March 19th and 20th marks the return of Achilles Radial Formula Drift Malaysia. While it may seem that the Malaysian round of last year's race was only held in November, this year Malaysia has been given the honour to host the first round of the series. After 2 years of drifting in the heart of Kuala Lumpur at Dataran Merdeka, the Formula Drift circus moved to Speed City KL, a place dedicated to hosting motorsport events. SCKL, as it is known to petrol heads, opened its doors to the public nearly 2 years ago. Located at the car park of the Selangor Turf Club in Seri Kembangan, the place was given a thorough revamp just for this event. This year's race saw the return of Malaysia's very own Drift King, Tengku Djan Ley to the high-profile drift series after taking a year's hiatus to compete in the Thailand All-Star Drift Series. "The Prince of Drift", as he is affectionately knowned to his legion of fans, marked his comeback with a new car and sponsor in the form of M7 Japan. The 2009 and 2010 champion certainly lived up to his much-hyped return, earning the top spot in qualifying and pretty much obliterated the competition, only to be stopped by reigning champion Daigo Saito of Japan.
Although the number of competitors are smaller than last year (only 28 driver were in this race), there were no shortage of drama and excitement dished out by them. Many drivers also came with new and drool-worthy machines, including Daigo Saito's wild Achilles Radial-sponsored 1200 bhp Lexus IS250 C and a Chevrolet LS1-powered Nissan Silvia S15 driven by Singaporean Jansen Tan. Rain on race day also provided spectators with awe-inspiring races as drivers have to pull out all stops to drive as best as they could on a wet track. At the end of the day, Daigo Saito won the competition in a thrilling finale against fellow countryman Manabu Orido, which is very much like last year's final (also the same drivers against each other). Tengku Djan took 3rd to step on the last spot of the podium.
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