Donovan snares elusive win

Tauranga drifter Drew Donovan celebrates finally winning the Battlemania championship title in Taupo.

Tauranga drift driver Drew Donovan buried his Battlemania demons when he finally won the championship title at Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park in Taupo on Sunday.

Donovan had been runner-up in both previous runnings of Battlemania, the brainchild of Whanganui drifter Ricky Lee.

With 150 drift battles scheduled for the day and 30 invite-only drivers competing for the trophies on hand, there was plenty of action for drivers and spectators alike.

With the increased interest in this event both nationally and internationally Battlemania this year had the privilege of hosting two top international drivers - Aussie ace Levi Clarke and multiple European champion Danielle Murphy from Ireland, widely-regarded as the best female drifter in the world.

After a full morning of qualifying battles the field was split into three pools for the final battles. Aucklander Nico Reid topped the qualifying sheets.

After qualifying five pools of six drivers were split into their pools with the top six going into gold, 7th to 12th silver and 13th to 30th bronze.

Spin-outs for both Clarke and Murphy during qualifying relegated both internationals to the bronze pool where they finished second and third respectively.

The overall Battlemania champion and gold pool winner was Donovan in his Milwaukee-sponsored LS15 Nissan Silvia ahead of Adam Davies, Tauranga in second and Reid in third.

Silver Pool winner was Michael Thorley, Auckland followed by Vincent Hopkins, Tauranga, and Neil Walmsley, Christchurch.

The bronze pool was taken out by Jaron Olivecrona from Fielding followed by the international stars.

Lee said both internationals were surprised by the level of competition in New Zealand.

"I guess for them it was a combination of new cars, new tracks and conditions and the bloody good New Zealand drivers," Lee said yesterday.

"They both had a blast here and were blown away by the level of competition. Spinning out in qualifying didn't help either driver and up until then they were going very well, especially Levi. We are really happy with the smooth running of our first stand-alone event and plans are already being made for 2017," Lee said.

The Exedy drift Team with Clarke alongside Whanganui race mechanic Tony Stewart took out the best team of the competition award. The showdown between Clarke and Olivecrona won the Best Battle award, while the crowd favourite was Nico Reid.