Organisers of the annual D1NZ drifting championship, held in several rounds in New Zealand, scheduled the 4th round to run on a track in Taupo. Taupo is both the name of a volcano lake and a town situated on its shore. There used to be a huge mountain there but a supervolcanic eruption turned it into the lake many years ago. It is now the largest freshwater lake in New Zealand. Its nearby territory is still considered to be the area with the highest concentration of thermal activity in the country. Even the nature in this district encourages you to start a fire.
The track
Its official name is the Taupo Motorsport Park. Its length is 3.5 km. It features a dragstrip fitted for drag racing competitions, has an A1GP license and is equipped with two separate pit areas. D1NZ judges have chosen the most striking track corners for the judged sections (those are the corners where the participants can actually score points). Good viewing is provided both from the audience stands and, which is even more important, from the judge's tower. These sections are really skill-demanding as the corners have different altitudes and gliding angles.
The race promised to be beautiful. Not least because a lot of drifters have many hours of experience gained on this track meaning they were to demonstrate the utterly beautiful drift.
However, on the morning of the first day it was beastly cold and rainy. Such weather conditions immediately turned the track into a skating rink and we could not even dream about high speeds and clouds of tyre smoke which actually make drifting so fascinating. Nevertheless, the skies changed fast enough and the second day did not bring any weather challenges.
Front-runners
It was difficult to make any predictions for the race as this season we can see a very close struggle and a single mistake made by any driver could lead to drastic changes in the overall championship standings.
Mad Mike is certainly the major front-runner of this season. He climbed the podium after each race thereby securing his position.
In spite of constant technical issues with his car, Gaz Whiter always finds a way how to surprise his fans. When everyone is sure that Gaz has no chances to score any good points, he does the impossible. For instance, during the previous round held in Tauranga he demonstrated excellent results behind the wheel of a borrowed car which he had to take instead of the damaged S14.
Nico Reid is another driver claiming his spot on the podium of the 4th round. In all previous rounds he demonstrated great drift and had beautiful runs from the point of view of technique. Moreover, he has all the major ingredients for success — aggression coupled with risk and a reliable vehicle.
Technical problems
On the very first day, during the practice sessions, the cars demonstrated their weak points if they had any. First the car of the three-time D1NZ champion Gaz Whiter broke down, next was the turn of Brad Smith, a pilot driving a Nissan 350Z who returned to the series after a break.
The LS7 engine of Whiter's Nissan Silvia S14 suffered failure caused by loss of oil pressure. Frankly speaking, it seemed impossible to rebuild the engine during the racing week-end. That is why a lot of people did not believe Gaz would be able to take part in this round. Even if he managed to fix the car in time, the pilot wouldn’t have any practice before the qualifying. Nevertheless, his team was not losing hope and got down to work.
Brad Smith was not able to fix his VQ35 fast enough. The engine suffered a major failure and one could even see holes in the control unit. That is why, unfortunately, his 350Z stayed in the garage for the rest of the week-end.
The Rattla Motorsport team also suffered technical problems once again. Each race its Ford Falcon has to bear a double burden as it is driven by two pilots — Shane Allen and Shane van Gisbergen.
The combination of the big load on car’s construction together with its high horsepower multiplied by the number of drivers often gives a negative result in the end. Differential drops out, for instance. Or the gearbox drops out. This time it was both. And multiply the dropped out differential by two.
The development class gave a helping hand. Ricky Lee, Pro-Am drift pilot, lent his Mazda RX-7 to Shane Allen, while Adam Davies gave his Nissan Silvia S-13 to Shane Van Gisbergen. Lack of experience with these cars did not stop both of them from getting into top-32.
Bombshells
The 2012 champion Curt Whittaker, who climbed the second step of the podium in the overall standings after this round, seemed to be just practicing on the first day. There is no denying he was good, but not perfect. After scoring 66 points in the first qualifying run he seemed to switch the cosmic speed on and leaped to the fourth position scoring 90 points. But that was not all. He outran two serious rivals — Adam Hedges and Matt Lauder.
By the way, Matt was quite a surprise for everyone as he managed to beat the highly-awarded drifter and 2013 D1NZ champion Daniel Woolhouse, though it is just his first year in the PRO class. However, Curt lacked something in his duel with Gaz Whiter in the final run. Maybe he did not have enough passion to win. Gaz has been through a lot this week-end. With no practice sessions, driving a car with freshly rebuilt engine after its Saturday’s failure, I think he was angry and determined. It happens when everything breaks down, you are in a constant rush, the car finally starts in the last few minutes before the race, you get sealed with seat belts inside the cabin and on the rebound of the general panic you are able to demonstrate great results. Probably, that is how the adrenaline works. Not only did Gaz climb the podium under similar circumstances, he scored deserved victory proving once again that nothing is impossible. All you need is to pull yourself together and do everything you can to win.
Battles of the day
Nico Reid vs. Mad Mike
Nico has already proved himself to be an obvious front-runner in the qualifying by scoring 94.5 points and earning the first position. In spite of having flaming and spectacular runs, Mike only made it to the eighth position scoring 85.5 points. His quad-rotor rotary engine was shooting out flames when shifting or decelerating and looked just overwhelming.
When I saw it for the first time, I started looking around for the fire team. But they were just calmly watching the event so I came to a cautious conclusion that there was nothing to worry about. But honestly, each time it seemed to me that RX-7’s tailpipe was at the edge of bursting into pieces ending up with fireworks.
The battle between these two pilots elicited applause from the audience many times. First off, they had two reruns as the judges could not make a final decision regarding either of them.
According to the official version, Nico pushed Mike’s car during the third rerun making it spin. That was a defeat. But it seemed so disputable to me. Maybe because the entire drama unfolded right in the corner close to which I was standing and I could see everything from the front row.
Joe Kukutai vs. Jacob Hakaraia
In my opinion, it was a very disputable run as well. Joe is new to the D1NZ and to the PRO class as well. Here in Taupo he “showed his teeth” for the first time proving he is a tough drifter and when I was watching his duel with Jacob I was sure Joe was to win.
You don’t often get to see the follower’s car to keep such precise and small distance from the car in front. That was a beautiful run. I would even say that it was perfect. But the official version sounds different — Joe’s R32 Nissan Skyline was keeping too close to Jacob’s Nissan Laurel and contact appeared to have been made pushing Hakaraia out of the track. Jacob won.
Results
True warriors of this racing week-end climbed the podium. Each of them strained every sinew to achieve these results conquering themselves, their cars, their rivals. Their ways were different but according the final standings of the 4th D1NZ round held in Taupo
Gaz Whiter is first,
Curt Whittaker is second,
Mad Mike is third.
With four rounds behind the leader in the overall championship standings is Mad Mike with 385 points. Victory in the fourth round moved Gaz Whiter to the second position and he now has 330.5 points. Curt Whittaker is third close behind with 292 points scored.
