Toti’s super drifter shifts into top gear

Seizing an opportunity to compete in her first ever national SupaDrift event at Carnival City on Saturday, 29 September, Amanzimtoti’s Melissa Nell blew away the competition with a second place in the Pro 1 Class.

The 21-year-old was the only newcomer and the only woman driver to compete in the last event of the 2018 drifting series. “This was the first serious competition I have entered,” she said. “I wasn’t in line to compete but the opportunity came up, I was sponsored a car and I entered.”

Despite driving a vehicle she was unfamiliar with and only having five laps to get to grips with it, she proved she has what it takes to compete in the series. The only person to eclipse her on the day was the winner, who is a vastly experienced drifter in his 60s with three SupaDrift series under his belt.

Melissa featured in the SUN in 2014 as a 16-year-old when she was the only female to compete in the Driftkana in Pietermaritzburg, and the Tyre and Tar event in Pietermaritzburg where she got to take the finance MEC for a spin in her car around the track. Fortunately for the minister, Melissa took it easy.

Drifting is a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, losing traction in the rear wheels or all tires, while maintaining control and driving the car through a corner. It is a highly specialised sphere of motorsport.

For competitions, competitors have two qualification runs and they are judged where they will place in two tandem runs. For the tandem runs, a competitor leads for one and follows for their second.

“I prefer to lead,” said Melissa, who is studying IT at Varsity College in Durban. “This event was fun but nerve-wracking. Sitting in the car I was a bundle of nerves but when it was time to go, I was amazingly calm.”

For her tandem runs, her competitor thought he was up against her father David and pushed her hard but to her credit she didn’t fold. When they climbed out of their vehicles, he was amazed that he had just competed against a 21-year-old female.

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David has been drifting for about 11 years and even at only 10-years-old, Melissa showed a keen interest in her dad’s motorsport career. He put her behind the wheel of his car for the first time when she was only 14-years-old and she dominated the almost 1,000 horse-powered vehicle. That was the first sign that Melissa could be a natural in the sport.

“I’ve never really competed and shown what I can do. This second place shows that I can hold my own against much more experienced drivers. I am confident I can do it. I definitely want to enter the series next year.”

The series burns rubber from April to September with seven events, one a month. As it is a national competition, Melissa can share her David’s car but she needs her own sponsors for tyres, fuel, travelling and accommodation. If you can help her, call her mother Sonja on 079-760-6889.