As the smell of rubber burning overpowers the crowd, and plumes of smoke fill the air, Ben Barnes throws his turbo-charged drift car sideways into a corner at 200 kilometres an hour.

It's a mind-blowing driving manoeuvre that is illegal on public roads, but this graceful slide is just another night behind the wheel for the Queensland race car driver.

The 24-year-old may not be competing in the bright lights of Formula One or NASCAR, but his sick burnouts and epic drifts are taking the country's race tracks by storm.

Originating in Japan in the 1970s and made popular by The Fast and the Furious films, drifting has become one of the fastest-growing motorsport disciplines in the world.

And this daredevil from Rockhampton in central Queensland is leading the charge.

"To explain it in a nutshell, drifting is a controlled slide or spin out," Barnes said.

"It started in Japan with all the young hooligans going up in the hills — out of sight and out of mind — just by throwing their cars around."

Getting the drift

Barnes is currently travelling across Australia competing in the Drift All Star Series, with the "revhead from Rocky" now turning heads for his natural ability.

He said he became hooked on the extreme sport from a young age after attending a local motorkhana event where he learnt safety skills behind the wheel and also about the mechanics of cars.

"I was actually 15 when I got my first drift car," Barnes said.

"I managed to convince dad (Peter) to go for a look and he thought it was a good idea just for some driver safety.

People as young as 12 years old can compete in a motorkhana event, giving young drivers access to a low-cost form of motorsport in Australia and New Zealand.

Barnes' Nissan Silvia may look like a normal race car from the outside, but underneath the bright orange and purple livery it's a purpose-built machine.

He said he and his dad, Peter Barnes, who is also a keen racer, took 10 months to build the rocket.

"Some of the circuits we get up to 140 and 160 kilometres an hour," Barnes said.

Barnes said unlike classic circuit races where the tracks were long, the distance for drift tracks was much shorter.

He said drivers were judged on different criteria from speed and fluidity to the drift angle and style, while in twin battles, one vehicle was in the lead and the one behind it was the chaser.

"We have a panel of three judges and they will give us a criteria of what they're looking for in our driver's briefing," he said.

"They might want to see the car hit these certain lines on the track. There's all different sorts of criteria that they judge us on."

When he's not wrestling the steering wheel of his Nissan Silvia on the race track, Barnes practises on a simulator in his lounge room at home.

"It's a pretty good gauge as to what I need to do and it's good if we go to a different track that I've never been to before," he said.

"The cars are becoming more difficult to drive and speeds are getting quicker and obviously your reactions have to be a lot faster."

Car royalty

You only have to take one look inside the Barnes's family garage and workshop, on the outskirts of Rockhampton, to work out the young drift car driving sensation was born to race.

Long before Barnes got behind the wheel, his great-grandfather, Bill, chauffeured a young Queen Elizabeth II on her Royal visit to Australia.

His grandfather, Colin, raced boats and his father, Peter, still races cars.

"It sort of runs in the family and it goes right back to my grandad actually," Peter said.

Peter said his family were big supporters of his son's racing pursuits.

"We're always there along for the ride and absolutely love it," he said.

"It can be nerve-wracking but it's a bit of fun."

Ben Barnes said there had been plenty of thrills and spills along the way, but he wouldn't change his life in the fast lane.

"Oh heaps and heaps [of car damage] and I'm sure there's still many more to come, but that's just all a part of it," he said.