[NSW] DRIFT AUSTRALIA Rd 4 - Eastern Creek

Good weekend

Well we had a good weekend in the end, very promising and we were really competitive.

We did have one small issue though, second pass I ran a little too close to the ripplestrip and mashed a rim and bent the steering tie rod end, making the car very unpredictible.

Into the pits and Wokkie changed the front tires to the old set from Saturday and a quick fix with the slegde and back out we go, it's not perfect, but feels better, a few passes though show that it isn't quite right, and we couldn't improve on our Saturday qualifying, and as a result we were to come up against Fernando in the Autosalon S15, he is very hard to beat.

In the first run of our battle, I was able to keep pace with Fernando, even though he gapped me off the line with his extra power, we were there with him at the end of te pass. The second battle saw me leading, and Fernando hot on my heals, by the end of the pass Fernando was gone, and the appeared, not under drift, had I won?

A long wait in the holding area resulted with a re run, and I headed back out, Fernando didn't follow and headed to the pits, Wokkie came over the radio saying Fernando had a flat tyre and the Autosalon team were racing to change it, the starter told me that he had 1 minute to change it, and I knew that this would be a snack for Fernando's team.

The re run was much of the same, except that Fernando could keep up this time and won the battle through more angle.

I was shattered to be honest, that one mistake all weekend cost us a good qualifying spot and then we had the hard road through, which we can't do just yet, but talking to the team through the day and there are a lot of positives, we could keep with everyone except for Fine, Fink and Yates, and with a decent qualifying position, we won't see them till the top 8 or even top 4, which means that we have caught up to the field, now we have to pass them.

Check out www.driftaustralia.com.au for all the results and pic's, coverage of the event is on SBS, Speedweek 13th July, check local guides for times.

We next compete in the NSW Oran Park trophy, Friday 11th July, night meet.

Stay Sidewayz Kidz,

Dan.

 

both sad and good news, dan .... looks as if the

blue beast is looming, ready to strike .... sounds as if you had a tremendous battle, indeed .... stick in there .... !!!!

 

Dan humbly didn't mention that in the free-for-all Speed Entry comp (eventually won by Robbie Bolger in the 10-gazzillion hp CAPA-sponsored Monaro with an entry speed of 160kph), Dan finished very high up (in fact, I think he might have been second!!) with an entry speed of 148kph!! Most others were in the 125-138kph bracket...
Plus, most of us were surprised (to say the least) that Fernando in the AutoSalon entry was even allowed to return to the pits to fix a puncture after arriving at the start to take on Dan in the Sureflo Zed!! But, allowed he was, and still needed a re-run to take out the Zed!! The ironic fact that in the next round the AutoSalon car was spun by Fernando (which put them out of the comp), was in the run AFTER the battle with Dan's Zed was not lost on all his supporters...

 

Hot pic from weekend..

 

Speedshots pics are up...

http://www.speedshots.com.au/gallery/drift/2008_drift/2008_driftaustralia/2008_da_r4/

 

holy mackie-erel ..31 pages of superdrift pics ..!!!!

.. some great shots there ....

 

eastern creek: drift australia -SBS COVERAGE ... sunday ..

did anyone see the great SPEEDWEEK coverage of the eastern creek round of DA ... today, 13 july .... brilliant stuff, indeedy .....and significantly, a number of the top drivers made disparaging mention of the very disputable judges call ....

And "our Dan" received a very special mention in the preliminary coverage .. great to see Dan .... go the driftZ ....!!!