Drift fans, Formula Drift Malaysia is back! The final round of the Formula Drift Asia series for 2010 will be held this weekend (18-19 December) at Dataran Merdeka right in front of the iconic Sultan Abdul Samad building. 40 drifters from ASEAN, Japan, Hong Kong, China and New Zealand will be vying for a place in tomorrow’s qualifying session to be in the top-32 that will battle it out on Sunday.
The driver list features Team Goodyear Malaysia’s four drivers – Ariff Johanis, Azrina Jane, Michael Gan and Hanizam Hamzah – a big Thai contingent (Overdrive Team and the pretty boys from PTT), Malaysia’s Federation D (Tan Tat Wei, Tengku Djan, Ivan Lau and Mervyn Nakamura) and Goodyear backed Ryuji Miki and Kiwi David Templeman.
The Hong Kong based TRC Racing Team’s four Toyotas will be driven by three locals and Japanese Daigo Saito. Also watch out for Charles Ng in his Toyota Chaser. Charles is fresh from his first season in Formula Drift USA and was among the best rookies of 2010.
Other notable Malaysian drivers competing this weekend are Ser Ming Hui a.k.a. Ah Fai, Lim Kim Wan in his blue RX-7, Ee Yoong Chern, Lim Joe Han, Mohd Fazreen Ismail and Lim Zee King. Indonesian rally driver Rifat Sungkar will compete in a Nissan 180SX borrowed from Formula Drift Malaysia 2009 champ Tengku Djan.
In terms of machinery, the list is dominated by Nissans, although there are few FD RX-7s and the two Hachirokus of Ivan Lau and TTW. There will be two Toyota Aristos (Lexus GS) and some Supras as well.
Formula Drift founder Ryan Sage walked us through the course at a technical briefing earlier today. According to him, there are only three street circuits in FD – Long Beach, Singapore and now KL, although the Singapore course isn’t really on public streets. This uniqueness, not to mention the landmark backdrop, will make FD Malaysia 2010 quite a spectacle.
The cars will start from the Jalan TAR/Jalan Tun Perak junction, accelerating hard up a slight elevation, and across the bridge, before going through an S in front of Sultan Abdul Samad building. There will be three rear clipping points before the course ends with a hairpin turn. Looks pretty narrow to me, and there’s a high chance of rain, so there’s bound to be plenty of action. FD USA judges Andy Yen and Anthony Angelo will call the shots.
Click to enlarge
Tickets can be bought at www.ticketpro.com.my or the 03-78807999 hotline. Walkabout passes go for RM22, grandstand at RM95 and covered grandstand at RM125.
See you there!
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my favourite care nissan silvia s15 spec r :)
Those r Rock road surface, not tarmac, not so suitable for drifting no? if passionate enough for such sport event, the organizer shouldn’t cost-cutting on the rental of proper track…so lame..
its not about cutting cost, it also about promoting Malaysia to world, and about rock road surface, thas not a problem for them to drift. Sadly t dijan didn’t make it this year.
pricey tickets..wonder how they would enclosed the area to prevent ppl w/o tickets..
Where is Tengku?? I Hope our Tengku Djan will make it again and be crown as ultimate drifter of all time.
Aiyoo…traffic jam like hell la b’cos of this
Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad is really nice.
borrowed?
proton is the best
Those r Rock road surface, not tarmac, not so suitable for drifting no? if passionate enough for such sport event, the organizer shouldn’t cost-cutting on the rental of proper track…so lame..