Crowd favourite ‘Mad Mike’ Whiddett (Red Bull/Speedhunters Mazda RX8) was back on the top step of the podium at the latest round of this season’s Cody’s D1NZ National Drifting Championship at the Hampton Downs motor racing circuit south of Auckland on Saturday.

Revelling in an extra 200 horsepower thanks to a new Garret turbocharger set-up on the PPRE-prepared tri-rotor 20B engine fitted to his heavily-modified Mazda sports coupe, the Auckland-based international qualified third then after a bye in the Top 32 beat fellow Aucklander Daynom Templeman (debuting his new-look Toyota 2JZ-powered NAC Insurance-sponsored Mazda RX7) in the Top 16, Hamilton’s Bruce Tannock (Achilles Tyre Nissan S13) in the Top 8 and Tauranga’s Cole Armstrong (V Energy Nissan Skyline R34) in the Top 4 to meet Aucklander Andrew Redward (Achilles Tyre Mazda RX7 V8) in the final.

Redward didn’t qualify as well (12th) but claimed some impressive scalps on his own run to the final, beating Sky Zhao (2 Degrees Nissan 370Z) in his first (Top 32) battle, championship series points leader Daniel ‘Fanga Dan’ Woolhouse (Castrol Edge Holden Commodore V8) in his second (Top 16), last year’s North vs South Island title winner Troy Forsythe (Southern Drifters Nissan S13) in the Top 8 and three-time former New Zealand champion Gary ‘Gaz’ Whiter (Tectaloy Driftcorp Nissan 180SX) in the Top 4.

Having twice finished runner-up to former series champion Fanga Dan Woolhouse this year, Redward was again on top form heading into the final showdown with Whiddett, however on his chase run he literally got lost in the wall of smoke the Whiddett Mazda was producing and lost his drift, giving Whiddett the advantage and with it his first round win for the 2012/13 season.

Points-wise, however, despite an uncharacteristically early end to his day at the hands of Redward, former series champ Woolhouse still has a 50 point buffer over Redward with Whiddett now back up to third a further 33.5 points back in third.

Cole Armstrong was another driver heading in the right direction at the fourth series round held in hot, hiumid conditions at Hampton Downs, splitting top qualifier Nico Reid (Luxury Sport Nissan S15) and Whiddett in qualifying then after a bye in the Top 32 beating Waiuku’s Jason Sellars (Wong’s Kitchen 2JZ Nissan Laurel) in the Top 16, and new series force-to-be-reckoned-with Zak Pole (Bullett HD Nissan Skyline R33) from Auckland in the Top 8 before finally meeting his match in Whiddett in the Top 4.

That just left the battle for the final step on the podium which Armstrong also won, this time after a battle with Dargaville’s Gary ‘Gaz’ Whiter.

Whiter’s Tectaloy-sponsored V8-engined Nissan S14 was seriously damaged at the recent Tauranga round and though it was repaired in time for this weekend’s Hampton Downs’ one the engine threw a conrod just before qualifying.

Series judge Justin Rood was quick to offer Whiter his own 180 SX Nissan (which he had at the track to use in the Drift vs V8 lLgends’ showdown later in the day) and with it Whiter showed his class by qualifying fourth, and winning his Top 32 (against South Islander Cody Collis), Top 16 (against  top qualifier Nico Reid), and Top 8 (against defending Cody’s D1NZ champion Curt Whittaker) battles before going down to a rampant Andrew Redward in their Top 4 encounter and Cole Armstrong in the final battle for third spot on the podium.

In the Pro-Am ranks meanwhile it was a matter of all-change with round one winner Matt Lauder (Shred Nissan 180SX) from Wellington and the winner of the second and third rounds, Darren Kelly (DKM Fabrication Nissan Skyline R32) from Auckland’s North Shore displaced by first-timer Adam Hedges from Kumeu, north-west of Auckland.

Though he has been a regular at grassroots drift events for several years, Hedges was a last minute entry in the Pro-Am category after good friend Hugo McLean (Grabatool Toyota AE85) offered him the use of his car as a way of saying thank you for the work Hedges had recently done on it.

Hedges admitted that the wild, triple-rotor engined Toyota was not the easiest car to just jump in and drive but after qualifying ninth on Friday he went on to beat Pro-Am series regulars Troy Jenkins (Juice Nissan S15), Jacob Hakaraia (DTM Nissan S13) and Geoff Muggeridge (Aden’s Tyres Mazda RX7) in the battles and take the round from Muggeridge, from Tauranga, with Darren Kelly third.

The meeting also saw the appearance of Just Car Australian Drifting Grand Prix series champion Rob Whyte (Achilles Tyre Nissan 350Z) and compatriot Andreas Paraskevas (Just Car Nissan 180SX).

After qualifying in 20th position Whyte battled strongly only to be let down by a gearbox problem which also frustrated his efforts to take on defending Cody’s D1NZ title holder Curt Whittaker in the Australia vs New Zealand Challenge, won easily by Whittaker.

The other Challenge was between two sets of legends from the New Zealand Drift and V8 circuit scenes, eventually won by the best of the Drifters – former D1NZ champion Adam Richards – over the best of the circuit stars, Dean Perkins.

The Hampton Downs round was the fourth of six for the 2012/13 Cody’s D1NZ championship series with the fifth in Christchurch at the end of March and the sixth and final at Pukekohe Park Raceway in April.