Photo by Lazlo Trinidad

Round 2, “Drift for a Cause” was a successful event helping our brothers and sister who were victimized by the recent Habagat storm. A lot of the drifters showed up not just to put on a good show but also to help out in raising funds and donations. Each driver who donated Php 500 was entitled for a match by Lateral Drift Productions, plus the other donations made by others. Drift for a cause will continue to accept donations until Round 3 on September 8 at Quirino Grandstand and Round 4 at September 28 at Marikina City Hall.

A fun-filled Round 2 was expected as Lateral Drift returns to it birth venue when they started back in 2006 for the first ever drifting event in the Philippines. Now bigger, well followed and organized, the professional drift league yet continues to grow here in the Philippines. If you have seen a drifting event and if you don’t understand the rules, it would be hard to follow what is happening during the event, but it would still get very exciting to see even if you don’t get it. This this just like a Olympic judge event like gymnastics, figure skating, and all that other sport that can became subjective in scoring.

The first part of  the drifting event is  the qualifying, were the drivers run in singles and drifts the car around the track where there are clipping points marked around the each corners of track. The objective of the drifter is to drift it as close as they can. Judging is based on how fast they can complete the track, how close they are to the clipping points and to angle how the car drifts. Smoking the tires is a big plus and to complete the performance is the drifter’s style and showmanship.

In the second part of the event, drivers will battle in, called tandems runs for the top 16 to the final 4. Two drifters will run the track together following each other and alternate at the 2nd run. The objective of the driver following behind is to mirror and to be as close to the trialing car as possible. Judges will base scores on how they achieve these guidelines. If it’s too close to score, judges can request for another set of runs.

A total of 8 amateurs battled for the top spot. The amateur track layout was similar to the pros, with just minor adjustments with the take-off area and the first clipping point with a slower entry speed. Lady drifter Tintin David a resident of Pampanga and Robert Tan battled for 3rd place. It was too close to call, as the judges call for a one more time and to result she came to shine as the first ever Lady drifter to make to the podium takes 3rd.

In the Pro Division was full of excitement and disappointments as Alex Perez of Team Yellow Cab failed to make it to the top 4 as falls early to his top rival David Feliciano of DMF Drift Team.
Eat Bulaga host Ryan Agoncillo of Team Yellow advances to top 4 as he battles with Feliciano for 3rd place and fails to keep up with the father of Philippine drifting as David took 3rd place again for Round 2 for the second straight round.

The battle for 1st place with defending Champion Audel Sison of Team Autocraft and Boodie Dabasol  of Team Turbo Café was another epic one. The two  battled for first last year at Clark International Race way and it was neck to neck. This round was yet another for these two, as DaBasol edges Sison again and takes 1st this time.  Sison made a mistake on run 2 and took a higher line nearly hitting  Dabasol in the 2nd clipping point which ended up losing speed and failing to catch up to mirror the opponent in front.

The next round of the Lateral Drift Championship will be on September 8, 2012 starting 1pm at the Quirino Grandstand to be powered by the 2012 Hyundai Genesis.