Mahikeng – Clare Vale took her RAM Mustang drift car to the North West over the weekend for SupaDrift’s first ever event in Mahikeng. Excitement ran high in the town, especially after the drift car parade through the town on Friday morning, and a huge crowd of enthusiastic locals turned out to cheer on the competitors. The event was held in the car park at the Mmabatho Stadium.

Clare qualified in the Top 16 despite experiencing a few technical issues throughout the weekend. Her first tandem run was against Jason Webb, who is in great form at the moment. Although Clare put up a great fight, the judges ruled in favour of Jason, the eventual winner of the Mahikeng event.

Clare Vale on the event:”We had some bad luck in Mahikeng, as the RAM Mustang’s motor broke a rocker at the start of Friday’s practice. With the help of some of our racing friends, a new part was located in Johannesburg and brought through in time for the team to replace it overnight and we were ready to practice on Saturday morning. The car was outstanding in practice and we were confident of a good place in the Top 16.

The Mad Mustang always has a few tricks up her sleeve, though, and sure enough, a plug wire came off right near the end of our first qualifying round. We took our five minutes to replace it, but unbelievably a second plug wire jumped off during the second round! We were lucky to scrape into the Top 16 in the circumstances, but beating Jason at the moment is always a tough call and despite giving it my best shot he won our tandem round. The Mahikeng event was a fantastic experience, with a big crowd of fans enjoying the excitement of drifting, and I’m looking forward to being back there in 2014!