DRIFT AUSTRALIA // THE 2009 DRIFT NATIONALS

Late last year the Aussie drift community was dealt a punch in the face when the previous owners of Drift Australia pulled the pin on the national series due to Toyo Tyres backing out as the naming rights sponsor for the series. The best that could be offered to the drift community was a one round series at Oran Park raceway. The result of this was an outcry from the drift community with lots of threads popping up on different forums discussing the announcement, and the comments were quite negative. The ranting and raving finally died down and nothing was mentioned or heard during the early stages of this year. Then suddenly Ninety Degree Entertainment purchased Drift Australia and the series was under new management.

The brand was relaunched and freshened up using the same popular formula and the new organises set out to make the solo round a truly national event. Although a few of the big names decided not to show up for various reasons, the Drift Australia line up still looked strong... [read more]

Super Drift had a complete field where a handful of drivers had a chance of taking out the honours. As most people know by now Luke Fink took out the honours over the Simon Podlewski. I personally wasn’t really surprised when both drivers made it to the finals as in my eyes I consider them the two best drivers and teams in the country. But before we talk about the finals so much more happened throughout the day.

The first session of the day was Super Drift practice, which let the drivers get there eye in before the battles. Most of the media assembled at the end of the main straight waiting to see who will come in contact with the wall first. The driver of this s13.5 graced the wall not only once but on three separate runs, he really must like panel beating.

Once everyone was warmed up the battles began. Nigel from EngineeredToSlide in his very low 180sx was taking on a turbo charged falcon Ute (which actually went really well).

Did I mention this thing is ridiculously low?

After all the media was kicked out of the first turn due to a certain photographer not wearing a vest I headed into pit lane as the DA guys where getting ready. Eugene was being his usually charismatic self with the Toyo girls.

The Toyo girls weren’t that bad to look at either:

The DA guys headed out for the practice and qualifying runs and everyone was out there to prove they had what it takes.







Luke Fink got his qualifying runs in quite early on and was hanging out on the pit wall sussing out the competition.

In-between the DA session the SD battle where coming to an end.



Due to the relatively small field in DA a lot of the top qualifiers where given Bye runs early on the competition.


The best thing about drifting for me is how well most of the drivers get on, here is Luke and Jake discussing the battle they just had.

Jake must have taken on board Luke’s advice as he defeated Dan Mackie to take out the final position on the podium.

Before the final battle there was a big entry comp into the first corner. With a lot of the SD and DA driver scarping the wall for the fans in the grandstand at the end of the main straight. Tom Monkhouse had the best entry’s.


I decided to shoot the final from the media centre balcony above pit lane. The first run began with Fink leading Podlewski and there was nothing between both drivers from start to finish.

At this point Mez, from Mez Productions was standing next to me and I said to him “where going to be standing here all afternoon, both these guys are just too good” how wrong I was, as the second run began both competitors where driving very close with Fink giving Podlewski a nice nudge in the passenger door through the first turn.

By the time the guys hit the middle section my camera lens was no longer long enough to get a decent frame so I just watched as Fink made a passing move on Podlewski to take out the win through the last turn. I was actually quite shocked; I thought there would be at least one re-run.

While in slight shock I quickly ran down stairs to get some snaps of the winning ceremony...

Fink thoroughly deserved the trophy at the end of the day and you could really tell it was something he’s been striving for a long time. He came so close last year taking out Second place and now he has finally done it.


All and all I thoroughly enjoyed the event and the new organises defiantly knew how to put on a good show. Although I thought there was abit of un-needed delays between some of the session and I think the idea of a lunch break should never be included in any motorsport event. If people want to eat lunch they can go when ever and if they want to head into pit lane to check out the cars they should do that throughout the day.

The new organises also announced that they will be having a five round series next year and I can’t wait to see if they can launch Drift Australia back into mainstream motorsport like it was in 2008. I’m also hoping there will be one round in NSW so I can cover it.

For complete results please check out the Drift Australia website

If you want to check out some more of my pictures you can find them here

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Photo/Editorial: Matthew Mead