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This was the first time Melbourne has held a round of the Drags, Burnouts, Drifting Nat’s, and with the prospect of a solid 14 hours of competitive driving, its kinda daunting but it does make it hard to miss some good entertainment. That didn’t stop me trying though, I had a few mates that were keen but as the day rolled on I was distracted by my X-box. When I made some calls I found one mate was off to fix his Mum’s roof in the country, another had a girlfriend thing he forgot about, so it looked like it was just Jarrod (Mel’s sisters boyfriend) and I. We managed to head off just before three. When the two off us arrived we walked up the drag strip, around the 60 foot mark where the Burnout finals were in full swing & with a light tail wind down the strip we couldn’t see anything through the tyre smoke. Around ninety seconds or so later we heard the tell tale sign of steel belts on bitumen, just as you pick that noise the tyre pops with the second one almost simultaneously. The crowd was going crazy as the smoke cleared. I was astounded to see the burnout pad they were using was the turning area for the drag strip hard up against the barrier that we stood on the other side of. This guy in an early Corolla with 17inch rims, bright orange paint & some kind of turbo 4cyl, it was quiet by comparison but it was working hard judging by the blow-off valve constantly dumping. This guy was really working the crowd and the pad, what he lacked in smoke volume & note he made up for in skill & control. Once the smoke cleared from the burnout finals, the drift finals were up next. I was expecting to have to move but the drift track was using the pit entry lane along the barrier wall straightening up as they passed the burnout lanes behind the start line of the drag strip. The first three cars out were an S-14 & two 180SXs. They came down the back straight Mungi style (Drifting side to side in a straight line) before reaching the right left, where the track sweeps right to the front straight, they followed the pit entry lane around chicanes made by Ballard’s, they stepped out all the way to the dividing wall, where an angry looking marshal slowed them down before they passed the drag cars queuing for the next event. That was the demo before the Battle. The competitive side of drift is not dissimilar to the burnout comp only its done at speed and over a track, they run them in pairs awarding them points for control, speed, smoke, & most important how long they stay sideways. They run these as elimination’s till they have a winner. To watch these cars follow line-a-stern turning the tyres out to almost 90 degrees, then the lead car follows, they take score. In case of a draw they run again. Next up - the drags. Top Doorslammers through to street class LS1 were on the bill for the rest of the nights racing, I don’t think I saw anything slower than 13 seconds. Almost all the vehicles I saw were well presented & high quality, that is a good part of what makes this series almost as good for the spectator as it is for the entrant…. - Lee |