It was the first time Donovan got to drive his new Australian V8-powered Toyota Supra in competition. With a win under his belt in his first event of the year, he says he is seriously considering a full title challenge despite missing the first round in Wellington.
"I hate missing a round. It sucks. We've been competing six or seven years and hadn't missed a round. Wellington was the first round we missed and it sucked. I never want to do that again ideally.
"This has essentially put us right at the pointy end of the field. There's every chance we could contest the championship. That would be epic. If I could win the championship after missing a round, that'd be amazing. I think we'd be mad not to at least give the championship a crack."
It was a tough road to the top for Donovan. He faced off with another local favourite Cole Armstrong in the final. Armstrong showed all night why he deserved to make it through to the final but was just pipped at the post.
There were several key battles from the beginning that set the tone of the night and shifted the momentum of the competition early on, many that included Armstrong.
Shane van Gisbergen went up against the series veteran in their top-16 battle. The Supercars regular pinned the front of his car to Armstrong's door, but the hometown hero fought back and was just as aggressive.
Ultimately it came down to lead lines. The judges ruled van Gisbergen's lead run wasn't near enough as good as Armstrong's. The judges said poor lead run lines were the common narrative throughout the competition.
Despite having perhaps one of the best chase runs of the night, Donovan was forced to a one-more-time against Matty Hill in the top-eight. Donovan put the pressure on Hill through the first run, but Hill spun in his chase as he tried to match Donovan's lead run.
All but one of the battles in the top-four table went to a one-more-time battle. 'Fanga' Dan Woolhouse progressed against Carl Thompson, Gaz Whiter defeated Daynom Templeman, and Donovan beat Hill, and Armstrong fought off Kelly.
The final battle between Donovan and Armstrong saw the pair battle hard through the first run with Armstrong ahead of Donovan. The judges ruled they both made an equal number of mistakes and in the end scored the first run evenly.
The final dual runs were clean in the end, but after lengthy deliberation and replay reviews, Donovan's line was deemed to be more accurate and just slightly superior to Armstrong's in both lead and chase down to the finest points margin.
The Link ECU D1NZ National Drifting Championship heads back to the South Island to Levels Raceway in Timaru over March 9-10.
