Three judges - Nathan Still (Dunedin) and Napier duo Lance Merson and Dan Hill - are perched on the trailer of an open-sided truck unit armed with clipboards and pens.
The trio, whose scoring isn't too far from ringside judges at a boxing match, are poised to award points for:
1. Car presentation
2. Driver performance
3. Vehicle performance
4. Popping tyres/engine blowout
5. Creation of smoke.
6. Crowd reaction.
Driver Ian Smith, of Auckland, sparks the rotary engine into life. The ruggedly handsome metallic beast, complete with steel protrusions on the bonnet, roars in approval but a few throttles later seems to protest as Smith coaxes it into a circular motion.
Smith's passenger sticks his arm out, a thumb and little finger salute of defiance (devil's horn), as the car's back tyres shred rubber like grated cheese.
The crowd goes wild.
The RX7's roars turn to belching and, eventually, fades into a whimper as Smith loses control and spins the car off the pad.
"The car must keep moving while it's skidding. It shouldn't roll into reverse," a judge explains.
The crowd lets off a collective groan but it's not long before it finds traction with other drivers who show their cars no mercy.
A grinning Smith settles for the "hard luck award" at the prize-giving ceremony.
That, my friends, is the Lack-A-Traction Burnout Competition.
It was the first one in the Bay in six years and the brainchild of Vaughan Milne, of Napier.
Milne and mate Shane Donaldson engaged in the discipline for almost a decade.
"In 2011, I had a dream to hold a burnout competition to cater for youth in a safe, friendly environment," says the 42-year-old who, with Donaldson and four other close mates - Blair Pascoe, Mark Jackson, Brendon Herd, Dan Livingston - established Lack-A-Traction Burnout Motorsport.
"It's a culture," says Milne, as a blend of hard-core types in German helmets and tattoos mingle with families armed with picnic baskets and chairs to invade embankments and stands. A contingent of fans hails from Christchurch.
Thirty-eight drivers, from as far north as Auckland and as far south as Wellington, competed for top-three placings in four-cylinder, six-cylinder and V8 sections in two three-minute rounds.
The top-10 point scorers from across all sections then progressed to a shootout for the first prize of $1000 cash, second of $500 and third $250.
Fraser Macaree, of Matamata, claimed the $1000, Brett Kenny, of Masterton, was second and Ricky Ireland third.
Joshua Evans, of Hastings, finished second in the four-cylinder class on debut in his Nissan 180SX, packing a 350kW turbo rotary, after "a slack first round".
"It's all about the limo bashing, you know. I love the smell of gas, especially from the rotary," Evans says.
"There's heaps of pressure and the big crowd," says the 19-year-old who has ambitions to join the Air Force.
The tyre-shredding bites into the pocket a little but it's worth the adrenaline rush for the teenager who has been drifting for a year.
Passenger (skidding has no co-drivers) Liam Sykes, "a part-time drifter", enjoys revving up Evans.
"I just tell him [Evans] to blow the shit out of the car," explains the 20-year-old orchardist who emphasises drifting involves dropping the handbrake at 140km/h while "falling sideways to control the car".
Skidding is an oxymoron in motion. The driver does his best to lose control of the car but does his utmost not to totally lose control, if you get the drift.
Evans has filial ties with motor racing.
"My old man has always been a petrolhead. He had a couple of rotaries back in the Bay so he hit a few skid bumps in the local ones [meetings]," he says of father Greg Evans.
The younger Evans started off on motocross but when a few niggly injuries set in he switched to the safety of the roll cage of cars.
"You get the occasional fire but it should be all right."
Evans says the burnout on Saturday is an ideal opportunity for drivers to let off smoke in a monitored enclosure.
"I expected more young people to be here but if it gets more profile in the newspaper I'm sure they'll be out here," he says, adding it's not just about grunting V8s.
He thanked his sponsors, Mag and Turbo Hawke's Bay and Hastings Panel and Paint, for helping to make his vehicle "look flash".
The Lack-A-Traction Burnout Motorsport crew thanked its entrants, sponsors, volunteers, judges and spectators for making the event a success and was looking forward to hosting its next meeting.
