Tengku Djan Wins First Ever Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia

Battle day – The overcast continued and rain threatened to ruin the day but it amazingly held out till right after the event was over. Excitement was running high as eight of the Top 10 drivers were all Malaysians with a good number of them from the Goodyear drift team. You could see the excitement on everyone’s faces as the drifters went out for tandem battle for the Sweet 16 spot.

The highlight of the entire event was of course local hero Tengku Djan Ley who set the highest score ever in Formula Drift during qualifying and Mad Mike Whiddet who flew in from New Zealand with his four-rotor Mazda RX-7FD, Mike is also the Champion of the previous round of Formula Drift in Thailand. Together with other top drifters from Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines, the stage was set for the Sweet 16 where 16 drivers from the Top 32 would have to be eliminated.

The more experienced drifters with high powered cars seemed to gracefully make sideways mockery of their competitors, people like Djan, Mike, Mervyn Nakamura, Nazrul, Ah Fai, Ivan Lau, Kiki and Hanizam all made it to the Elite 8 group which is basically the quarter finals. Sadly there were several unexpected high profile casualties in the Sweet 16 round, D1 USA drifter Ryuji Miki was drawn against Mad Mike and sadly his Supra failed to even threaten Mike’s 500hp RX-7. Even local favourite Ariff Johanis failed to shine but there was one Malaysian other than Tengku Djan who really stole the hearts of the crowd – car #9 – the RWD R3 Waja drift car.

The car was rented from R3 by Indonesian drifter who we know as Rifat and he managed to take the car beyond it’s limits and qualify in the top 10 bracket but sadly the car failed to outshine the Silvia S15 of Thai drifter Kiki. So from the Elite 8 it was onto the Final 4. This is where the suspense really starts as the Elite 8 group consisted of many crowd favourites but 4 of them had to go. After what seemed like an eternity of adrenalin charged sideways moments, the Final 4 stood tall and the other 4 limped back to the pits. The 4 were Djan who took on Mervyn Nakamura and Kiki who took on Mad Mike.

It seemed like there was going to be a repeat of the Thai showdown all over again where Djan and Mike went head to head till Mike was ultimately awarded the win after a series of close calls between the drivers which left the judges no choice but to call out “One More Time.” But a repeat there was not to be. Mike did seem as if he had Kiki outclassed when he was leading the Thai national drifter but when Mike had to chase, he crashed into Kiki in the final corner and a accident like this awards the other driver the win. In the other round, Djan had Mervyn beat with not much effort but all credit goes to Mervyn who managed to keep up with the Prince of Drift and not get intimidated.

So there it was, a Djan vs Kiki final. The local favourite was just two rounds away from winning the inaugural Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia and the crowd was on their feet cheering and flying the national “Jalur Gemilang” flag. But Kiki didn’t make it easy for Djan, he managed to keep up with Djan and even blinded him with his purple smoke when he was in the lead. A hard call so the judges called out “One More Time” and the crowd roared in support of the Malaysian.

In the final tandem battle of the 2009 Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia, Djan somehow found more guts, skill, power and everything you need to make your competition look like amateurs and was crowned the first ever Champion of the Malaysian round of Formula Drift. You can only imagine how the crowd reacted.

All in all, the inaugural Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia was a great success. Being able to attract competitors from as far away as New Zealand, Japan and Hong Kong is no easy feat but it is the ability to attract more than 12,000 people that should be applauded.

Title sponsor Goodyear Malaysia showcased a stellar line-up of 17 drivers, including top female drifter, Azrina Jane Abdullah, fellow team mates Ariff Johanis, Michael Gan and Johan Norman, as well as some of the top regional drifters, Japan’s Ryuji Miki and New Zealander “Mad” Mike Whiddet, both from Team Goodyear Malaysia. And though the best of them only managed to finish third, it was the competitive spirit and ability to relentlessly perform under pressure that truly raises the team to new heights.

“Goodyear’s very first Formula DRIFT Malaysia was sizzling with red-hot action. It is certainly an honor to be part of this exhilarating event. Having such a number of international and local drivers competing only underscores our commitment to raise drifting standards to an international level,” said Richard Fleming, Managing Director, Goodyear ASEAN.

“There is also a high degree of synergy between drifting, a motorsport that places strong emphasis on advanced technology and precision driving and performance tires. Our ultra high performance tires put up a fantastic showing the last two days,” he added.

The Goodyear Formula DRIFT Malaysia was the climax of the three-part Formula DRIFT Series, which blasted off with the Formula DRIFT Singapore ProAm Series 2009 in July and Formula DRIFT Thailand in November.

As the official event organizer and broadcaster for the Goodyear Formula DRIFT Malaysia 2009, ESS will produce and broadcast the event highlight programme on ESS’ footprint of 310 million viewers in 24 countries.

For more information, log on to the official Formula DRIFT web site, www.formuladrift.com.my.