17 Mar 2018 Plumes of blue smoke as drifters perform - Circuit Hero Drift

In the morning of 17 March, the atmosphere of the 2018 Pan Delta Super Racing Festival is warming up with the cheerleading teams' dancing. The next race is the qualifying race of Circuit Hero-Drift and a highlight of the morning programme. Renowned Japanese driver Orido Manbu is here. His place in the drifting world is well documented. For this event he will be driving a BMW 1M race car. There are 3 other participants, they are all from Hong Kong and are led by James Tang in his familiar Toyota 86. Li Xiao-Lan is still driving his Toyota Altezza and Hu Hao-Lin is taking them on in his Toyota Supra.

Qualifying officially begins, in this session each car will get to go for a round individually. Their times will be recorded and penalities will be added if they have any infringements. The drivers must be mentally strong to cope with the pressure of performing in front of thousands of cheering fans. James Tang spilled out lots of smoke and got the fans wildly cheering. Li Xiao-Lan had a very smooth run but unfortunately he hit a cone on his return and received a penalty. Hu Hao-Lin tried his best to go quick and performed many drift moves, he clearly came prepared. Sadly for the fans Orido Manabu had a problem with his BMW 1M. Hopefully his machine can be repaired in time for the race tomorrow.

After qualifying, Mr. Orido told us he has enjoyed the atmosphere here ever since he first came to perform ten years ago. Zhuhai is still the same. This June he will try to return to perform in front of everybody. His race car had a turbo valve problem and had no power. Now the mechanics are busy repairing it. The car should be ready for tomorrow. James Tang drove around with ease. He changed into his normal clothing and talked about his plans. With the Spring Race under their belt there will definitely be more international entries for the Summer Race in June. There will be more new things in the race, too.

In the end, James Tang finished first in today's qualifying, Orido Manabu took second place with Hu Hao-Lin in third place. The race will begin at 1:30pm tomorrow afternoon. A great battle is on the cards.