Team CTS Crowned G1 Champions

In a fantastic day of action at Mallala Motorsports Park Team CTS Drift narrowly secured the state drift championship in a nail biting finale to the South Australian G1 season.

Simon “The Pitbull” Podlewski and Team CTS Drift started the day with a narrow points lead in the standings knowing that a win would surely secure his first full assault on the G1 Championship.

After the first practice session it was apparent that the top three in the championship would be the ones to watch with all three showing great form. Team CTS and The Pitbull qualified on pole which would ultimately become the difference by events end.

The top16 battle would see Team CTS Drift face off against Ben Schumacher in his KE70 Carolla. A complete mismatch in machinery would mean the battle could go either way. Simon lead out with 200 more kilowatts and strung together a fantastic lead lap making it a little easier for the chase.

The follow lap was a delicate affair with Simon putting on an awesome display of skill following the much slower KE70. Heading into turn 1 and 2 The Pitbull applied massive pressure forcing a slight error from Schumacher which would lead to a Team CTS win, and one step closer to the overall prize. It was a valiant effort from the Carolla pilot of which he would have learned plenty.

Top 8 battle would see Team CTS take on AJ’s Cefiro. In an eventful tussle “The Pitbull” lead out on the opening exchange. Getting off to a good start things took a turn for the worse when The CTS Drift 180SX exited the essess onto the main straight, the car understeered into the tyre barriers on the exit of the corner. Podlewski kept his foot into it and finished the run with no major mechanical problems but a hell of a lot of panel damage. The chase lap would see the Pittbull do everything possible to overcome the lead run mistake matching the AJ’s Cefiro turn for turn, the judges decided he had done enough and confirmed a re-run.

Once again the pair went into battle with Team CTS leading the way. Heading into the first turn and the CTS 180 had made a clean break for it with the AJ’s Cefiro trying his best to keep up, unfortunately contact was initiated from behind which spun “The Pitbull” on the spot. The contact was enough to damage the right hand rear rim which had taken the impact. The contact had damaged the Cefiro enough to force an early exit and hand the win to Team CTS.

Top 4 would be a championship decider with Team CTS facing off against second placed championship contender James Mardle. Team CTS lead out once again, Mardle followed close behind in a thrilling encounter. Leading into turn 1 and Podlweski made a minor error which resulted in a slight straightening heading into turn 2. Mardle pounced at the chance to close the gap, by the time the pair crossed the control line it was evident The Pitbull had to go all out on the chase. Chasing down Mardle was no easy task but through the esses the Team CTS 180 maintained great proximity to put the pressure on. Turn 2 was the turning point for the battle when Simon found a false neutral in the Hollinger sequential and handed victory to Mardle.

After the defeat in the previous battle Team CTS were left with the precarious position of having to fight for outright third while trying to win a championship with a minimal points lead. Many various outcomes were possible but this was for the big one.

Adam May in the Lewis Engines R33 lead out in the night encounter, the pair were neck and neck through the first section, entering into turn one Podlewski executed a fantastic emulated entry but couldn’t gather it up on the exit which resulted in a straighten, turn 2 and the Team CTS 180 gathered up the Lewis Engines R33 to go across the control line a point or two behind.

The next run was much the same as the first with both drivers trading blows across the entire course, May made a few errors in the esses but pulled it back exiting turn 2 to secure the victory against Team CTS Drift.

At the same time Mardle was up against an on fire Jake Jones, Mardle struggled for grip and eventually handed the win to Jones in a thrilling finale to the season. Mardles overall second place for the day would hand Team CTS Drift and Simon “The Pitbull” Podlewski the championship by the narrow margin of 9 points, Qualifying on pole ended up being the difference.

Simon Podlewski “It was a tough day, the car was great in the morning but once the heat started to dissipate out of the track we were struggling for grip, no excuses I drove the best I could. All the guys we battled today did a fantastic job Ben Schumacher in the KE70 Carolla was absolutely awesome, he drove the wheels of that thing and did a great job taking it to me. I have to thank Bill Bromley for giving me the chance to drive his car, everyone knows how good this thing is, but getting the opportunity to drive it is a dream come true and I also have to thank the crew for all their great work this year which has put us in the position to win the title, big thanks to everyone else that has helped out, there are way too many to list but you know who you are. It’s a massive team effort and like any organisation when it all clicks it pays off in the end, Team CTS Drift just seems to be able to do it better than others.”

Team Principle Bill Bromley “What a fantastic result for the team, sponsors and supporters. Simon has improved a hell of a lot since the start of the year and I’m really happy he will be staying on next season. Once again I have to give a big thanks to all the sponsors, Toyo Tires, Rhemac, Castrol, Nizencool, Cross Keys Paint and Panel, and Red Devil Energy. They all helped an enormous amount through the year, we really appreciate their continued support. I also have to thank the crew, Davin, Adam and Ken from Toyo for their great work today and during the whole season, they gave their all and I really appreciate that tremendously. One last thank you goes out to our media guru Wazza, fantastic work on all our videos, website and team updates."

From here we will take stock of where we are at over the coming weeks and see where we go from there, but rest assured we will be back better than ever in 2010.” Keep checking back over the coming weeks to see what the team gets up to over the off season. There will be plenty of info about the usual post season re-build of the car and plenty of other announcements to come.