KNEALE CONQUERS TIMARU

The race to crown a new Drift South champion has heated up following the one away round at the Timaru International Motor Raceway. For 2017, the judges shifted focus to the sweeper, with emphasis on angle out of the entry chute, high-line clipping points, and ‘angle zones’. This differed slightly from previous years in that more attention was put on scored driving skill.

Series leader Dan Currie took P1 ahead of teammate Brogan Mooney. With the championship Dan’s to lose, he pedalled his way to the top four, where a dirt drop cost him a place in the final — putting him in third place after beating Scott Welsh but giving him valuable points to maintain his lead.

After beating Dan in the top four, Ashburton’s Sheldon Kneale faced off against Team KVS’s Neil Walmsley. Neil, who was down on speed, led first, and a smoother drive and larger gap saw him awarded the slightest advantage. However, a line error on his chase run saw the same minor advantage handed to Sheldon, calling for the rerun. They returned to the track with even more thirst than before. With both running offline, Neil dropped dirt early, while Sheldon reciprocated at the sweeper. Another 5-5 run. It was all down to who could hold it together for the final pass. Sheldon laid down a solid run, while the chase saw Neil run slightly shallower through the middle. Judges struggled to find more than 0.5 between them, but it went in Sheldon’s favour — it doesn’t get much closer than that.

That leaves us with only the final round on the calendar. The grand finale will be back at Mike Pero Motorsport Park in Christchurch on May 6.