Night round of the D1NZ can truly be considered to be the Championship’s most spectacular one. It was awaited with great anticipation. I can just add that my stay in the land of kiwi lasted longer than I had planned just because of this round. And it was really worth it.
Concrete jungles, night time, clouds of smoke highlighted by LED lights, a fight for podium places, and, what is even more important, it’s the final round. New Drift King will be determined tonight.
After five rounds, there were several top contenders to the title of the new champion and it looked like a duel between Gaz Whiter (442 points) and Mad Mike Whiddett (412 points). Curt Whittaker (359), Fanga Dan (Woolhouse) (316), and Andrew Redward (345) were at a certain remove behind them.
There were many discussions regarding the configuration of the track and the final decision was to shape it as a comma. The driver invokes the drift, passes the wide right-hand corner close to concrete walls, then goes through the U-turn, and after that changes the direction rapidly and continues into the long flat corner. The entire action is surrounded by concrete barriers and flashing lights of the cameras.
At first, to make the event even more beautiful, there were fireworks set off in the clipping points, however, all drivers asked to stop it. Can you imagine that? You fly 100 km/h, set your car drifting dangerously close to the concrete wall and then, all of a sudden, there goes a huge explosion behind your back. At this moment, anyone can let go of the steering wheel and start blessing himself.
First day was traditionally devoted to competitions in pro-AM class. One of pleasant surprises was Sam Smith (Nissan Silvia s15) climbing the podium.
He used to be a motorcycle racer but after an injury had to leave moto racing and started drifting. En route to the final round he had a serious collision with Jordan Tweedy in the first corner.
Mechanics were able to restore the car and Sam clinched first place defeating Tom Marshall, one of the season’s favourites, in the finals.
Championship leader Vincent Langhorn lost in top-16 competitions, however, based on the overall results, he was ahead of everyone and climbed the top tier of the podium. Gareth Grove was second, while Tom Marshall was third.
Joel Hedges took the fourth place. They showed spectacular performance in the first corner together with Gareth Grove.
Main show
The main D1NZ racing day began at noon. The viewing stands were filling up incredibly fast and by the time of qualifying there was no room “to swing a cat”. According to unofficial information, around 6,000 people were able to find place on the territory of a small MT Smart stadium.
Many Pro-class drivers were making serious preparations for the final round. It was the last race of the season and it could be dangerous. Sky Zhao, for instance, had just returned from Japan, where he had had a lot of practice, and where his skills had improved so dramatically that even “not-a-judge” could notice Sky’s aggressive style.
During the midday practice sessions one could see who was better at learning the track and had more chances to win.
For instance, I paid attention to Rattla Motorsport's Shane Allen. And not for nothing, as it turned out later.
Daniel Woolhouse had gearbox issues so he was busy fixing the car to be in time for qualifying.
Zak Pole had engine problems so he used a helping hand of a Pro-AM driver and borrowed his S13.
Rattla Motorsport caught fire due to broken gearbox. I guess they are joking when saying they want more power. This Falcon eats boxes and gears for breakfast. In the first part of the racing day, it had already eaten a lot and the team were having fun looking for and installing new spare parts.
Qualifying
All the thrill started during the qualifying. Special attention was drawn to Mad Mike as in his case the overall championship result depended on the result of this round. During the first attempt, he suffered mechanical issues in the drive train in the fastest section of the track. Luckily, he avoided running into the barrier but then Mike faced two problems. He had to repair the broken axle as soon as possible and show best performance in the last qualifying attempt.
And he did it! Unbelievable 91 points in qualifying! But that was not enough for the final victory.
Nico Reid scored 91.5 points. He drove utterly risky. Everything pointed at the fact that he was completely integrated with his car with Nico able to control it like himself. But that was not the best result either.
Daynom Templeman demonstrated an overwhelming performance. 96 points in qualifying! That was the highest result in the D1NZ history. Daynom’s car, 2JZ RX-7, is the most powerful in the history of the championship. Its peak horsepower reaches 1,150 hp.
At that moment, the festive mood came to an end. At least in my case, as Brad Smith smashed into the wall.
Jodie Verhulst crashed out in the same corner but with a different scenario.
Watching her during the qualifying attempt, I could see her going into the corner a bit too wide. She had good intentions to scratch the wall lightly with the rear bumper but it all seemed to be too close. So she hit the concrete barrier, the car turned sideways with its front part also crashing into the wall.
Argh! Evacuators came out twice within 15 minutes. The way things were going, the competition would be reduced to top-16 instead of top-32. Or even top-8. Luckily, Jodie has an excellent team. They managed to restore the car before the tandem battles and Jodie was back on the track.
While the sportsmen were “licking wounds” after the qualifying and spectators were walking on the territory of the park staring at promo girls, making photos with drivers and asking for autographs, there was some fun action on the track.
A country-specific entertainment. The objective of the game is to bring a used-up throwaway car, give it a corner, and crash it eventually.
Looks like mixed martial arts and the crowd just loves it.
The Burnout Show was the second event on the entertainment programme.
It was a pleasure to see Pro-class driver Hugo Maclean driving his AE85. He disappeared after this season’s first round and, hopefully, he will return in the next season.
Elimination heats. The most unpredictable podium results.
Frankly speaking, I was not expecting the events, which unfolded in the main battles. First sensation was Mad Mike dropping out of the battle in top-16.
He was kicked out by Shane Allen, who is not among top championship drivers and who is usually not inside the top ten. But the way this guy was fighting deserved high praise.
It came as a total surprise for everyone, including Mike. Obviously, he was deeply disappointed. The result of this battle set the record straight and ruined the intrigue, giving an answer to the main question of the weekend “Who becomes the new DK?”
No one could catch up with Gaz Whiter, at least in this season. So Gaz sighed with relief, while Shane Allen realised he was able to compete with top drivers and demonstrate great results.
In the next battle, where he faced Dave Steedman, Shane was following Dave very closely, so when the latter scratched the wall and lost direction, collision was inevitable and it all turned into a beautiful night crash. Luckily, I had moved out of that corner during the previous battle.
Thanks to favourable circumstances, nobody’s head was in the way of a huge flying fragment of the wheel. It hurtled in the air and landed just a metre away from a group of photographers. “Here’s luck”, thought everyone.
An absolutely crazy battle with Nico Reid vs Chris Jackson. After hitting the wall, Nico’s rear wheel lost its tyre, but he continued drifting with one of the wheels puffing tonnes of smoke and scraping the asphalt with the second one.
It did not bring victory to Nico, however, he deserved delight of the audience.
Andrew Redward got turned around in top-8, while his competitor Gaz Whiter proceeded to top-4.
It was time for top-8 and who did we see there? It was Shane Allen driving his Ford Falcon. This time it was a battle against last season’s pro-AM champion Darren Kelly.
After having some technical issues with the turbo and engine during the previous round, Darren made a joke: “We’ll drive to the Pro podium with the new engine”. It didn’t look like a joke anymore, more like plans. Shane lost the drift and got a spin. Darren proceeded to top-4.
Daynom Templeman also got into top-4. And now he defeated the three-time D1 champion and (which was not a secret anymore) new Drift King Gaz Whiter. Daynom’s RX-7 produced so much smoke that his competitor did not have any chances to see anything in front of him. Gaz drove blind, while Daynom drove straight into the finals.
Darren Kelly driving his R34 also kept moving upwards. It was his first time in Pro’s top-4 and a victory over the reigning DK Daniel Woolhouse (Holden Commodore). Darren proceeded to the finals together with Daynom Templeman, while Daniel and Gaz were fighting for 3rd and 4th places. We were going to see two new drivers climbing the round’s podium.
Final battle and podium:
Daynom Templeman, climbing the top tier of the podium for the first time
For the first time on Pro’s podium — Darren Kelly. 2nd place.
Gaz Whiter, 3rd.
Overall championship standings:
Third place: Curt Whittaker (Nissan Skyline R34).
Second place: Being just one step away from the first place and totally disappointed, Mad Mike Whiddett (Mazda RX-7).
First place: After crashes in Whangarei and Tauranga, after the death of his engine in Taupo, he showed that there was nothing a man couldn’t solve and proved to everyone once again, who was the real DK. Four-time D1NZ champion Gaz Whiter (Nissan Silvia S-14).
