With clear skies and a dry track, the Pukekohe grand final of the D1NZ series kicked off. Pukekohe is known for having one of the fastest drift entries in the world which meant, drivers would have to get used to throwing the car side ways at roughly 190km/h.
Such fast entry speeds saw most drivers removing the rear spoilers to decrease the down force produced thus allowing easier initiation, however a side effect of that was, the rear was much lighter sending some drivers off into the dirt. Luckily for some Pukekohe has a large run off area on turn one which saved a lot of cars from season ending damage. Australian drivers like Scott Schembri had to adjust to the faster entry speed as there is nothing like that over the ditch, managing well though, they all navigated the new course well and threw some amazing drift sections which pleased everyone watching. Nico Reid was on fine form coming on from the 4 in a row winning streak, hoping to make it 5 on the trot he was pushing the Evergreen S15 to the limits ahead of the showdown on Sunday.
Brad Smith and the team were under the car on Saturday mid afternoon replacing a diff along with a few cars retiring due to finding the wall. Drew and the Milwaukee team were seen stripping a gearbox, while the Blaze Unit team from Australia had their S15 2JZ powered car under the knife trying to figure out what to do about the valve springs being too weak contributing to the car not having enough power to navigate the sweeper through to turn 2. If broken cars are anything to go by, it’s safe to assume these guys were pushing hard and only aiming to push harder.
Datsun rotary nicknamed the Rotang was out in full force bringing both the noise and the smoke for the crowds, along with Kieran Stewart pushing his brilliant MX5 around the judged section with skill and determination that made up for the lower horsepower numbers compared to his competitors. While qualifying was set in the dry, most drivers knew that anything could happen in the wet on the following day meaning they had to secure a spot for the finals due to the ever so slight chance their opponent would be overwhelmed by the wet conditions and hand them a pass through to the next round.
With the forecast for Sunday being rain, a few drivers were left unsure on how to set the car up due to the dry track requiring one setting and the wet track needing another. Smoke and burnt rubber filled the air on Saturday with enough noise to echo into Sunday which meant all that could be done was wait to see what the weather gods had in mind.
Galleries for the day are broken up into two separate sections, so please take a moment to scroll through them all.