D1NZ – Grand Final at Ricoh Taupo Motorsport Park – Day 2

SliD1ng back in with more

Following up on my previous post, I headed back out on Sunday morning to freeze my feet again. It was totally worth it though to watch the drivers tear it up again!

Fanga Dan didn't have much luck at all, after finally getting his engine fixed and back in the car he managed about 10 laps before he blew his diff, He only just managed to get it fixed in time to get out for qualifying.

The day kicked off with practice for Pro drivers and the top 4 Pro-Am drivers.

We then moved into the Pro-Am top 4 battles, which consisted of Darren Kelly, Gareth Grove, Vincent Langhorn and Jodie Verhulst.

Once the Pro-Am top 4 was finished, (we wouldn't get the results until the end of the day though) it moved back into Pro Practice.

After several practice Sessions qualifying kicked off with Drivers get three runs each to post the best score they could and try to bag the top spot. Drivers like Mad Mike, Fanga Dan, Drew Donovan and several other were laying down good scores and driving the wheels off their cars, with Fanga Dan and Mad Mike grabbing spot 1 & 2 respectively with only half a point separating them.

While drivers like Daynom Templeman and Cam Vernon were fighting their cars the whole time.

Once every driver had layed down three qualifying passes the battles started with the top 32, since several drivers had failed to qualify and there wasn't a full field of 32 cars some of the top qualifiers got a bye through the top 32. One of the notable battles was between Mad Mike and Zak Pole in the Top 16, both drivers were pushing their cars very very hard, with the young gun forcing Mad Mike into a OMT (one more time) and managing to take the win which was a reverse of the outcome at Round 5 in Christchurch. Zak Pole would go on to take his first podium finish in 3rd place.

Once the battles were finished they had the Awards ceremony for Pro-am with Darren Kelly finishing in first, Vince Langhorn in second and Jodie Verhulst in 3rd with Darren Kelly taking out the Pro-Am championship over all. then there was the awards for Pro with Fanga Dan finishing first, Curt Whittaker in 2nd and Zak Pole in 3rd with Fanga Dan taking out the championship, Mad Miek taking out 2nd and Curt Whittaker in 3rd.

Once that was all over and done it was time everyones favourite time of the day, Victory Skids and what a show the drivers put on, the air was so thick with smoke you could only see several metres ahead of you. The sun was setting at the same time which created the perfect conditions for these couple of photos which I will finish this post up with.

- Josh

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