"It was a bit of a bummer, but the cars are so fast you can't make up ground because their top speed is amazingly fast. If you start with a gap, you can't really fix it unless they make a mistake."
In his journey to the final, Whiter beat Northland compatriot Daniel 'Fanga Dan' Woolhouse in the quarter-final and then the event's namesake, Mad Mike, in the semifinal.
"It's always good battling [Dan] because we've driven together our whole career, 15+ years," he said.
"He's getting better and better, he just made a mistake out front so he just went too deep on the first corner and that was his mistake so we were able to win because of that."
Whiter said he had known the Auckland-based Redward for a long time, having attending his wedding and from around the drifting circuit.
"Most of the top guys know each other pretty well and we all push each other pretty hard so you've got to work together in the drifting community to bring the level up."
He said the competition was high with New Zealand's best drivers on show, which gave the thousands of spectators a good day out.
"It's always good when you've got a good crowd. You can even hear them over the engine if you're doing something good.
"You're just trying to put on a good show so you've got to do crazy stuff to get people to watch."
As well as the head-to-head format, the event had a three-car race with both Whiter and Dan involved, as well as time attacks and a historic Mazda race car brought in from Japan for the event.
Whiter said the next step for him was finding a sponsor which could help him attend events more regularly.
If we can't find any coin, we'll just do events like this. It's hard without a big budget and I've been doing it for too long to start dipping into my own funds."
He said these events were a huge financial commitment because a driver could easily go through 30 tyres which cost about $300 each.
"An event can easily cost $10,000 and that's if nothing major goes wrong. If you a blow a motor that's $50,000 gone.
"I'm just a builder but I was lucky to get into it early but I would imagine it's very difficult to get into it now because of the level of car you need and what it costs to keep up with the top guys."