The Demon Energy D1NZ Drifting Championship crowned a new drift King at Pukekohe yesterday, with Darren Kelly coming out on top claiming victory in the final round of the championship.
Competing in treacherous conditions, Kelly held onto his points lead coming into the round, and prevailed in holding off the hard charging reigning champion Gaz Whiter and past champion Curt Whittaker who finished the round second and third respectively.
For Kelly, who only a number of years ago was a spectator in the crowd, it was an emotional win.
“It’s hard to explain, indescribable feeling,” says Kelly.
“I used to be one of the guys in the crowd, watching the likes of Gaz Whiter (NZ Four-Time Champion) and Fanga Dan Woolhouse (NZ Two-Time Champion), they were the ones I used to look up to. To now be competing against them, and to be crowned champion after a hard fought season and final round, it’s just unreal.”
Having never competitively drifted at the famed Pukekohe circuit, Kelly says the track lived up to everything he expected it to be in what can be best described as atrocious conditions.
“In the dry, the track is scary every time you go into the first part of the section.
Unfortunately we got wet weather for much of the weekend, almost every lap was different. We just had to make it work. The closest thing I could describe the driving conditions to would be driving on ice, it was just so slippery.”
“The conditions were just so changeable from Friday where we were coming into turn one doing close to 200km/hr, today we were down about 80km/hr off that.”
Kelly is also the only driver to successfully compete in the second tier Pro Am Category, winning that title in 2013, before stepping up to the Pro Series last year, and ultimately winning the championship on his second attempt.
“It’s a pretty big thing for me, we won the Pro Am championship in our first season which was amazing. The step up to Pro was a big one.”
Kelly’s round win sealed the championship, with Whittaker and Whiter finishing second and third behind him.
In the pro-am series Troy Jenkins won the championship whilst his brother Ben, took his first round win.
