The sport of drifting has gone global, and sure enough, the Philippines have caught its momentum. For the past nine years now, drifting has become one the country’s most sought after motorsports, and at the forefront of its local invasion is the Lateral Drift Productions (LD). Being the only motorsport organization in the country which specializes in professional drifting, it has won many Filipino motorsports enthusiasts’ passion, especially the youth.
The sport of drifting has gone global, and sure enough, the Philippines have caught its momentum.
As this great year 2014 nears its closure, drifting in the Philippines has gone totally wicked awesome, as the 2014 Hyundai Lateral Drift Championship Series ends in style, last November 15 at the Clark International Speedway in Pampanga. For those who’ve been following the sport since Round 1, your gut-feels were absolutely right, as Karl Montaner of team Drive Hard Crew took the Amateur division title with an overall lead of 48 points, accumulated from the previous rounds. In spite of his failure to finish atop the podium, his lead in the standings proved to be his ace, and it was further stamped by his closest rival Peter Schroth’s mechanical failure.
Round 6 Amateur division finishers were John Lazaga (1st place), Alex Nunez (2nd place), and Adrian Jonsay (3rd place and 3rd overall Amateur division champion).
Moving up to the Pro-Am division, Team AtoyCustom’s Gio Rodriguez wrote another chapter in the local motorsports history book as the overall Pro-Am champion, followed by John Boban of Team Nankang Driftmob in 2nd overall, and Team Autocraft’s Audel Sison bagging 3rd overall. Even though Rodriguez only finished 3rd and Boban even failing to make a podium finish at all in the series’ final round, the points they managed to get were enough to slot them the 2014 titles.
Round 6 Pro-Am division’s top-2 finishers were Audel Sison (1st place) and Ralph Tan of Team AtoyCustom (2nd place).
Next year will mark Lateral Drift Championship’s 10 years of going sideways in style
Last November 29 saw the 2014 Hyundai Lateral Drift Championship Series Awards Night, and all were on an all-time celebratory high, as Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (HARI) President and CEO Fe Perez-Agudo and Lateral Drift Productions President Charlie Cruz handed the awards to the series’ champions in the Amateur and Pro-Am division. That night also recognized the series’ 2014 Rookie of the Year, Peter Schroth. In closing, Ms. Agudo stated that next year’s season will be bigger than the previous two years since HARI went full-on in supporting the fastest-rising motorsport in the country.
Next year will mark Lateral Drift Championship’s 10 years of going sideways in style, and as early as this season’s finale, things are already brewing up for what could be the country’s best drifting experience yet.
