As promised, I headed to Winton yesterday to watch the first VicDrift practice day for the year. I apologise for the poor quality of the photos, but I’m poor and can’t afford a $1,000 camera. So my busted 6.1 mp Kodak point and shoot camera will have to do.

It was a good day, probably headlined by the appearance of Nigel’s new car..

..and the driving of Leigh Pidwell, who was about 10 times faster than anyone else on the track. He was drifting on semi slick tyres! Unfortunately I got a shot of his only spin for the day.

To be honest, the level of driving was probably below what we’ve come to expect. The day was heavy on privateers, but the few top level guys who came (mainly Insane Drifters) were great to watch.

One car that was very impressive, particularly towards the end of the day, was the Hypergear 180. With a CA18 reported to be putting out somewhere around 300kw, it was obviously very quick. Later in the day the driver was pulling off some nice entries into the corner at the end of the straight, such as this one:

I was a fan of this 180. Nice and clean with VIP style wheels and nice fitment. What more could you ask?

This white R32 was impressive as well. Trust TD06 I believe. Epic ride height + old style VIP rims = win.

Biggest achievement of the day, though, goes to Nathan. He did an all nighter doing an RB20 conversion on the car, an engine he borrowed from his brother for the day, and only got the car running at the track at about 9am! He managed to get a few really good laps in before the clutch decided it didn’t like drift.

Note my sexy AVS rims on the back…