Dejavu at Eastern Creek

Round 4 of the Toyo Drift Australia series would prove to be very exciting for Team JDS and Khudar Elhaouli.

After a consistent last few rounds Team JDS were looking for something special at Eastern Creek.  This was a track that suited both the driver and the car setup.   Khudar had an excellent result last season at Eastern Creek in 2007 finishing 4th against Beau Yates and nearly finishing the car off with a couple of big hits into the tyre wall.

Qualifying proved a little disappointing on the Saturday with a preliminary result of 10th and things did not improve greatly with a result of 12th.  But this did not bother Khudar greatly stating that he was saving the excitement for the battles to come.

During the Sunday with Tyres rapidly disappearing due to the power of the 6.0 litre V8 the decision was made to swap to the Federal 595RS’s.   The change of tyres had a dramatic improvement to the cars handling.  The extra grip was amazing and improved greatly Khudar’s ability to get the power of the V8 Powered Silvia to the ground.

The top 32 battle for the round had Khudar up against Catherine Coleiro.  Unfortunately due problems on the Saturday Colerio had to compete in a borrowed car.  Khudar pushed through the two battles easily with an exciting almost overtake while chasing Coleiro into the first corner.

 

Top 16 had Khudar paired against Trent Whyte.  Both cars were on Federal tyres.  Both cars were pushing big power to the ground.  The hardest thing in these battles would be the chase car trying to see through all the smoke.  Both drivers proved very even and a re-run was called by the judges.  The first battle had the drivers still even with a judges scoring of 5-5.  Khudar new he had to push it in the second battle.  Both cars were now running their tyres to the canvas.  Khudar managed to squeeze through with an advantage and drive straight into the top 8. 

Top 8 and now Khudar was against Linden Reynolds from team wheelworks.  Khudar blasted through these two battles and on to his toughest match yet.  Top 4 had Khudar up against Leighton Fine.  With no more tyres left, Team JDS were back on used tyres from previous battles.  The Federal RS’s still held up well and the judges could not separate the two drivers and again a re-run was called.  But with no ability to change before the re-run it left Fine with the upper hand and the ability to pull away from Khudar who was now racing on canvas. 

Although narrowly defeated it still had Khudar in a case of dejavu, lining up for the finals against Beau Yates battling for the top 3 position for the weekend.  This was to be a repeat of last years final battles.  The only disadvantage for Khudar would again be the need to use already worn tyres.  Khudar started the battles as the lead car and gave it everything he had throwing the car at a dramatic speed into the first corner.  With worn tyres he could not hold the entry and span in front of Yates.  Entering the final battle with a disadvantage Khudar still gave Yates a good run finishing the weekend 4th and sliding into 5th overall in the series.

Team JDS and Khudar were very happy with the result and are looking forward to pushing harder at the final round of the Toyo Drift Australia series at Oran Park. 

“It was great to have the chance to use a competitive tyre” said Khudar.  Team JDS is looking forward to running the Federal RS’s again at Oran Park and it will be exciting to see what we can really do on these tyres.

Thanks to CSV for the great new exhaust setup that was definitely heard by the whole of Eastern Creek if not most of Sydney.

Khudar and Team JDS would like to thank their sponsorship partners;

CSV – Corsa Special Vehicles – www.csvaustralia.com
 Rajab Racing Developments – www.rajabracing.com
JDS Auto Imports – www.jds-auto-imports.com
Textralia Clutches – www.textralia.com.au
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