Qatar’s Mohamed al-Khayyat in action during the Red Bull Car Park Drift Final in Meydan car park in Dubai.
Agencies/Dubai
Clinching 233 points, Mohamed al-Khayyat put on a performance that made Qatar proud in front of an adrenaline-fuelled 4,000 strong crowd on his first participation at the Red Bull Car Park Drift Final.
Al-Khayyat fell only 10 points short to advance into the second round and came 9th in the regional competition that grouped the best 15 drifters from Tunisia, Kuwait, Mauritius, Lebanon, Jordan, Oman, Egypt, Qatar, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
UAE’s Ahmad Daham was crowned ‘King of Drift’ for the second consecutive year after he amassed 358 points in his tuned Nissan Sylvia.
He finished ahead of Oman’s Ali al-Balushi yet again, having beaten him by one point last year. Al-Balushi collected 335 points, while Jordan’s Rafat Haroon took the third spot on the podium with 306 points.
“True, I did not make it to the Top 8 but I do not consider that my participation was a loss. It’s the first time that I took part in such a huge drifting event and I learned how to make it better for next year,” said al-Khayyat.
Another Qatar participant Ahmad Allouh could not participate in the finals after his car caught fire during the qualifiers a day before the event.
Lebanese drifter Fadi El Boustani’s night ended in heartbreak when his car stalled at the start line on his last run in the final four. El Boustani had five minutes to address the mechanical problem, but luck was not on his side and he was disqualified. Having entered the Final as a dark horse, the Lebanese drifter certainly won the crowd’s hearts, with a blistering run that earned him 370 points – the highest score for a single run in this year’s Final.
“To be crowned King of Drift is incredible, and to do it on such an extremely hard technical track is unbelievable,” said Daham after the event, which was held as part of the Dubai Motor Festival at the Meydan car park. “The other guys pushed me all the way to the finish and I really had to be on top of my game. I couldn’t relax for even a second.”
The tough job of separating the competitors went to judges Issa Ben Dalmouk, Robbie Nishida, Nikita Shikov and Dai Yoshihara, who watched closely for the seven key judging criteria.
A maximum of 80 points were allocated to drifting skills during the first and second sections, while the car’s looks and design accounted for up to 60 points, with another 60 points allocated to the driver’s proximity to the pendulum ‘clipping point’. Tire smoke, car sound and performance in the ‘Box’ - a tight enclosure the drifters need to do a ‘donut’ in - each contributed 40 points to the total score.
