As the Global Financial Crisis took its full effect on most companies world-wide, sponsorship across the motorsport scene was, in most cases, withdrawn or dramatically decreased. This affected many companies including Drift Australia, which was sold to Ninety Degree Entertainment at the end of 2008 and they pulled off a very impressive farewell event at Oran Park in 2009, but unfortunately this would be the last event to be ever held by Drift Australia.
In 2012 there are two series that run semi-nationally. The Stadium Drift series encompasses events in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia and the newly formed Australian Drifting Grand Prix holds events in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and Perth. All of these events are well supported by competitors with many travelling thousands of kilometers interstate to compete.
Each state also has strongly supported local drift clubs and competitions with the Initial Drift Club in NSW becoming the first CAMS sanctioned drift club in Australia way back in 2005, and the Victorian based Vic Drift holding several large events every year that attract many interstate competitors, with well run local competitions in almost every other Australian state that are often full to capacity.
So where do we fit into this? In 2010, with the demise of Drift Australia, we thought it would be a good idea to include a small drift competition to the very first world time attack event and allocated two hour timeslot in the middle of the day on both days. We invited the best Australian drifters to compete and the Tectaloy Drift Challenge was born.
This event was won by Beau Yates and was so well received that in 2011 the decision was made to stage a much bigger event – under lights on both evenings of the World Time Attack Challenge. With a much bigger track time allocation we also decided to bring some top D1NZ cars across the ditch to compete with the Australians. Kiwi Curt Whittaker dominated the Australians in front of a packed house and media from across the globe.
In 2012 the event is shaping up to be even bigger with the New Zealand team returning with a a vengeance and some top Japanese D1 cars scheduled to take on the best drift talent Australia has to offer. As you would expect an event like this doesn’t happen without the very best people being involved and we are proud to have the founder of Drift Australia Wayne Boatwright’s daughter Amy as the event co co-ordinator and the most experienced judge in the country, Kristian Appelt as our senior judge. And with an entry list that will include the biggest names from past and present, the 2012 Tectaloy Drift Challenge is sure to go down in history as the biggest drift event ever on Australian soil!
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