The year 2012 has seen in Australia the development of a new drifting series, which has attracted top-level drivers. Round two of the Australian Drifting Grand Prix season took place on 16 and 17 June in Melbourne, at the fast technical Calder Park circuit. Team Monster Energy Motul took part in it with Rob Whyte at the wheel of a Nissan 350 Z. Much time had been devoted to tuning the car, under the authority of team manager, Ken Streeter, from Bullet Cars, so that it was perfectly tuned for the event.
The team put to good use the two day drive from Brisbane to Melbourne to discuss tactics and arrived in Calder Park ready to fight it out. Managing to qualify in first place, Rob Whyte then launched into the successive battles, eliminating his contenders until the only remaining one was the title holder, Luke Fink, the unbeaten champion in Australia since 2008. 'This was obviously going to be a difficult race against the man referred to as the 'surgeon'', recalled Rob Whyte. 'In the first battle, we pushed door to door, holding the lines and pushing the angles to absolute extremes to gain the upper hand.' The judges announced that it was too close to call and there were then three re-runs.
Finally the cars lined up in front of the crowds waiting for the result to be announced. Series organiser, Andrew Hawkins, then turned to team Monster Energy Motul and announced to the public that it had won the round! This splendid result places the team in first place in the championship.
The next event of the Australian Drifting Grand Prix is scheduled on 15 and 16 September in Adelaide.
Photo credit: Scott Nelso tprmedia
