2009 Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia – Qualifying Results and Pics

The inaugural Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia went off to a great start. Though it was overcast the whole day and the heavens really did let rip later on, spectators and supporters turned out in full force, all couple of thousands of them. The first day was just practise and qualifying but even that had the crowd on its feet.

The practise round for the drifters was an opportunity to get accustomed to the concrete outer wall that runs by the judges stand and all throughout the course. As mentioned before, drifters get more points the closer they get to the wall and this is known as “riding-the-wall”. Among the 50 over international and local drifters, it was Mad Mike and his four-rotor Mazda RX-7 FD that got closest to the wall, but it was Tengku Djan who was the smoothest, fastest and bravest among them all.

I’m speculating that the finals will be a repeat of what happened in Thailand but maybe not quite so as well. In the qualifying stage, Djan took top spot with Ryuji Miki taking third and Malaysian drifter Hanizam taking the second spot, Mike however only managed 19th spot when he spun out on his first round of qualifying. Well I’m about to head back to MAEPS and cover day two but meanwhile here’s all the pictures from day one as well as the qualifying results.