On Sunday, James and I went back up to Road Atlanta to catch the semi-finals and finals of the drift competition. Since I managed to lose my two day pass on Saturday, I forked over another twenty dollars for a one day pass. Under normal circumstances, there would be a long diatribe here about how pissed off I was. However, drifting is the best sport ever and it was totally worth it.

Shortly after arriving, we learned that Rhys Millen, the driver of the GTO, had not made the semi-finals. Despite his exciting runs during the practice session on Saturday, he had a few minor slip-ups in the qualifying round. The competition was so fierce that it was enough to keep him out of the semis. However, we did get to see him drive during the exhibition event that was held between the semi-finals and the finals.

On Saturday, Millen had been running with Samuel Hubinette, the driver of the Team Mopar Viper. We were very disappointed that he did not make the semis, as those big cars were really fun to watch together. However, we got an even bigger treat. Alex Pfeiffer, the guy with the flat black Toyota mentioned in yesterday’s post, was up against Hubinette in the Viper. Pfeiffer is crazy. More on this later. Throughout his runs, Pfeiffer challenged Hubinette and got the best of him a couple of times, despite the intimidation advantage Hubinette had with the bigger car. Unfortunately, during one run Pfeiffer went off the track backwards, coming to a stop about three feet from the concrete barrier. It was pretty funny watching the guy who had been standing in front of the barrier hastily scramble back behind it.

After the semi-finals, there was an exhibition event. We were fired up, since Millen and the GTO were a part of this. However, Pfeiffer stole the show by climbing out the window of his AE86 and actually drifting with only one leg in the car! There were also some fantastic burn-outs during exhibition.

After the battle between Hubinette and Pfeiffer in the semis and Pfeiffer’s stunt during the exhibition, the finals were somewhat anticlimactic. Hubinette won by using the large Viper to take up most of the track, leaving Chris Forsberg in the MotoReX 350z no room and forcing him to back off.

notes:

PHOTO 1: Burn-out of the day at Drift Atlanta. April 25,2004.
PHOTO 2: Unidentified car and Alex Pfeiffer at Drift Atlanta. April 25, 2004.
Both photos courtesy of d.2263 Photographics. View more Drift Atlanta photos.