With the very best drifters from all over Australia and the top guys from D1 New Zealand all set to go head to head at Eastern Creek under lights in August, we are guaranteed of an epic drift battle like never before seen in our country.
Unlike time attack racing where it is simply the car with the fastest lap time wins, drifting is a “judged” sport not dissimilar to the way that gymnastics or figure skating is judged, and this can at times lead to “contreversy” over who is winning and losing. So the solution to this problem is to have the very best judges available, to ensure that we have a fair fight to the finish. With experience comes competence, and we are pretty damn sure we have the three of the best in the business.
1. Kristian Appelt
Heading up our judging panel is arguably the most experienced drift judge in Australia, Kristian Appelt. Hailing from the birthplace of the drift movement in Australia, Adelaide, Kristian has been actively involved in the drift scene since near the beginning. He was the head judge for Drift Australia for many years until its demise in 2009 and is well respected by many of the drivers as being “extremely fair and very accurate” By day Kristian is the Managing Director of Iron Chef Imports a company he founded and runs to this day.
2. Eiji “Tarzan” Yamada
Whilst many Australians may only recognise Tarzan Yamada as the guy that turned up at Eastern Creek in 2010 and made a mockery of the V8 Supercar record in an old Lancer known as the Cyber Evo. What not so many know though, is that Tarzan is also an extremely competent drifter and also a very experienced judge of drift, in fact probably one of the most experienced anywhere. He actually competed in D1GP USA in 2004 in a V10 Dodge Viper and was a judge for the Formula D USA for three years after that. He has judged many drift competitions in other Asian countries including China over the years. He is currently one of the five judges for what many regard as the holy grail of drift, the Japanese Pro D1 series and we are extremely honored to have someone of Tarzan’s caliber join our panel.
3. Trent Whyte.
Rounding out our judging panel is another highly experienced ex Drift Australia judge from Brisbane, Trent Whyte. The more we searched for the best judges in Australia, the more we kept hearing the name Trent Whyte. Trent was originally a competitor in Drift Australia and later a DA judge and since then has judged many local competitions in the South East Queensland region. When he is not judging drift shows Trent is the founder and managing director of Brisbane based tuning shop, Mercury Motorsport who have also entered a highly anticipated R35 GTR in the Pro Class meaning he is sure to have a busy weekend.
“Racin Jason” ”Mozza ” ”Mr Grumpy Ninja”
Calling all the drift action over both evenings will be the highly experienced “Racin” Jason O Halleron who is coming out of retirement just for this event and joining him will be Tasmanian vocal legend Adrian “Mozza” Morrisby, with some guest commentry by team NZ head honcho, Warren ”Mr Grumpy Ninja” Sare to give you an insight into the Kiwi teams. There is not a shadow of a doubt these guys will be as entertaining as the action on the track!
We will be announcing the final drift competitor lineup in the coming weeks so stay tuned.
