Jaron Olivecrona intends giving fellow competitors a screaming, smoke-sucking welcome when the country’s ultimate drift competition reaches its finale on Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon.
The Feilding identity of this hugely-popular motor sport is rapt the D1NZ Drifting Championship in which his V12-engined Silvia stands out is wrapping up on April 25-26 at a place he knows well.
That’s not simply due to him sensing opportunity for home track advantage.
There’s also a ton of pride in seeing the honour transfer.
“It’s just a great venue. The circuit is fantastic for competition and spectators can see everything.”
Manfeild figures large in the life of a young man who has been hugely active in promote drifting in his home region. For the past few years he’s been running a highly successful tuition programme for new drivers and take pride in how it has developed.
“We’ve grown drifting for the entire lower North Island and are providing a safe and fun environment for learners.”
In addition to providing Manfeild opportunity to showcase this spectacular sport and take its presentation to a new level, the elevation to series-ender status also recognises D1NZ’s long-standing relationship with the venue, the organiser says.
“It’s where some of the first D1NZ events were held over 15 years ago,” says Brendon White.
“It feels fitting to close this chapter out with a track that has a rich history with our drivers.
“It’s going to be good to see our drivers in top gear battling for those final championship points.”
Manfeild certainly suits Olivecrona’s especially wild ride.
The wending, banked layout starts with the circuit’s esses then delivers a hairpin – for drifters, that means a fast-paced drift section with a technical last sector.
It’s exactly the right condition for the PartsTrader car. Olivecrona says he gets to fully flex the 521 kiloWatt (700 horsepower), 900 Newton metre muscularity and revels in an entry speed of at least 140kmh – a great sight for a fanbase that has registered more than two million social media visits to the Olivecrona Drift Motorsport page in the 18 months since the mad machine’s unveiling.
That Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon is a drift heaven is very much a happy happenstance.
Drifting and the circuit both go back to the mid-1970s, but at that time and for many years afterward a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, with loss of traction in the rear wheels or all tyres, while maintaining control and driving the car through the entirety of a corner was restricted to Japan.
These days it is fully international, sanctioned by the global motorsport authority and involving many countries. New Zealand has been a mouse that roared.
The best New Zealanders are now competing at international level and the top cars are as good as any being raced elsewhere around the world and more stars in the making are coming up through a D1NZ Championship that has shown nothing but fantastic growth since the first was held in 2008.
Olivecrona’s S14 Nissan Silvia has helped drive the sport’s standing. The Nissan coupe has always been a good choice but the story of how a bunch of Kiwis decided to rev it up all the more by implanting a five-litre V12 has been a tale all the world has hankered to hear.
The re-engineering of a Toyota limousine engine into a performance unit of such ferocity tyres can withstand just two competition passes was undertaken by Palmerston North’s Hartley Engineering, run by a family whose involvement in a wide range of motorsport formats – from speedway to Formula One – is legendary.
Development wizard Nelson Hartley kept only the block and head castings then redesigned and rebuilt just about everything else.
Olivecrona’s hope that the powerplant would become known within the drifting scene as the ‘Mad Mike’ of piston engines has been realised. The unit’s ultra-special status also holds – only one other is known, and that’s running in North America.
“We wanted to build something different and bring a different feel to D1NZ,” Olivecrona said.
“We thought the Hartley V12 would set us apart from the competition and it truly has. It’s awesome, and it’s just so different. That’s what drifting is all about. It’s quite an individualised sport.”
His father, Kester, fabricated the entire car, fitting it with an entirely new body kit and set of three-piece wheels. Bodywork graphics influenced by Japan’s manga cartoons are a fitting final touch for a racing class in which Japanese slang developed during the sport’s genesis have become fan catchphrases.
The key words are ‘furidashi’, which describes the point at which sliding begins and the next phase of sliding angle, ‘furikaeshi’. Fans identify the lead driver in the two-car battles as ‘senko.’ The follower? ‘Atooi’. Qualifying sessions are known as ‘tanso’, the finals as ‘tsuiso’.
The Manfeild round has been preceded by three competitions, two – at Tauranga’s Bay Park Speedway and in Wellington – already staged and a third down for Pukekohe on March 30-31.
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Manfeild favoured by drift ace – NZ Motor Racing – Oliveocrona Drift Motorsport
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