Mat Canyon: Formula Drift Malaysia 2013

What's up guys. It's been a very long time since my last post on MC. A month plus. But I'm back with something you guys might enjoy. On 1st September, our beloved city of Kuala Lumpur became host to the Formula Drift series at Speed City KL. This year we got an all star line up including Ken Gush, Robbie Nishida, Daigo Saito, Fredric Aasbo and also our local favourites, Mervyn Nakamura, Ariff Johanis, Loyai, Zai 'Bullzai' Hamdan, Ah Han, and off course Tengku Djan Ley.

Mervyn Nakamura and Bullzai Hamdan

Dai Yoshihara as a judge

Ariff Johanis

Tengku Djan

Ken Gushi

Daigo Saito

Robbie Nishida

Fredric Aasbo

The weather wasn't a walk in a park for the drivers. It might be typical for the Malaysians, otherwise for the foreign drivers. But rain, shine or even monsoons, the show still went on. This makes the FD event in Malaysia unique due to the weather which challenges the driver and even out the playing field. All and all, drifting is a driver's sport where power isn't always everything.

This year, the competition goes straight to the top 16. Unfortunately in qualifying, only two Malaysian drivers made the top 16 which is Tengku Djan and Ah Fai. The two biggest powerhouses of Malaysian drifting. Whereas 5 Thai drivers, Keak, Mai Chaiwat, C. Kerdpiam, Pan Thamtarana, and Saranon made it through. Other that made the top 16 are Daigo Saito, Tom Monkhouse, Slim Templeman, FredricAasbo, Rio SB, Ken Gushi, Masao Suenaga, Josh Boettcher, and Rob Whyte.

During the tandem battles, the conditions were semi wet. We saw some surprising results when Aasbo and Saito were knocked out at the top 16. Aasbo was knocked out by Rio SB whereas Saito was knocked out by Monkhouse. The finals was a battle with Tom Monkhouse against C. Kerdpiam. Even though these two didn't make it to the finals but the highlight battle of the event was Djan against Gushi since both drifters were equally capable and both were ripping the banners on the wall. Kudos for them. At the end of the day, the final podium was C Kerdpiam in first, Monkhouse in second and Gushi in third.