Driver:
Catherine Coleiro ‘DRIFTCAT’
Started drifting:
June 2003
Date of birth:
16th August 1979
Hometown:
Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
Hobbies:
Motocross and Snowboarding.
Things done, would like to do more of:
Skydiving, Bungy Jumping and Jet Skiing.
On the track, Catherine is known as Driftcat. She is a bubbly, happy go lucky friendly person, who is all about the life. Instead of signing an autograph, she draws a cat symbol to make people smile.
Driftcat is no stranger to Motorsport. It all started in 1992 when her mother took her to the local go-kart track; she saw a sign on the wall ‘Fastest Female Lap Time’ and wanted to beat that time. She achieved the 2nd fastest female on the track and finished top 3 in a couple friendly go-kart races but then became interested in another sport… Motocross. Her mother bought a family friend a dirt bike that wouldn’t let Catherine ride it. He only let her be passenger. Catherine begged her mum for a dirt bike and got one for Christmas.
In 1993, her father joined the Rosebud and District Motocross Club and they went almost every weekend. Other members at the track began to notice Catherine’s talent and suggested she enter the club races… so she did.
1994-1998 Catherine did very well in the 80cc juniors C-Class of motocross bringing home several trophies. She placed 1st in nine competitions, 2nd and 3rd in four competitions. Once she turned 16 years of age she had to get a 125cc motorbike and enter senior competitions. It went downhill from there. She didn’t have the strength to throw the bigger bike around like she’s used to and not being able to be competitive drove her out of the sport.
Catherine got her car licence at 18 years of age and gathered interest in cars. She entered fun events which involved quarter mile drags, burnout comps, circuit racing but none of them gave her the same thrill motocross did.
In 2003, Catherine’s friends invited her to watch them participate in a new motorsport called drifting. Catherine took her Holden Commodore VK SS 308 V8 Brock (mock up ) along but everyone told her you can’t drift a commodore. She was very stubborn and did it anyway. She soon realised this was the sport she was craving for; she could be competitive and didn’t have to be strong to win. Being the only person drifting a commodore and only female out on the track got her invited to almost every drift event. She competed straight away with the first groups of drifters in Australia and has watched the sport grow from the beginning. She was the only professional female drifter for the first 6 years of drifting in Australia.
At the start, her skills developed very quickly as no tracks knew about drifting, there were no practice days and the only way to drift at a track was to enter a drift competition. The first couple years of drifting were the hardest, she got a lot of unwanted attention, she was single, a lot of guys found her intreging and wanted to help her. It was a novelty to begin with but she learnt the hard way in many things… who were her real friends, what to do when things go bad with a sponsor, being set up to crash and burn from guys that she rejected but they soon realised she was NOT drifting to pick up guys, she was there to drift. These obstacles made her very paranoid, she couldnt trust anyone and being independant and stubborn didnt help. She refused to be taught by anyone, she didnt want any guy on the side line taking credit for what she did, saying he taught her that. She needed to know that she self-taught herself to drift, as this gave her all the confidence in the world.
In 2004 there came a point when she did everything on her own. Packed the trailer, worked on her own car, towed the car to events around Australia, slept in her car on the side of the road because of fatigue or because she couldn’t afford accommodation. She did this all alone for her love of drift and everywhere she went people would stare as it wasn’t common to see a young female do all this by herself. She had her first win at the 2004 Calder Park Night Competition which boosted her confidence dramatically.
In 2005 she made her biggest achievements in her Nissan Onevia SR20det, placing 4th in the National Pro Championship Series, she was fully sponsored by Hybid/Saber/Toyo Tires and was treated like a professional., She also came 3rd at a calder park night comp and then went on WINNING the NSW State Championship the same year.
On top of her game, she now faced more obstacles. Catherine got the respect she wanted from sponsors but lots of the guys stopped talking to her. Everytime she would line up for a battle, they would tease their mate that was against her, saying don’t let a girl beat you, raising eyebrows and making noises. Then if she beat the guy they would laugh at him and if she lost she would hear more laughter. Catherine became very emotional, sometimes crying on the way home from events, they probably didn’t realise it got to her but it made her feel like a freak. The most important thing that got her through the hard times were the positive comments from her fans and her sponsors.
She then met Trent Hewitson who is now her loving husband. Having the support from Trent made it a lot easier to deal with everything. He took over working on her car and helped her with everything so all she had to do, is focus on her driving.
In 2006, she changed her engine to a RB26det GTR engine with 420KWS (572HP) she came 2nd at a VicDrift Competition Winton and at this stage, 3 years into her drift career, she finally started getting treated like one of the boys and earned some respect.
2007- She came 4th in the G1 State Championship Rnd 2 Mallala SA and 4th place at a Rhys Millen Drift Competition, Mallala SA. Rhys Millen was the American Drift Champion for that year and he told her that she had great potential!
She also had the priviledge of being a stunt driver in an OLYMPUS CAMERA commercial, where she drifted a Lotus Elise in a car chase through a multi-level carpark in Sydney.
2008 was the hardest year in Catherine’s drift career with endless problems with her car at every drift event. The economy crisis started to hit and the budget got very slim.
2009- 2010 there was no national drift competition in Australia due to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), which meant, no more televised championship and all Catherine’s major corporate sponsors dropped out. Cat took a break from drifting and concentrated on building up her Dyno Tuning business with her husband Trent called Chequered Tuning.
2011- A new national drift championship series started; meanwhile Cat was saving to buy a property for the business.
2012- Cat and her husband bought a workshop, got settled in and started saving to get back into drifting.
2013- The drift scene is slowly regaining its 2008 stature, social media has changed things, it has connected many more drifters, unearthed more females that are drifting and keeping us updated with drifting around the world. Cat has decided to go back to her roots and start building her dream car a 700hp Holden VK V8 with LS1 TWIN TURBO’s.
During that year Cat released a video celebrating 10 years since she started drifting. It received a better response than expected; many of the new generation drifters didn’t even know drifting was ever big in Australia. Her history has created inspiration and interest within her Facebook followers, so much so that numerous National and International drifters have since contacted Catherine asking what happen to her and that she has been their inspiration from the start.
After a 4 year break from competition, she was invited to Chile in May 2013 to compete in the DriftChile GrandPrix and placed 3rd. Yet again she made history by being the first female drifter in Chile.
As a result of her podium finish, she was also invited to join Sweden’s Team Raidopower Motorsport at Gatebil (motor festival), Norway in July 2013 to drift a 750HP Nissan S14 LS2 Twin Turbo, once there, due to unforseen circumstance’s she was not able to drift the car intended in the event, but instead she went passenger in 2 cars.
In August 2013, Driftcat continued with her international ventures and was invited to drift a demo for GT Drift in Beijing, China. She drifted a Nissan R32 4 door with a 1JZ engine and was asked to take passengers for rides. One of those passengers was the famous Olivier Bouley, a world class automotive designer.
In 2014, she is fully sponsored by Chequered Tuning and is going back to her roots drifting her newly finished 600HP drift car… an Australian made Holden Commodore VKL – V8 LS1 Twin Turbo, first of its kind in the worldwide drift scene. She will be touring Australia doing various demo type events in preparation in taking her car oversea’s to Norway in 2015. Concentrating on her international drifting endeavours, she is excited to see where drifting will take her this time, hopefully around the world with her own car!
‘I love the adrenalin, the noise, the smell of burning rubber and I never get bored because every lap is different when you drift with someone. DRIFT is my life’
MAKING HISTORY
Driftcat has been identified by WAMS (Women of Australian Motor Sport) as one of the standout women to be part of their campaign ‘history of women in motorsport’.
They are touring around Australia, showcasing their display at big events, such as Formula 1, to create more awareness.
They are working with the Bathurst Museum to secure a slot most likely in 2015 to do a comprehensive History display that Driftcat will be a part of.
Driftcat
