Rain couldn't stop Supadrift demons

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Wade van Zummeren gets it seriously sideways.

The first round of the 2013 Supadrift series at the Rock Raceway at the weekend ended without a result due to the unpredictable Gauteng summer weather - but the real winners were the fans, who were rewarded for sticking it out with a superb display of sideways action.

Much as in tennis, only 32 drifters can be accommodated in the standard competition format - but there were 47 entries, so qualifying would be just that: the lowest-scoring 12 drivers would have to sit out the evening.

Then it got really interesting, as the competitors got to grips (all too often literally!) with Rock Raceway's notoriously near-set walls. Make a mistake anywhere else and the only casualty is likely to be an orange plastic cone; make a mistake here and you'll wreck the back end of your car.

But the best of the drifters were getting a huge reaction from the crowd with higher speeds, better lines and bigger drift angles than they'd seen before at this circuit.

PRACTICE BECAME A LOTTERY

Until the rain came down, turning practice into a lottery as the cars slid into the walls all over the circuit, except for the lucky few who were able to get through the slippery surface to the tar below and finish a lap - to the delight of the crowd.

Otto Graven slides it perilously close to the wall.

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Qualifying started at 4pm and, since it was literally a case of 'go big or go home', produced some electrifying runs until, with only five qualifiers still to run, the heavens opened again.

That put an end to the qualifying runs because the track surface had changed, putting the remaining drivers at a severe disadvantage. And since five of the top qualifiers had yet to score, there was no equitable way to decide the final 32.

Sadly, after much debate and paging through the rule book by both organisers and judges, the competition had to be cancelled.

But nobody wanted to go home.

So the drivers agreed to put on a demonstration session, which meant they could team up with - or challenge! - anybody they wanted to, and the fans got exactly what they came to see: door-to-door action amid impressive clouds of tyre smoke - even if there was no prize money or championship points at stake.

Promoter Mikey Skelton said afterwards: "We certainly were disappointed that we couldn't give the crowd and, especially, the drivers a result, but this real-world scenario gives us an opportunity to revisit the rulebook and amend any regulation relating to problems caused by weather.

"Hopefully we'll be ready for any eventuality at Round 2 in Kimberley."