Full speed drift at Aseana City: Round 4 of Hyundai Lateral Drift Championship

The recently held 4th Round of the Hyundai Lateral Drift Championship Series kept the spectators on the edge of their seats as the drivers leveled up their drifitng skills in its new venue, Aseana City along President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard, Paranaque.

In the history of Lateral Drift Series since 2006, this is the fastest entry speed reaching 120kph that has ever done in Manila. Imagine if you drive full on your 1^st and 2^nd gear and a dip to 3^rd gear and drift!!! This sideways high speed action is normally only achieved in Clark International Speedway, but now it can be done in an 8-lane stretch of 400 meters of Aseana City.

This round was full of action as the Amateur class started the show early. Mark Bernardo of Team ConceptOne, a new comer to the sport this year, took the first place finish after being a consistent finisher during the first Rounds 1 and 2, ranking 3^rd place. Followed by a competitor who missed all 3 rounds this year Kar Montaner of Team Turbo Café, but still surprised the spectartors winning  2^nd place and in 3^rd place is Dan Javier who is starting to smoke tires again this season.

The big boys of Philippines Drift are ready to step up in speed as the “Wonder boy” as they used to call him when drifting started here in the Philippines. Now called the “Rocket Bunny” Gio Rodriguez, the Pilipinas Got Talent 4 Finalist of Team Atoy Customs and this year’s Championship leader put everyone on the edge of the seat as he battled with 2011 LD Champion Audel Sison in a very close call battle.

Rodriguez edges Sison and takes his third 1^st place finish of the season and gained a big advantage to this year overall championship. Sison takes 2^nd and teammates, Ralph Tan and Pilipinas Got talent partner of Rodriguez takes 3^rd place. During the qualifying Rodriguez and Tan battled it out for the final 2. I asked both how they feel about that as this when the first time they duke it out in competition. Tan said it felt awkward that he wished that he would just like to battle some else rather than his teammate. Rodriguez wishes the same and felt bad that he had to edge his teammate to get to the finals.

The 2013 Hyundai Lateral Drift Championship is powered by the Genesis Coupe and co-presented by Standard Insurance and Wave 89.1 FM. Round 5 will be on November 16 again at the Aseana City. Admission is free so catch more exciting drift action this Round 5 of Hyundai Lateral Drift Championship. For more details and updates, log on to www.facebook.com/LateralDriftProductions or www.facebook.com/HyundaiPh, and follow Hyundai Lateral Drift on twitter @LateralDriftPH.