift team, RMR, Mazdatrix and JT for all the help at the event, Toni and family, Chromie for all the hours of car set-up etc and buddy Ben, my sponsors that made this possible Red Bull, Goodyear, Castrol, HKS, Weds, DC, TengTools, Redline Performance, Fusion, Tein, NZspas, .com racing, I.T.S, Hamburg Sud and P.P.R.E