Formula Drift Singapore 2010 is over and the overlord of the Malaysian drifting fraternity brings home the title again. Tengku Djan Ley beat fellow team mate Tan Tat Wei and some of the best drifters is Asia in dominant style and we were there to catch all the action thanks to Goodyear Malaysia, official sponsor of the 2010 Formula Drift Singapore.
Goodyear Malaysia fielded four of Malaysia’s top drift talents but sadly only Michael Gan and Hanizam made it through to the Top 32 bracket. The failure to qualify by experienced drifter Ariff Johanis came as a shock to everyone as he lead the team in all of last year’s Formula Drift Asian series and did well, there were high hopes for him to make it higher up the ladder this year but motorsports is cruel and besides having all the right machinery and skill, a little bit of luck goes a long way as well. Fellow team mate and wife Jane Cheah was also carrying the team’s hopes but sadly she could not get over the fear of drifting at high speeds, in a conversation later on, the only female drifter attributed her failure to qualify to not having enough experience in drifting at such high speed.
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The other shocker came in the form of 2004 D1GP Champion Ryuji Miki loosing out to a comparatively unknown drifter from Indonesia, Rhenadi. A mistake by Miki and a strong run by Rhenadi in his 200SX ensured the Indonesian a spot in the Top 16 bracket. He later had to go up against Tan Tat Wei who before that literally pawned his own team mate Ivan Lau in a strong fast and well placed run. Earlier on Ivan had set a disappointment for the Goodyear team after he saw off Michael Gan, actually Michael didn’t even last the first round due to a gearbox failure. Later on, Rhenadi ended up being out classed by Tat Wei and that took him to the Top 4 spot.
Further down the order it was Goodyear Thailand drifter Nittipat in his “skyfiro” against his fellow countryman Davide in his Silvia S13. To reach the Top 16 bracket, Nittipat had to see off a charging Dio and his Silvia S15 and Davide had a smoky battle with another famous Malaysian drifter Ser Ming Hui or better known as Ah Fai, a spin out by Ah Fai handed victory to Davide. Between the two Thai drifters, Davide completely outclassed Nittipat to make it through to the Top 4 where he lost out to a on-form Tan Tat Wei.
While the Goodyear camp tried to figure out what went wrong with their top three drifters, their final hopes laid on the newcomer to the team Hanizam Hamzah. The new 37-year old drifter had been suffering from a spate of bad luck all through the weekend after a loosely secured bonnet shattered his windscreen during practise and he barely made it to qualifying, his crew were still fitting the windscreen when it was his turn to line-up to qualify, 20-seconds later and he wouldn’t even be in contention. So now here he was lining up against the man who qualified second overall, Atsushi Murata. After a few tense moments and some very brave maneuvers, the Goodyear camp erupted with joy after Murata crashed into Hanizam’s door and the judges announced Hanizam goes on to the Top 16 bracket.
Coming in all the way from New Zealand, Goodyear drifter Fanga Dan and his RB26 powered Holden had raised eyebrows all weekend long. The man and machine created havoc during practise and showed brilliant control, and that was proven when he took on and beat SS Flora of Thailand with relative ease. SS Flora had earlier on outclassed Singaporean drifter Ivan Lim, also part of the Goodyear Singapore drift team; the golden boy of Singaporean drift has yet to prove his worth in a Formula Drift series, simply qualifying is never enough. Fanga Dan later broke hearts at the Malaysian Goodyear team when he saw off fellow Goodyear drifter Hanizam in a controversial judging decision to make it to the Top 8.
Usually tense moments in a drift series is left for the final stages, but this time it came early in the form of two good friends taking on one another. Tengku Djan was set to go against Kiki of Thailand, a repeat of the final of the 2009 Formula Drift Malaysia, but unlike the last outcome, Djan took the win with relative ease after Kiki spun out on entry during the first run. However not to be fazed, Kiki gave Djan a real workout in round 2, smoking out the Malaysian’s view with purple smoke from the Toyo tyres that Kiki was running on. But the damage was done and Kiki was sent packing by the judges, a great run by the duo without a doubt. Djan later saw off drifter #97, Wan and his baby blue RX-7 to make it to the semi’s.
So the stage was set and the showdown was just a couple of minutes away. The semi-finals were set to be Tan Tat Wei vs Davide and Fanga Dan vs Tengku Djan. It was a heart stopping moment for all camps as this was seen as the ultimate showdown; Malaysia vs Thailand and Malaysia vs New Zealand. Tan Tat Wei and Davide went out first and the crowd went wild as the duo basically matched each other corner for corner, wheel for wheel, apex for apex and then …. Round 2 and the same thing again but this time Tat Wei had the upper hand and the judges ruled in his favour and the Malaysian drifter went on to the finals.
Djan vs Fanga Dan, the Prince of Drift vs the other Kiwi drifter besides Mad Mike. It was always going to be a great showdown but then again, the Malaysian was clearly the crowd favourite, as always where ever he goes to drift. The duo set the crowd alight with their speed and angle but Fanga Dan was no match for Djan and the New Zealander took the third step on the podium after he lost out to Djan. It was a all Malaysian final now, reminiscent of the 2009 Formula Drift Singapore where Djan beat Ariff Johanis to clinch the title.
It needs to explanation, no description and no analysis, Djan completely had Tan Tat Wei from the green flag, but the team mates definately rocked the show but Djan was the clear winner after he opened a gap and showed more control than the Tat Wei in the AE86. So that was it then, the title was Djan’s to take home and he did it in effortless style. It would be great to see what Formula Drift Thailand has in store for the competitors but for now, there’s only one winner and you know who that is, as always.
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