Our third event for 2015 was held in conjunction with King of Asia at Raleigh Raceway in Coffs Harbour, NSW. DCA was fortunate enough to host staff and drivers from King Of Asia at Round 3. In true Australian fashion we welcomed them with temperatures of 30 degrees C and higher on track, but that did little to dull spirits as the drivers settled in for practice then qualifying on Saturday. Canberra driver Paul Thorne in his S13.4 took out qualifying, surprising himself as much as anybody else winning himself a $500 voucher from Origin Labo Aus, Tasmanian gun Brodie Moore taking 2nd in his freshly built S14 and Luke Broadbent from SA taking third in his V8 powered Nissan Cefiro. Broadbent was over the moon with qualifying third as it was his highest qualifying score in any competition to date but also redemption for failing to qualify on the same track at DCA Rd 1 2014. After qualifying drivers attempted to win a $500 venue voucher for The Plantation Hotel, who hosted the official DCA event party and sponsored the 60 Minutes To Win It. Qld local and relative newcomer to drifting Jake Thornbury took the prize much to the joy of his crew and mates. He drove hard will no doubt be a driver to look out for in the future. Saturday also saw two of DCA’s family members, Jaz & Ash of Still Motion Media get married on track with Thomas Sabo delivering Jaz to the aisle in a huge smokey burnout. #thisishowwedca With Sunday came the Top 32 battles. Drivers pushed hard on the technical track, intitiating early to have maximum angle on the run downhill into tight esses. Paul Thorne had a bye run due to a no-show from a competitor and Mitchell Sanders lived up to his nickname of ‘Giant Killer’ by piloting his 80hp RA61 Celica to victory against Joel Dimmack. Canberra driver Nic Klippan removed international guest, FD Asia driver Bullzai who didn’t appear comfortable with the SR20 Cefiro he was driving. In a battle of the breakages Luke Broadbent killed a tailshaft before the Top32 started so borrowed fellow SA driver Matt Bennetts’ 2JZ powered, WiseFab kitted S13.5. He went up against Daniel Hollands who had borrowed Ryan Flanagan’s RB25 180SX as his own SR20DETT (yes, twin turbo) decided to tell knock-knock jokes in the engine. After 3 re-runs Hollands moved on. Steve Pembrey of Canberra also gave us a glimpse of what he was capable of behind the wheel of his Aurion V6 powered Toyota Sprinter. Stewy Bryant was taken to a re-run by Jake Thornbury before moving forward and Sean Powers broke a pivot ball leaving the dummy grid to line up against Sam Futch. He borrowed Ryan Flanagan’s car and was then defeated by Sam. Jabbit Bonks was courteous enough to wait for Matt Bennetts to get the track after some morning delays, beating him and moving into the Top 16. Top 16 saw Paul Thorne defeat Angus Kidd in his unique FT86 fronted Supra, Jay Duca was knocked out early by eventual 2nd place finisher Blake Paterson, Daniel Hollands was beaten by Blaze Unit’s James ‘Jabbit’ Abbott and the always solid Mitchell Sutton defeating Victorian driver Stuart Clarke. On the other side of the battle tree Nic Klippan continues taking names by defeating Brodie Moore, Steve Pembrey defeated Sam Futch in a battle of the red AE86s, Stewy Bryant defeated Mitchell Sanders and Thomas Sabo defeated Rob Coombe. Top 8 was where things really heated up. Blake Paterson put Paul Thorne’s run to an end with some aggressive driving taking the win, Jabbit defeated fellow NSW driver Mitchell sutton, Steve Pembrey bested Nic Klippan and Stewy Bryant was inch perfect placing his car right on Thomas Sabo’s door and taking the W. This meant the Top 4 was Jabbit v Blake and Steve v Stewy. In some of the fastest and most aggressive driving we’ve seen all season Jabbit and Blake got right up on each other’s doors, with Blake just edging out the win to move into the Finals. Stewy Bryant washed out a little and lost some momentum giving Steve Pembrey a chance to compete in the finals for the top prize of a trip to compete in a round of King of Europe in a V8 nitrous-equipped BMW. Finals: Jabbit and Stewy Bryant went for broke in their battle for third with some intense driving from two very talented steerers. Jabbit would take 3rd place but Stewy would walk away 2nd in the overall championship behind Thomas Sabo. Pembrey v Paterson saw Steve Pembrey’s little red AE86 defeat Blake Paterson’s more powerful 1.5JZ S14. Paterson has to be one of the nicest guys in our field, as soon as the battle was over he congratulated Pembrey before even knowing the result and was genuinely happy to finish second and for Pembrey to have earnt such a great prize.