Words by: Richard Taylor and Jader Lopez

On Saturday April 25th 2009 Warrick Custom Hobbies, HPI, Hot Bodies, and RCDriftCentral.com presented the RC drifters of South Florida the I Hit it Sideways '09 Round 2 at Warrick Hobbies in Plantation, Florida. Like round one there were two classes, advanced and pro, followed by a points series that included only the top sixteen drivers of the day. It was a sunny, beautiful, and quite windy day that saw a number of surprises and some of the best drifting we have seen in Florida at a competition to date.

We began with track setup and some open track time for the drivers to familiarize themselves with the course in general. It was a good turn out of twenty one drivers, four more than round one. Following registration, the clipping points were marked with chalk and a drivers meeting was held. Felix Law explained the scoring to the drivers and added a bit of his humorous personality to the presentation.

After the driver meeting, drivers had fifteen minutes of open track time to adjust to the clipping points and find their lines. The point were in such a place that if you didn't hit one correctly you will not hit the next one correctly. This would prove to be certain in the days outcome. Then began the qualifying rounds and some of the days surprises. Relative newcomer Richard Taylor who finished middle of the road in advanced class in round one, and first time competitors Nico Restrepo and Hasan Ingraham qualified for the pro class along with the expected Patrick Salazar, Jader Lopez, Mini, Felix Law, and Clemént Travert. There was a 3 way tie for top qualifier throughout the qualifying until it was time for Felix and Jader to qualify. These two drivers tied up for top qualifier with a score of 34 out of 40. That's how high competition level was. Felix and Jader had to requalified and came in tied again. They would have to requalify again because we needed a top driver to give the extra point series point to and Felix would come out on top.

The rest of the drivers filled out the advanced class including a numerous newcomers that only had 2 months tops drifting making the advance class enjoyable with a couple of nice battles. In the end Ben Hernandez Jr. would take the top spot in advanced. Followed by Glen the round one advance winner. Third would come to Nick (SavageDrifter).

Pro class was full of surprises this day with the top qualifier Felix and round one third place pro and 2nd place points series driver Patrick both eliminated in the first round. Patrick was taken out by Mini and Felix fell to the Frenchman Clemént. Jader beat Nico and Richard beat Hassan to become the final four in the semifinals.

In the semi's Mini and Clemént battled in a series of 2 tandem battles to see Mini come out victorious, advancing to the finals. Jader and Richard squared off in a series of 4 tandem battles leaving Jader victorious and in the finals against his friend  and teammate Mini. Richard and Clemént battled for 3rd place but the pressure got to Richard as he fell to Clement. Jader and Mini who have countless hours of  practice together put on a great show for the final. In the first lap Jader led and was able to get far enough from Mini so that Mini would not be awarded the extra advantage point and the lap was judged as a 5-5. The next lap Mini led and Jader was able to follow his line while staying close to him throughout the first half of the track. Coming into the third clipping point Jader came in too tight on Mini and found himself locked out and lost his line, because of this he would also hit a barrier on the fourth clipping point taking away his advantage point and taking away one more point for a mistake. This would make Mini the winner as he won the lap with a 6-4 score. Mini came out the winner in his first pro class win, Jader in second, Clemént in third and Richard in fourth.

The point's series followed pro class and included all eight pro class and the top eight advanced class drivers. There were again a few surprises that would not have been expected before registration. Jader was knocked out in a middle round by the advanced class winner Ben Jr and Mini was beat by Richard in the semi finals, putting Richard in his first final ever against Felix who redeemed his early pro class knock out by making the points series final. Again nerves got the best of Richard as he was unable to drive the proper line nor stay close to Felix. Felix would come in first, Richard second, Mini third and Ben Jr. fourth.

All said it was a great event and we the South Florida drifters would like to thank HPI, Hot Bodies, RC Drift Central and the judges for making this great event possible.

The days standings were:

Pro Class:
1st: Mini
2nd: Jader Lopez
3rd: Clemént Travert

Advanced Class:
1st: Ben Jr.
2nd: Glen
3rd: Nick (SavageDrifter)

Point's Series:
1st: Felix Law
2nd: Richard Taylor
3rd: Mini
4th: Ben Jr.

Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.
Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.
Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.
Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.
Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.
Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.
Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.
Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.
Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.
Use your arrow keys to move through the images.	Use your arrow keys to move through the images.