Brandon's Testimony
Part 1
The following is an interview with Zap Batteries Caribbean's Drift Champion of 2017, Brandon De Pree.
I got the opportunity to interview this car-athlete that practices the art of drifting, an art that is being appreciated
by many on the island, by both fanatics and by plain motor enthousiasts. A special thanks to Brandon for allowing this interview
to be posted for the world to share in his passion.
- Zap Batteries Caribbean's finest -
Jordan:
Brandon you have become #1 champion of the year in the Real-to-Real Drift Event 2017.
Now before we talk about this, tell me how it all started...
Brandon:
Well, it all started when my big brother bought his first skyline.
I was 16 years old. It was a black skyline... it was a very beautiful car,
and I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I started to become really jealous of him due
to him having such an awesome car like a couple of months after the movie 'Tokyo Drift'
came out you know...and this at the same time became an inspiration for me. Since I saw my
brother with one of those cars, I was like "man... I want a car sooooo bad". That was the time
in which I was working at Centrum Supermarket as a paper bag boy, so I had to save up to buy this car.
I bought the car during the time when a Tsunami hit Asia-Pacific, when the rates of all the cars
went way down, which was beneficial for me, because due to this I bought the car very cheap.
I never really thought that I would start drifting until I saw the first drift events, you know,
like those that they organize here in Curacao at Koraal Tabak. It was just for fun..., no competition
no nothing. Everyone just went there for fun. And I saw those guys drifting for the first time and I said
to myself "Wooow....this is something that I would love to do!", I mean I love cars, I love adrenaline,
I love all of that bro. That is all me man...and uhm, I just bought my car, and my mom went like
"Brandon don't go do stupid stuff on the streets...blah blah blah", so I started off being very gentle with
the car, no scratches, and I didn't want anyone to lean on the car. But afterwards when I went to practice
my first drift ever, I scratched the car a couple of times. I had Cesar, who was the one who thaught me how
to drift, he told me "yo man...this is part of the ball-game...if you want to be good, you don't have to be
scared to scratch your car or bump into somebody else...because it takes a lot of courage to drift, also
because not everybody can drift. Some people think that it's easy, but you need to know the techniques and
all that. In the beginning it is very hard because, let's say, I started preparing myself for this show coming
up, and Cesar asked me if I wanted to join, and I said "man...I don't know how to drift yet", and he told me to
come on Saturday, because then there wouldn't be anybody. I mean I was a little embarrassed because I didn't
want people to see me do stupid stuff with my car. So that Saturday morning I went to meet Cesar, and he actually
showed me how to drift. He sat in my car and he said "yo man, show me what you know "...Dude!...it was very bad
man, it was embarrassing. But then he started to explain to me how drifting really works and what it is that
you have to do. So I started to get the hang of it, I went alone this one time and I said "wow, this so easy"
you know. At the end of the day that Saturday everything went good. The next day was the event, and you know,
I was like "man I wanna go drifting so bad!!..." and when I got there I was there by myself, and I invited a good
friend of mine telling him that he should come and see me drift because I know now how to drift. But now
the bad part of the story starts. I was overconfident, I trusted myself too much. That day I had my first
accident with the car bro...
Man I broke everything in the front of the car, and afterwards I broke down
crying man. And you cannot imagine how stupid I felt myself to be. I was like "noooo....why did I do that??!!"
This article has been written by
Jordan T. Emanuelson
CEO of jConsultancy
Email: jordan@j-consultancy.com
Website: www.j-consultancy.com
