Whiter returns in dash for cash

With $5000 up for grabs, defending and three-time champion Gaz Whiter from Dargaville tops the entry list for the opening round of the 2011/12 D1NZ Drifting Championship this weekend.

The winner will literally take all when the country's top drifters meet at Feilding's Manfeild motor racing circuit on Saturday and Sunday.

Along with Whiter, driving his Nissan S14, former series champion Daniel Woolhouse from Whangarei in a Holden Commodore, high-profile international Mike Whiddett from Auckland, driving his Mazda RX7 and the winner and runner-up respectively of the recent Tectaloy International Drift Challenge in Sydney, Aucklanders Carl Whittaker racing a Toyota 2JZ-engined Nissan Skyline R34 and Daynom Templeman, racing his Mazda RX7 have all entered.

Series organiser Brendon White said at each round of the six-round series, the winner will earn a one-off cash prize or package pool of $5000.

White has received 55 entries for the opening round.

Few sports - let alone motorised ones - are as spectacular as drifting, hence the growing interest in New Zealand and around the world.

Drifting differs from traditional first-past-the-post motorsport categories in that it is judged. At each venue a course is marked out with specific start, finish and clipping points; the driver slides (oversteers) through each corner as quickly and spectacularly as possibly.

After single car qualifying runs through the course to establish a top 32, competitors then battle each other through two tandem runs (each driver getting a chance to lead and follow) with the judges marking them on line, angle (of drift), speed, how close they were able to stay to the other driver, and - arguably the most popular criteria for the fans - the amount of smoke produced by their car's spinning tyres.

Once the top 32 has been whittled down to a top 16, those drivers go back into battle to establish a top 8, then a top 4, and a top 2 vefore a final showdown to decide the winner.

Each round of this season's D1NZ series will run over two days with a new ProAm feeder series - which has attracted over 20 entries in its own right - run on the Friday and the Pro series run on the Saturday.

The series travels north in the new year, and Whangarei will host round five of the event on March 9-10 at the Whangarei Street Course.

2011/12 D1NZ National Drifting Championship

Rd 1: Oct 28-29, Manfeild, Feilding

Rd 2: Nov 25-26, Pukekohe Park Raceway

Rd 3: Dec 16-17, Taupo Motorsport Park, Taupo

Rd 4: Feb 10-11 2012, Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland

Rd 5: March 09-10 Street Course, Whangarei

Rd 6: April 06-07, Hampton Downs, Waikato (Grand Final).