Qualifying in 9th place meant that Nick would have to battle hard to get to the podium.
First battle was with Sydney Driver Alex Sciacca in the mental J powered RX8. Nick put on a great chase lap getting nice & close to the RX8 & on the switch around Alex knew he had to put down a good lap but had a spin trying to match the proximity & the win was awarded to Nick.
Top 8 battle was against top qualifier Camo Mote Drift. These two guys put on such a close set of battles it was amazing. Both Nick & Camo put on a show that the crowd loved, door to door action all the way. They couldn’t pick a winner & a re-run was called & even then the judges couldn’t split them & called for another re-run. Unfortunately for Camo his car suffered mechanical issues on the way back to the pits for a tyre change & had to forfeit the last run meaning Nick was through to the Top 4.
Top 4 was against Steven Prembry in the little AE86. Little car maybe but powered by a V6 Aurion Motor meant this car had some serious power to weight ratio.
Nick lead first with a great run & left Steve struggling to gain proximity. On the switch around Nick got on Steven’s door almost pushing the car around the track & didn’t let go handing the win to Nick & now through to the Finals.
The Final was against Fernando Wiehrl. Fernando led first & Nick stuck to his Door putting on a great show of car control & outstanding proximity. The switch around saw Nick do exactly what the judges wanted from the lead car & he threw it in big on the first corner getting the clipping point exactly where he should have & gaining massive angle while doing so (as pictured above). Fernando seemed to struggle to match Nick’s entry with a shallow line & then a slight straighten before getting on the door of Nick for a great last section proximity chase.
Unfortunately the judges didn’t see it the way we did & called for a re-run. We went to go change tyres as they were spent & we were advised that we couldn’t change tyres after only 1 set of battles & had to do the re-run on what we had on the car. The regulations for this event don’t state this in their race “regs” & we pointed that out but were told it was an unwritten rule that we had to adhere to. So out we went on tyres that were bald & had virtually no grip at all.
Certainly not the best runs in this last battle but Nick still put on a great show & only missed the number 1 spot by 1/2 a point.
The Hi-Tec Oils Figure 8 Drift Series is shaping up to be a fierce competition with some great coverage for everyone that can’t make it to Sydney with the live stream proving very popular on www.motorsportstv.com.au