WATCH: Drifting jackpot at Carnival

Mad Mike Whiddett showed local drifting enthusiasts how they burn rubber in New Zealand.

September 30, 2016

2 minutes read

Shane Gutzeit in his Dunlop/Dezzi Nissan Silvia S15 drifted into first position at Carnival City.

Brakpan’s playground of the high rollers, Carnival City, played host to the sixth round of the SupaDrift National series over the weekend.

The penultimate round of 2016 was a jackpot of high-class drifting action as one of the largest fields ever at a SupaDrift event took to the freshly laid out tarmac in the Carnival City parking lot.

The addition of Red Bull Mazda’s “Mad Mike” Whiddett was another highlight with his display of drifting skill in his rotary-powered machine.

Mad Mike Whiddett showed local drifting enthusiasts how they burn rubber in New Zealand. — Mad Mike Whiddett.

After Mad Mike had completed his demo runs he joined the drivers at the post-qualifying briefing and joined in the cheers as George Myburgh was announced top qualifier.

It was, however, Eric van Eyssen who was celebrating.

After two outstanding performance runs he had clinched a well-deserved second place qualifier.

The Top 32 and Top 16 tandems went by quickly and were extremely heated.

Errors began to creep in for the drivers and this resulted in a number of “One More Times” (OMTs).

The drivers who had made it through began making critical mistakes which would see their opponents progress.

George Myburgh put his GT Radial LS powered S14 into the wall behind teammate Adam Shefer, while a small straight line error would see Achilles Tyres’ Jim McFarlane relegated to the pits after his bout with Paolo Gouveia.

Eric van Eyssen was in top form as he slid his way through the field and survived a few OMTs.

He eventually beat out Dent Expert’s Sean February and then took an automatic third place after Adam Shefer’s clutch gave in.

The stage was set for the final, with the sun just sinking behind the Big Top Arena.

Paolo Gouveia and Shane Gutzeit rolled into their final tandem and left it all out on track with super close-quarter drifting.

Finally it would be Shane Gutzeit who would take first place on the podium with Gouveia claiming a hard-earned second position.

• Podium: 1 Shane Gutzeit (Dunlop/Dezzi Nissan Silvia S15), 2 Paolo Gouveia (Prepsol/Vehicle Ink Nissan RS13), 3 Eric van Eyssen (The Viking Nissan Silvia S14).