Sideway ballet: Two drifting drivers practice battle on Saturday morning at Winton Raceway.
Photo by
Hamish Donaldson
When you picture a drifting event, the first thing that might come to your mind is hooligans burning rubber for the sake of it.
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This could not be further from the truth as Hi-Tec Drift Allstars Series got under way on a drizzly Saturday morning at Winton Motor Raceway.
Drifting stands out in the world of motor-sport as a need for speed is not the be-all and end-all.
Head judge of this week’s event at Winton, Glen Atkin, and operations manager Tayla Kennedy are clearly passionate about the sport.
“The cars are colourful, the people are colourful,” Kennedy said.
“We really push the limits and turn everything backwards in terms of what people have known with motor-sports.
“You just flip it around.
“Most circuit guys don’t want smoke coming out of their cars, we want as much smoke as possible.”
Unlike almost all other motor-sports, drifting is a judged competition.
Slippery conditions: There was a lot of sliding sideways in wet conditions at Winton Raceway on Saturday morning.
Photo by
Hamish Donaldson
“The highest score you can get is a qualifying line, that’s 100 points” Atkin said.
“To qualify you go out as one car and you have to set a benchmark on the perfect line, to every point to get your scores up.
“To score high in style, you want good fast entries, heaps of smoke, a lot of wow-factor.
“So that’s how you get 40 points off (James) Mardell (style judge).
“For Mardell, that wow has to be very wow.”
The other two judges look at the angle and line of the car, which is measured at different ‘zones’ around the track.
If a driver achieves the perfect angle and line in a zone they will pick up 10 points, five points for each criteria.
With six zones there’s 30 points on offer for line and angle respectively.
Flick: A driver gets his car going sideways in practice.
Photo by
Hamish Donaldson
Once qualified, the drivers go into a knock-out battle as they drift around the circuit twice, as one driver leads the first lap and then follows the next.
Like the football world cup, at the end of the day two drivers left standing battle it out for the top spot.
Spray: The cars were spinning up water as they entered turns at the Hi-Tec Oils Drift All Stars practice day.
Photo by
Hamish Donaldson
As the competition got under way on Sunday, it was pro driver Scott Schembri who took out the top spot on the podium as Dale Campaign was the runner up and Brodie Maher came in third place.
On a dry weekend these pro-level drivers will go through 16 to 30 tires depending on how rough the track is, the temperature of the track and how many battles they compete in.
If you’re ever tempted to burn rubber or slide sideways, the car drifting community is both passionate, welcoming and open to helping newcomers enter the sport.
“A lot of drift communities have a drift school,” said Atkin.
“(It’s just a matter of) jumping on social media and finding your local drifting community and reaching out to them.”
If you have a passion for cars but have a creative urge rather than insatiable need to go round a track as fast as possible, drifting could be the sport for you.
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