Marshalls set to drift down south

Now sitting at the top of the national pro-am standings in his debut season, Waipapa's Tom Marshall has been forced to reconsider his earlier stance of not travelling to contest the Christchurch leg of 2013/14 Cody's D1NZ national drifting championship.

Impressive results at all four legs of the event so far have put Marshall in pole position to take out the pro-am title of the championship, so to miss the penultimate leg is now out of the question.

Marshall went top of the standings after securing 3rd in qualifying and 5th overall in round 4 of the 2013/14 Cody's D1NZ national drifting championship series at Ricoh Motorsport Park in Taupo on Saturday and Sunday, February 22-23.

Meanwhile younger brother Joe qualified 12th and ended up 13th overall at the same event (in his ATJ International Nissan 180SX) which meant he only dropped back one place in the overall series points standings to fourth place.

Event commentator Ross McKay applied the metaphor, "Every cloud has a silver lining," to highlight the case of two Bay of Islands brothers and the other pro-am contenders who suffered poor form in Taupo last month. The brothers - who live in Paihia and work in the family business, ATJ International in Waipapa - were eliminated early on in the Pro-Am battle programme, but so too was long-time class points leader Troy Jenkins.

Add success for long-time campaigner Vincent Langhorn from Auckland, as well as the first appearance on the podium this season for Tauranga driver Adam Davies, and the result worked in the Far North pair's favour, said McKay.

Despite this being his worst round so far, Joe last week told McKay that the combination of results was "definitely" a welcome surprise.

"I thought I'd been seventh or eighth so I was pretty happy," Joe said. Particularly given the circumstances in that he only got back from the UK - after a rushed trip there for family reasons - the Wednesday before the round, spent the Thursday preparing his car, and Friday driving to Tauranga to have it tuned before continuing south to Taupo. And while the pair were also rivals on the track, Joe said he was rapt to see his big brother go top of the ladder.

"Tom did alright, he qualified well and got to the Top 8 but I didn't have a very good weekend, really," said Joe. "I had a fairly messy qualifying run and put two wheels off on the last corner in my first battle. My chase run was alright but putting those two wheels off in the lead run meant Joel [Hedges] went through."

When they first looked at contesting the pro-am class in this year's series, the brothers thought they'd give the Christchurch round - at Mike Pero Motorsport Park over the Easter weekend - a miss. Not now though; the pair have already organised shipping for their cars and flights for themselves and their crew.

"Yeah," says Joe, "It's a long way to go but it looks like a pretty mean track. We're looking forward to it!"

Back in Taupo last month, a Northlander also dominated the main event: Dargaville's Gary 'Gaz' Whiter (Tectaloy Nissan S14 V8) all smiles as he stood on the top step of the podium after the latest round of the Cody's D1NZ National Drifting Championship on the Sunday.

Despite engine problems which saw his car's aftermarket V8 engine 'run' a bearing, Whiter took his second round victory of the season and managed to cut series leader 'Mad Mike' Whiddett's margin to 54.5 points.

The round attracted a 60-plus field across the two classes, D1 Pro and Pro-Am. The series now heads to Christchurch for the traditional Easter round at Mike Pero Motorsport Park from April 19-20; before returning north for the grand final, a night meeting at Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium from May 24-25.

Standings after round 4 (of 6) of the 2013/14 CODY'S D1NZ National Drifting Championship Series in Taupo from February 22-23 were, Pro-Am: Tom Marshall (Waipapa, Northland, ATJ International Nissan S13) 305 points in total, 1st; Joel Hedges (Kumeu C's Garage S13) 299, 2; Troy Jenkins (Juice Polishes Nissan S15) 296, 3; Joe Marshall 290, 4; Gareth Grove 289, 5; Vincent Langhorn 286, 6; Michael Thorley 254, 7; Adam Davies 239, 8, Sam Smith 225, 9; Vincent Yates 224, 10.

D1 Pro: Mike Whiddett 385, 1; Gaz Whiter 330.5, 2; Curt Whittaker 292, 3; etc.

- Additional reporting by

Ross McKay of Fast Company