ADGP is back again and yesterday marked the launch of the 2013 season at the South Circuit at Sydney Motorsport Park. The first time it’s being used this year! There is a new pit area at Sydney Motorsport Park for the drifters this year.
Andrew Hawkins owner of JET-200 and formerly from Ignition DVDs, now Motive DVD and ADGP got the meeting underway with some information for the 2013 season.
The full ADGP season will be screened on free-to-air TV for the first time. SBS and SpeedWeek will be showing full coverage on each event throughout the year. Daigo Saito and Robbie Nishida will be two international drivers heading over to Australia for the WA round of the ADGP season. The Australia day event is the first time ever that the south circuit will be used as a drifting course.
The new GP South course starts at turn 15 of the old course and has a bit of everything: level changes, long corners and tight corners with a lot of switching from left to right. Formula D driver and Red Bull World Championship NZ round winner Matt Powers flew in from the United States to drive at the Australia Day round. Here he is having one of the many interviews he will have over the weekend. He has a big passion for cars, is a very easy person to talk to and will happily answer all your questions.
The radical JET-200 S14 has had a few small changes since WTAC. Splitter has been modified, new fenders, new spoiler position and just some little things around the car.
Beau “The Show” Yates alongside Matt Powers. Matt got a ride with Beau and so did I, more on that later.
The Three Fingers Neat crew and their S15 and strawberry-face 180SX.
Scott Schembri ran into a small engine issue while taking passenger rides and had to stop driving. Scott said they will take it to the engine tuner that night and work on it for the next two days, to make sure it will be ready for Saturday.
Yates’ AE86 with the new livery for 2013. I think this is the best one he’s ever had. I was lucky enough to get a ride with him in this car and it was an awesome experience. The car gains speed effortlessly and changes direction so easily. Turn 16 is a nice left corner after coming down the hill from turn 15. Beau kicked the car to the left(on the straight) at least forty meters before the corner, then all they way to the outside on the right so he could enter the left corner right on the apex. He made it look so easy changing direction, sliding and keeping up the speed. If you ever get the chance to get in a pro drifters car take it, you will not forget it.
The three cars people were lucky enough to get a ride in that day. We were originally meant to ride with 2012 champion Rob Whyte and his 350Z but Andrew said he ran into some technical issues with the car a few days before.
After talking to Andrew and the drivers, ADGP is back for good and looking forward to a successful 2013 season, so look forward to more coverage of the ADGP on Downshift!