EVENT

Falken Tires joins celebrations at Red Bull Car Park Drift final in Oman

Dec 12, 2016

It was the showdown racing fans had been waiting for. And the final of the Red Bull Car Park Drift 2016 didn’t disappoint. While engines roared masterfully, smoke billowed through Port Sultan, Qaboos in Oman on December 9 as national drift champions from across the Middle East pitched their skills against one another. Falken Tires was right at the heart of the action, which ultimately saw 18-year-old Omani Haitham Al Hadidi crowned 2016’s ‘King of Drift’.

The exciting event brought together representatives from Qatar, Kuwait, Mauritius, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Oman in a demanding and adrenaline-laden finale, which saw Al Hadidi edge out fellow drifter Ali ‘Lalou’ Al Balushi by just four points. Al Hadidi’s winning score was 390, Al Balushi scored 386 and Tarek Al Shaihani took third place with 313 points.

The sold-out event, which was held under the patronage of H.H Sayyid Taimur bin Assad Al-Said and in association with the Oman Automobile Association, not only proved a thrill for watching fans, but also for the high calibre judges. International drifting legends Ken Gushi, Dai Yoshihara, Aleksandr Grinchuk and Khalid Al Manji were given the tough task of judging the competitors on criteria including drifting skills, car look, box, clipping point, pendulum, gate 1 and 2, car smoke and tire smoke.

The tricky track was once again designed by Red Bull athlete and drifting star Abdo Feghali, and saw drivers speeding around it, skilfully negotiating their way under and around obstacles, and completing ever more exacting twists and turns around barrels, cones and cranes.

However, it wasn’t just the official track that witnessed some impressive skills behind the wheel. At our Falken booth, event visitors tested their driving mettle on one of two PS4 gaming consoles playing the Project CARS game. Racing fans who visited our stand also walked away with a host of fabulous Falken goodies, together with discount vouchers offering them up to 40% off on their next purchase of Falken tires.

Falken also hosted a Facebook competition in the build up to the event, with four lucky winners receiving two VIP passes each and a further five winners being given two grandstand tickets each. One particularly lucky winner, however, got to experience the demands of the course first hand during a co-pilot ride experience with Abdo Feghali.

2016’s Red Bull Car Park Drift certainly delivered everything we expected: thrills, skills and a battle of wills among drivers, and Falken was delighted to have shared in the action throughout the series. So while we might be heading home for a pit stop now, we can’t wait for the drifting to start again in 2017.