Kings of drift: The fast and furious stunt drivers of Iraq

ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan - Can an underground motorsport reunite a divided country? Despite their differences, hundreds of drifting fans from all over Iraq gathered to attend Erbil Drift in the northern capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, at the end of April.

A deafening series of explosions and smoke tornadoes break the stillness of the desolated outskirts of Erbil on this cloudy spring afternoon. Not far from here war rumbles to the south where the Iraqi government army is fighting Islamic State militants in the villages of Makhmour’s countryside, while Shia militias and Kurdish Peshmergas skirmish over Kirkuk’s oil.

But here in the parking lot of Hayat University for Science and Technology, the sounds of endless detonations are those emanating from drifting BMWs, whose thundering V8 engines certainly muffle the "pop-pop-pops" of any Kalashnikovs around.

Drifting is a high-speed road sport in which drivers use lightweight, rear-wheel-drive cars with manual transmission - preferably Japanese, where the sport first gained popularity - to deliberately lock wheels and lose control of the vehicle. The simplest way to drift is to yank the hand brake at speed while entering a turn, causing loss of traction and the two or four-wheel drift.

During a four-hour session, 30 drivers race one another on a track traced by traffic cones, spinning around and leaving burnt rubber scars on the asphalt as they oversteered at high speed.

Far from being a mad man's hobby, the discipline took off during Japan’s roaring 80s when racers emerged with sharp turning skills learned on Japan's mountain roads. An underground racing category at first, it reached international fame in 2006 through The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the third in a series of films that starred Vin Diesel.

The sport has also long been a popular if dangerous pastime in the Gulf states, with regular drifting events for star drivers to show off their skills, and young men with few alternative forms of entertainment using quiet highways to burn rubber. Official crackdowns on tafheet or hajwalah - as it is known in Saudi Arabia - have failed to dent the sport's popularity.

Erbil Drift may not be as extravagant as its Gulf or Far-East models, but it is nonetheless an unexpected adventure in a conservative society. Three students, Abdulla Barzanji (19), Ahmed al-Mashhadani (21), and Mustafa al-Ani (30) succeeded in making a national drifting event happen for the first time in Erbil. Sponsored by Formula1, a German energy drink, their opportunity came when their own university allowed the competition to happen on campus.

“There is nothing much to do in Erbil. We should let the young people push their energy out!” explains Ammar Ibrahim, an administrative officer of Hayat University.

Before the race, while a few men looked for a peaceful place to pray on their prayer rugs at the back of the parking lot, others stood around while drivers and mechanics were taking care of last-minute technical fixes. “V8 4.4 are the best,” says 31-year old Youness Rashad, also known as Waleed "Sniper". He explains: "First, its parts are available. Second, it can stand the pressure. Third, it is a strong engine."

Claiming to have been the first mechanic from Kirkuk to have upgraded a car from V4 to V8, "Sniper" is also the father of two charming little daughters. For the birth of his youngest daughter, he bought a black BMW e30 328i. The 1987 model is not a drifting car, but it is a dream car for the family man who is a member of the Challenge Team racing group. Though he was not racing, he was there to support and assist the team's three drivers.

Shaheen Ahmad, a 26-year-old Kurdish mechanic from Kirkuk, is the lead driver of Challenge Team. Having won another national competition in February, his ambitions are for his homeland, rather than for himself. “Its a new sport in Iraq. We have the same abilities as drifters from Europe or from the Gulf. We want to elevate the name of our country.”

When the drift starts, the Kurdistan regional flag is waving in the air, not surprising in the capital of the Kurdish Regional Government, where hopes of future independence run high.

Lined around the improvised drifting track, spectators are just a few metres away from the spinning super-cars, with only a few staff members in between students from al-Hayat University and the potentially dangerous racing field. Ahmad believes that security needs more attention and has himself invested his own resources in securing some protection from harm by buying an $1800 fire safety pumping system that sits in the trunk of his car. "We don’t need higher speed. We need safety.” 

A sport that attracts not only off-road enthusiasts, women, students, and children came to watch their friends and family members.

Mustafa Sarmad, 21, a Turkmen civil engineering student originally from Kirkuk, was introduced to drifting in 2008 by his uncle, himself an engineer, now living in Sweden. Sarmad formed the Royal Club, a street-racing team with 40 Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen members. “We do street racing, mostly on the 120 meters street. This is the first event of its kind I am attending.” His 2014 Ford Mustang is indeed not made for drifting competitions, but he came nonetheless to enjoy the show with a friend from the back of his convertible.

As Ahmad drives behind the wheel of his BMW e36, adorned with the colours of the Challenge Team, all the spectators step forward to cheer. Security is overwhelmed by the flood of spectators and cold sweat flows down the foreheads of the organisers who are responsible if any accidents occur.

The chaos is intensified by the waves of heavy metal music coming from the stage where the group Dark Phantom is playing the new song from their first album, Nation of Dogs, released at the beginning of May. Established in 2008 by four musicians from Kirkuk, the band's diverse members include two Kurds, one Turkmen and one Arab.

After every driver has taken his turn, confusion comes to a halt and the public draws closer together to form a circle around both competitors’ and amateurs’ cars as they waltz together in pure freestyle drifting, through a vast and opaque cloud of dust. 

The applause was unequivocally for Ahmad, but nobody officially climbed the podium. Deliberations from the judges were only provided the next day, with drivers Ali "Camaro" al-Mashadani coming in third, Waleed "Sniper" from Erbil coming in second, and Shaheen Ahmad from Kirkuk unexpectedly winning first prize - a shared victory for Iraq.

The setting sun is reflected on the smiling face of 26-year-old Ali Camaro while he and a couple of friends push his car toward the exit of the parking lot, as its shredded left tyre flops forward. But the damage to his car does not seem to have dented his high spirits. Heading back to Baghdad where he runs a small taxi business, he says: “All my life is drifting. My uncles were already drifting in Saddam’s time.” He hopes to continue on with that drifting legacy. 

This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition.