NAC NZ Drift Nationals 2013

The NAC Drift Nationals is a great event and is one of the most open competition drifting events in New Zealand, with no separation between the Pro and Pro-Am class cars. The new Formula Drift qualifying format was also being run in New Zealand for the first time ever. I managed to secure my first media pass for this event (a massive thanks to Jason from Turbo-Spec.com for that) so that meant a 5am start to be at the gates by 8:20 AM, but it was well worth it. The event was great apart from the really long delays. One car lost it's oil filter spewing oil all over the track and another ended up in the wall after the brakes locked up in the staging area while scrubbing the tires.

The day started off with open practice, Mad Mike was managing to pull off some awesome backwards entries throughout the morning and was looking on form. Unfortunately he had computer problems and could not qualify.

Jacob Hakaria was looking really comfortable in his new car, (Darren Benjamin's old 2JZ powered C35 Laurel) unfortunately he would go on to break his gearbox in the Top 32 in his battle against Russell Cole, ending his weekend.

Carl Thompson made his competition debut in his 1300 HP turbo quad rotor Lexus GS300, he was looking good through practice and managed to qualify in 8th position. Sadly in Top 32 he threw a drive belt off in the staging area, so he wasn't able to battle.

Drew Donovan was looking strong all day and managed to qualify in 12th place. He would go head to head with Nate Steel, Sky Zhao, and Robee Nelson before finally losing to Cole Armstrong. He went into a battle for third with Andrew Redward, who would come out on top with Drew taking 4th place.

Cole Armstrong had a stellar weekend, he was looking really strong in practice considering he had only stepped off a plane from Australia an hour before the event. He qualified in 9th place and had a bye run in the Top 32. Cole would do battle with Carl Ruiterman, Drew Donovan, and Gaz Whiter, managing to beat them all to take home 1st place.

Jodie Verhulst was looking good during the later practice sessions once she got used to the new found grip with the Achilles 123s tyres. Jodie qualified in 8th place and got a bye run in the Top 32. She went up against Russell Sifleet and beat him to go up against Gaz whiter in the top 8, unfortunately the clutch gave up on her after a line lock to warm the tires up and she struggled to keep up.

Joe Kukutai debuted the new look for his Skyline which looks great, I love the injection of Japanese style into this car. The team burst inspired purple looks great and the livery looks sweet too, the japanese window name is a really nice touch too. Joe managed to qualify 10th but unfortunately he would be knocked out in his Top 32 battle against Aden Omnet.

Ben Belcher was doing well in practice and his car was sounding great as always, Ben would qualify all the way back in 20th place though and be knocked out in the Top 32 against Vincent Hopkins.

Eddie Hayman laid down some nice practice runs but didn't manage to qualify as his brakes locked up while he was scrubbing the tires and he ended up in the wall.

Andrew Redward was laying down solid runs all day and was able to qualify in 2nd place behind Carl Ruiterman and he had a bye run in the top 32. In the Top 16 he would defeat Russell Cole and then in the Top 8 he would take down Aden Omnet before finally being beaten by Gaz Whiter in the final four. He would go up against Drew Donovan in the battle for third and fourth place which he would win to stand on the bottom step of the podium.

I will finish this post up with this photo of all the cars lined up after the drivers had their first qualifying runs to announce the Top 16 qualifiers.

-Josh