The Title is Finally Ours

Words by Team CTS Drift

After a weekend of highs and lows Leighton Fine and Team CTS/TOYO have been crowned the 2008 Drift Australia Champions. The drift Australia circus rolled into Sydney once again for the final round of the 2008 series. Oran Park was the battle ground where Leighton Fine and Luke Fink would fight for the final honours for the season.

The weekend started off with a Bang, literally, when Leighton Ploughed the CTS/TOYO car into the wall in the fast downhill section of the Oran Park south circuit. There was significant damage to the car and Leighton was also quite sore after the crash. It was a serious blow to the team’s championship aspirations; however the crew was quickly to work getting the car back on track. The damage report showed a smashed oil cooler, broken castor arm, plenty of panel damage, a bent chassis rail, two bent rims and a bit of bruised pride. Replacement parts were soon found with special thanks to Fernando Wheirl from Saber, Ben Ellis from Ottomoto, and Andrew Hawkins from Ignition DVD. A special mention must also be made to the Oran Park ground staff, and the boys from Mercury Motorsport, who helped out with their panel beating skills and bent the car back into shape using limited tools the main ones were a block and tackle and the grounds keepers Tractor. Repairs went well into the night but once the team was satisfied with the car we headed home to re-group.

After a quick wheel alignment first thing Saturday morning the practice was the first chance to get back into the action, and Leighton and the team slowly worked their way back into some good form. Preliminary qualifying in the afternoon ended with a third placing, which was a fantastic result, especially as the team only managed to get one qualifying pass in the bag. Generally the mood was light, and we looked forward to the next day’s action.

Sunday qualifying saw the team improve on Saturdays score, but the field was red hot and the team was pushed back to a 6th place qualifying run. Luckily for Team CTS/TOYO the news got better from there when their top 32 competitor pulled out of the running with a broken gearbox, leaving Leighton to move into the top 16 to battle his boss from last year, Darren Appleton.

Leighton said ‘To be honest I was a bit nervous going into the battle. Darren’s a great campaigner, and had been driving well all weekend. I couldn’t help but think back to our mechanical failure against him at Mallala, and was keen to make up for that loss’. The battle turned out to be a good one, with Leighton taking a narrow win. Credit from this battle can be given in many ways to the Toyo R1R’s the team has been lucky enough to run this year. The car speed difference is just too much for a lot of our competitors.

Top 8 battle was against Lean Mean Eugene, who is a hard man to beat at the best of times. Looking back to the past again it was Eugene that put an end to Leighton’s 2006 campaign at the final round, so naturally Leg was out for revenge. It ended up being a battle of consistency, with Eugene making tiny mistakes on both of his runs, giving the battle to Leighton and the CTS/TOYO team. The day was progressing just as planned, and the showdown for the 2008 series was set, as the team got set to face off against Luke Fink in the Top 4 battle.

Entering this battle the whole team was tense, if we lost this battle we knew there was a big chance we would lose the championship too. In true Luke Fink style he went out hard and fast and Leighton had to push to keep on his tail and in the downhill section Luke opened up a bit of a gap which was in the end to be his undoing. Carrying too much speed into the final left hander Luke Slid off the track and into the tyre barrier handing Leighton and Team CTS/TOYO the win and the Championship title.

The team was over the moon but the job wasn’t over yet with the final battle against Beau Yates still to come. Beau and his sprinter were just made for Oran Park and this battle was always going to be a hard one. The first pair of battles saw both drivers go out really hard and in the end both guys had done enough to send it to a re-run. Once again both guys went out hard but Beau showed his skill and knowledge of Oran Park and from the view from the pits he seemed to better Leighton on both runs. The team had conceded defeat and was ready to head down to the trophy presentation when it was announced that the Judges had decided there was enough in it to call a re-run.

With Leighton communicating over the radio that the cars oil temp was extremely high the team went into a mad rush to change tyres, set new pressures and get some water onto the oil cooler. When the car finally backed out to head back on to the track there was a round of applause from what had now become a crowded pit from a large amount of spectators swarming in to watch the team at work. Bill Bromley commented “It was just a buzz to see the encouragement we got, I didn’t even realise that there was anyone there. Once the car came in all my attention was focused on the job at hand, it was a great feeling and a moment I will never forget.”

With the final battle being one of the closest and fastest of the weekend the judges finally called an outright winner and called them into pit lane for the trophy presentation. Beau’s face when he was announced the victor was absolutely priceless. We (Team CTS/TOYO) couldn’t have been happier for him; it was a hard fought set of battles and a well deserved win.

The team would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has supported us this season because without the help and support this Championship victory wouldn’t be possible and they are as follows. First and most importantly our fantastic Sponsors because without them our team would simply not exist or operate and we are proud to have represented you all, Drift Australia for all the effort and time that goes into a professional series such as this and allows us to compete against the best Australia has to offer, The track staff, officials and Volunteers, Michael Coppola the legendary photo man and The friends and family of the team that put up with the enormous amount of hours spent on the car and help out with the little things on track days, like cooking the bbq and forcing us to stop take a break and eat.

Bill Bromley also would like to take this opportunity to personally Thank the team Mark Tilbrook, Leighton Fine, Luke Bing and Simon Podlewski (Great Job Guys). Also our fabulous sponsors: Toyo Tires Australia, Rhemac High Performance Engines, MTQ Engine Systems Australia, Sonic Performance, Cross Keys Paint and Panel, Craig’s Nizencool Fabrications, Viva Garage, Japanese Import Spares, Clutch Industries, Michael Coppola MC Photographics and Castrol Edge. Again Thanks to you all and best wishes.

Bring on the 2009 season when we are back bigger and better.