Two Rooks COLA Winter Drift Matsuri 2018: RECAP

Have you ever spent your long weekends cooped up inside with nothing to do?

We were determined to steer clear of the office for the weekend and decided to soak up the atmosphere at Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park in Taupo for yet another epic New Zealand Drift Matsuri.

Frosty mornings, 100+ drivers and the haze of over $100,000 worth of tyres going up in smoke sifting through the air. This was how we spent our Queens Birthday weekend.

Drift Matsuri is a non-competitive (grassroots) drift motorsport festival which happens two to three times a year and see's drivers from all corners of the country make their way to the central plateau of New Zealand for one hell of a weekend full of awesome music, epic home built drift cars and a variety of delicious street food.

The event starts out on the Friday with beginner to intermediate skill level drivers on the original circuit at Taupo, dubbed "Track 3", a short course perfect for all skill levels.

It was awesome to see the drivers progress throughout the day, some having never been on a professional circuit before. Coming from a background in motorsport it is always great to see the smile on the participants faces as they learn something new and continually improve.

Saturday and Sunday was for the intermediate to advanced skill level drivers; the Main Event.

Jesse Greenslade brought along his recently purchased, Nitrous fed, 26B rotary powered Toyota Aristo churning out over 1000hp. Image: KantoClub.

With a huge variety of cars and driving styles present it made for some great viewing. Six+ car drift battles, backwards entries and super aggressive driving was very cool to see first hand.

Troy Jenkins from Team Jenkins Motorsport brought his recently finished 2JZ Powered GT86 along for the weekend. Image: David Rowe.

A big thank you to everyone who came along and also supported Two Rooks at the event and the afterparty. We will see you at the next one! The early mornings and long hours were definitely worthwhile.

 Dan Hannett, owner of the premium drift build workshop "Genesis Massive" enjoying the twilight drift sessions in his 2JZ powered Toyota Mark II. His exhaust exits straight off the giant turbo and out the bonnet, check out the flame! Image: David Rowe.

 

To keep up to date with more of the Drift Matsuri & Zeroclass DRIFT events head along to www.driftmatsuri.co.nz and subscribe to their newsletter. More photo's will be frequenting their Facebook page so go check them out.