Hot drift laps are just the ticket

SIDE ON: Rotorua driver Corey Sharp, pictured with his Nissan Skyline R32, took me for a drift around the Taupo Motorsport Park this week. PHOTO/GARY HAMILTON-IRVINE 270215COREY

Skill of drivers will be on show at new Taupo motorsport festival

"Should we go for a hot lap?," Corey asks.

"Righto," I reply. I had heard about media days for motorsport events before.

The organisers take a journalist for a drive around a race track and you write about the experience, usually about how fast and radical it was.

I was invited to my first one this week at the Taupo Motorsport Park, for an up-coming drifting and motorsport event called the Motorhead Festival.

Although I knew it was going to be fast, I can't say I really knew what to expect.

A Rotorua driver named Corey Sharp was the man charged with taking me - literally - for a spin.

Corey is competing in the one-day Motorhead Festival in Taupo next Sunday, in the feature drifting competition.

I pulled on the usual fireproof gear and helmet then buckled in about four different safety belts inside his re-built Nissan Skyline R32.

Corey informed me later his car was sitting on more than 450 horsepower. I didn't really know what that meant other than his car could fair hum.

We drove out onto the track and everything seemed normal - I was a bit underwhelmed if I'm honest.

But then we enter the first corner where the drifting competition will begin next Sunday.

The drifting course includes about four or five nice corners on the Taupo track. In the proper competition two cars will be battling it out at the same time, but we are going out by ourselves.

Corey heads into the first corner at a quick speed and before you know it we are sideways, the engine is racing and smoke is coming in through the windows.

Then we enter another corner and Corey whips the car the other way.

You are getting thrown around a bit in the passenger seat but it is all a good rush.

When he gets it spot on there is a flow to it all as the car flies through each corner.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is watching Corey handling the steering wheel. He lets it just spin through his hands like it is out of control then tugs at the wheel every now and again as we fly through each corner.

He takes me for three laps around the course and seems to be getting better each drive. At the end of it I say "that was rad mate", unable to produce a better compliment.

Corey says the most expensive part about the sport is constantly replacing the tyres, as drifting can wear through a set in a few laps.

One of the Motorhead Festival organisers Jodie Verhulst - who competes in the D1NZ National Drifting Championship - explained how far the sport had come in recent years, as drifting had left the boy racer scene and turned into a proper sport on the track.

She explained there would be upwards of 32 drift cars on the track at Motorhead all of them competing for first place via the knockout rounds.

- Drifting is the main event at the inaugural Motorhead Festival in Taupo but there will also be a burnout competition, motocross and plenty of other events. Tickets are $25 and children under five are free.