Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal - The drama kicked into high gear in Saturday's second round of the 2014 SupaDrift series at the Dezzi Raceway, with no fewer than 34 hopefuls pushing their tyre-shredding skills to the limit in the battle to qualify for the Top 16.
Then South Coast favourite, Shane Gutzeit - who'd earned a top-four spot in the previous round - crashed out in practice, leaving one semi-final berth up for grabs.
Series sponsor George Mienie explained: “The entry to the long first corner is blind - and you need to go in at more than 100km/h to carry through the whole corner. Get it wrong and you’re in the wall.”
ONE MORE TIME
In one of three 'One More Times' for the day, Jim McFarlane protested his quarter-final opponent, Jonathan Rudman, for slow tactics during his initiation. Their repeat clash was hailed as the best battle of the day, but it didn't do McFarlane any good as Rudman beat him again to advance to the semi-finals.
Not even the dying light could tame him as he took first place for the day, after a broken tie rod-end on the last corner forced February winner Wade van Zummeran to retire after his quarter-final run against KwaZulu-Natal drifter Paulo Gouveia.
The next SupaDrift meeting slides around on 12 April at GrandWest in Cape Town.