There’s something truly captivating about the sport of drifting – a delicate dance between the driver and their car and a skilful mixture of footwork and pure driving prowess. As South Africans, we seem drawn to the full-throttle, pedal-to-the-floor performance that drifters produce anytime they’re let loose on the track. The 2022 Red Bull Car Park Drift event is the perfect staging ground for drifters to pull out all the stops and go head-to-head against some of SA’s most skilful drivers.
The 2022 Red Bull Car Park Drift competition was a dramatic and entertaining show that took place on the Suncoast Hotel grounds on the 9th of April. Dark grey clouds blanketed the Durban skies, and rain relentlessly pelted the roads from the earliest hours on Friday the 8th of April with no intention of letting up till the following week. Wet surfaces and rainy conditions are not the best for drifters to compete in, but the weather was calm enough at some point to allow competitors to complete their qualifying runs.
The next day brought a greater onslaught of wet weather and gloomy skies. 22 drifters eagerly awaited the start of the main event while sheltered under an assortment of gazebos, their high-horsepower chariots braving the storm. Scattered across the outskirts of the car park were a mix of 1JZ and 2JZ 200 and 240sx’s, a supercharged S14, a 4,4-litre V8 powered E36, E30’s, 350Z’s, a batch of mustangs, some Nissan skylines, and a custom wide-body v8 swapped RX-7. With turbochargers and superchargers mated to most of the power plants, power outputs were just shy of 375 kW, with some exceptions.
By some stroke of luck, the rain stopped, and the wind died down ten minutes before the show was scheduled to start. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, drivers immediately hopped into the cars, and the show was underway. A quick parade and exhilarating sound off signalled the start of the 2022 Red Bull Car Park Drift competition.
When talking to CAR magazine, many drivers emphasised that with the unfavourable weather, the gameplay focused on earning as many points as possible instead of aimlessly burning rubber for the crowd’s enjoyment. Roaring V8s and screaming six-cylinders were met with harmonious “oohs” and “aahs” from the crowd as participants gracefully executed swift turns and slides.
One by one, drivers tackled the obstacle course with the utmost precision and aggression. Starting on the figure eights and heading towards the pendulum corner knocking the hanging ball back and forth before preceding the row of blue barrels presented in the number 11 configuration. After the final row of blue barrels, drivers paced towards a corner where they would navigate around a tall cone in the centre of the circle, then finally reaching a final corner. First, there were 22 then 16. After a few more runs, only eight drivers remained.
The remaining eight drifters were to tackle an additional obstacle at the end of the run, the spiral. An assortment of cones configured into a somewhat oval spiral would separate packs and decide who would go on to the final 4. What was a battle filled with a range of six-cylinders and eight-cylinders quickly became a battle dominated by V8s in the final 4. Joey Govender, Mathys Naude, Jim McFarlene, and Jason Webb went all out to secure the top spot. Govender was promptly eliminated.
Before the showdown, famed motorsport champion, Abdo Feghali put his skills on display behind the wheel of a BMW M2. The masterful execution and sound of a lively and high-strung N55 were met with the thunderous cheering of the crowd.
The final showdown. The culmination of the efforts of extremely skilled and passionate drivers resulted in a truly captivating performance. The atmosphere and driving styles had drastically changed. Cars pushed harder, entries and driving were more aggressive. While it was a tough fight, and each driver had put their best into the competition, in the end, Jason Webb secured the victory in his convertible Ford Mustang.
The Johannesburg native let out a celebratory scream upon hearing that his close friend and teammate, Jim McFarlene, had ended up in 2nd place. Mathys Naude piloting his 4,4-litre V8 E36 had finished in 3rd place, which was the exact spot he ended the qualifying runs on the 8th of April. After receiving their trophies, the three finalists took turns etching what was left of their tyres into the car park grounds. McFarlane and Webb treated the crowd to synchronised centre axis donuts. Webb will represent South Africa at the world finals in Saudi Arabia later this year.
Words: Ryan de Villiers
