D1NZ Round 2 Pukekohe

Hey how's it every one! D1NZ Round 2 happened over the weekend and what a crazy few days it was. I got out on the track Friday morning, did 3 average runs then got told off for being over the track's 95db noise limit... along with about 20 other cars. That meant I spent the rest of the day trying to shut the car up, while still keeping some horsepower to get around the track.

After welding a new pipe on the muffler I'd had enough and went out on the track and it was all good. I didn't get told off, and laid down some really soild runs while following Gaz Whiter to get my entry speed right.

Saturday morning was looking like it was going to be a great day, with clear skies and the wind up meaning the homos with their noise meter couldnt get good readings and wouldn't be on track for the day. But it all changed when the screw out of the throttle butterfly came out and went through the motor.

It must have gotten stuck under the valve and caused the rocker to pop off. I fixed that then it still wouldn't run right, pulled the sparkplug out and oh sh*t that was all messed up from the screw bouncing around in the head! Turns out that tiny screw bouncing around had messed up #4 piston and spark plug, such a crazy little thing to happen! I fixed it and went out and did 1 qualifying run. It was ok but I wasnt super happy with it, but didn't want to do any more runs in case I messed up the motor for battles. As it turns out my run was good enough 7th place in qualifying - so pretty stoked for straight out of the gate!

Stopping for lunch, the pits opened up to the fans and it was great! I had so many people of all ages coming up and saying hello, wanting posters, having a sit in the car and just wanting photos of me and the car. I signed and gave away 100 posters and ran out about half way through the pit walk! Really stoked with the fan base the car and my driving is attracting this season.

Promo girls hhhmmmmm what can i say,  WOW!!!

Into the top 16! After our top 16 parade lap and burnout, it was into the first battles. I went up against Mark Burling in his new S15. After the 1st ran the car started missing again really bad, by this stage in the day I was so over the stupid motor so just kept driving it. My chase run with Mark was pretty crap as the car was struggling to stay on boost running on 3 cylinders but lucky we got a re-run and i just went for it, making it through to the top 8. I was up against Darren Benjamin (who was #1 qualifier), he led 1st and I made a big mistake around the sweeper and the motor died and didnt want to run any more... I got it started and couldn't carry on the way the beaten motor was going so returned to the pits and Darren went through to the top 4 and went on to 3rd place over all - CONGRATULATIONS Darren - pleased the new Rookies in the D1 this year are showing a lot of people how it's done!

What a weekend! I ended up placing 6th on the day, not too bad after doing four runs on 3 cylinders. Lucky I managed to keep it on the pipe and on the track, stoked with the outcome after all that went on over the weekend!

Cant wait for round 3 Taupo I  love that track!!!!

A huge thanks to Ryan Sun at Luxury Sports, Alcotane Racing Fuels, Adens Trye Shop, Sinco Customs, Rachael at Catapult Creative, Shred Motorsport, WAL Engineering - without you guys I couldn't do what I do, so thanks a lot!!

NZ drift nats 2011

Had a great day at the NZ Drift Nationals at hampton downs yesterday, qualified in 7th and ended up in 6th over all beating steve sole and tuxx and losing to mad mike and carl ruiterman in very close battles! thanks a lot to shred motorsport, luxury sports, Alcotane, sinco customs

Motox in Taupo

Had a good day yesterday racing at taupo mx track, myself phil and dan walker drove up from Otaki saturday.

 phill lined up in the open all in race

 phill looking styly

 its along day waiting for your race to come around and lucky i had a couch that i was taking home

 phill jumping the start finish line with mt ruapehu in th background

 dan battling it out for 4th place

I won our 2nd race which i was very stoked about and keen to get in to racing a bit more over the winter

 dan on the left and me on the right getting ready for the last race, it went well for me for the first few laps getting a good start  and getting out in front but made a few small mistakes and 2nd place closed the gap and came up the inside on a corner and took me out and i got stuck under my bike for long enough that every one past me so it was time to have sum fun doing jumps. dan ended up 4th in this race.

Wainui movie

check out video fromt the wainui last week

drifting out, kayaking in

Thanks to Greg Thomas for these photos from the other day 

Me firing up the 60foot and ben brown loving it at the bottom

 The first rapids a bouncy line and you can go deep if you get the bounce wronge at the bottom

 Trying to get the nose down on the 30, i think ryan was leaning forward as well trying to help me out

 This is one of the bigest drops with a few critical moves, a few of the boys tryed it backwards.

the last big 1

Hey howzit, Im sitting here in bed writing this with my head lamp on with no power in the house after the days storm and its so awsome cos of the sick days boating. I cant take too long writing this as my computer is going flat so enjoy the few pics

 After a crap weekend of drifting the mighty rain came down the country leaving me with dreams all night of going to the Wainui and running the beast of a 65footer that ryan lucus had 1st descented about 8 months ago.

After a few phone calls around to see what the haps was a crew gathered at the tuna store and headed out.

 The put in looked like a sweet flow and it was perfect!

 ryan fired up after the 1st few drops

 This is a sweet slide into a 10footer, most of the drops dont look super clean but all go apart from 1 that is to narrow.

the 30footer has to be the most similar rapid to spirit falls on the Little White in Oregan you could ever get

Greg Thomas had a little swim on the river right in here, when i baged him out he was very blue and very F@#ked

And 7 of us fired up the 60footer, every ones lines were sweet, the 60 is so perfect love it best days boating in along time.

Kiwis learning to fly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010/2011 d1nz season over

Well after a crazy weekend at hampton down i am now the runner up in the d1nz rookies for the season, I tryed so had to win the championship for the season but it just wasnt ment to be after qualifying 1st i pushed it to hard at the end of the judged section and spun which put me in to the wall. After sum great help from others in the pits got the car straightend out enough to drive and put in 2 ok runs to make it to the top 8.
top 8 battles saw me up against carlos walter a good freind of mine.

We ended up doing 3 reruns as we both made big mistakes which seemed to be more our cars giving up for the season with my clutch slipping and his hand brake not working, in the end i made it through to the top 4.

 Up against darren in  the big 2jz powered c35, i made a huge mistake on my lead run spinning giving him the 10-0 advantage and he did a good chase run which gave him the win.

That put me in the battle for 3rd and 4th with Nico Reid who was only 10 points ahead of me in the championship . "Who even wins this battle will win the overall" i heard them say over the mic, I drove my poor beat up car as hard as it would go but with a slipping clutch, flat front tyre and powersteering that only worked sumtimes it wasnt enough and the judges gave Nico 3rd and the championship win.

Its been 1 hell of a season i cant really beleave its over. A massive thanks to every one that helped me out this season
Repco Rotorua
Shred motorsport
Garage H
Sinco customs
Adens tyres
Rachael
Dan
Mum
Matt
 and everybody else thanks you all so much

Waiouru tussock buster trail ride

What a amazing day riding 140km around some of the most scenic tracks ive ever been on with a great bunch of mates. This was the 13th year the tussock buster was run and it was just a great well run event.

Friday things kicked off at 1pm for just a few short 45km laps to learn how to ride again,  after only the first 5 minutes found out that i really needed my goggles because the dust was just crazy but lucky for me we couldnt see and took the wronge turn and were back in the car park after only 10minutes of riding. so grab the goggles and off again.

Dan having a rest and taking in the view on friday

We had a sweet set up for camping with shanes hourse truck having all the gears in it. we had a few beers after riding on friday and im pretty sure that out of about a 1000 people in the camp ground we were the lasy ones to get to sleep and got told off by security for being to loud.

 We had a great little team, Phill mulet shane danny dan tam and me. this was only about 25 km into the huge 90km loop on saturday, we took lots of warm cloths as the dark clouds to the north didnt look good.

 Phill having a few issues on the biggest hill of the ride but it made for a good laugh!

Me and Dan had a few close calls each going down the tank tracks in top gear wide open trying not to hit our feet on the edge of the ruts, i did clip my foot once and thought it was all over but managed to hold it together and keep it pinned.

 The rain clouds rolling in

 The A team less mulet as he had a little spill and riped the radiator off his bike so we left him to make his own way home.

 As the rain set in the tracks turned to mud and it was like trying to ride on ice, but the high ridge and beautiful beech tree forest made up for it.

Thanks every one for a sick few days riding and see you all there next time !

New Zealand Drift Film - How We Do - D1NZ Round 5 2011

Check this video out from the last round of drifting it is amazing, really shows how it all works and is just super sick!!! none of me but cool

d1nz round 5 follow up

"Brad Lauder also will be looking at a move up to D1NZ next season with his impressive season in D1Rookie - some sure stars coming up for the future of NZ drifting." from d1nz website

Rookie Top 8 finishers:

1	- Nico Reid
2	- Dave Steedman
3	- Bradley Lauder
4	- Brandon Rogerson
5	- Mark Burling
6	- Karl Sturmfels
7	- Darren Benjamin
8	- Phil Otene

Ive been getting some great exposure on big websites around the net, check out this link for write up from d1nz website D1NZ CLICK HERE

D1NZ round 5

After leaving hoki on Wednesday i drove back to picton jumped on the ferry, with a good sailing got back to otaki about 11pm. After a good nights sleep got up early and started driving back to Rotorua i got in around 1pm packed up the car and headed for Auckland. so after 2 days of driving me and rach got to the camp ground on the bombays.

Friday morning was going good with beautiful blue sky and the fastest corner for drifting in the world ready to be attacked by some 60 drivers. The corner really plays with your head as you need to be doing at least 180km to get around with good angle, i did afew good runs but when i got into the pits got told off for my car being to loud along with half of the feild. I strugled through the day by trying to kill the noise becouse everytime i tryed to quieten it i lost a huge amount of power which made it hard to drift the section. I got it sorted and had a few good qualifing runs which put me in 4th place for qualifing.

The top 16 battle went well i didnt push to hard so i didnt make any mistakes and was through to the next day for the top 8.

Simon from garage h wanted me to take him for a ride at the end of the day but as we left the pits changed 1 gear then the engine started to mis fire BUGGER!! after trying to find out what it was we had to pack up and get out of the track so headed down to E H motors and pulled the rocker cover off to find 2 smashed rockers BUGGER BUGGER! I fished all the broken bits out and Carl Ruitiman got me some spare rockers and thanks to Josh Coote (Aussie) for the motivation to fix it as i was very tyred and wasnt really felling it.

Getting it all back together i gad a little misshap by braking a bolt off for the camshaft bearing cap, a bid thanks to E H motors for helping me and i got it out and all back together.

Saturday was another beaut day and got some good practice runs in. Top 8 battles went well taking out Carl Sturmfles, to make top 4 but after a rerun lost so battled Brendon Rogerson for 3rd and 4th and had 2 good runs taking him out for 3rd place which i was super stoked about after a huge effort to get there and the troubles on friday.

The last 3 weekends ive made the podium 3 different times at 3 of New Zealands biggest

extreme sports events!

2nd round 4 D1NZ rookies

2nd 2011 bullerfest Boater X

3rd round 5 D1NZ rookies

So big thanks to all those people who help me out in getting here!!!!

The busy life!

What a crazy few weeks its been, On the 6th me and ryan lucas drove down to the buller fest in Murchison for a weekend of racing and drinking, and that we did. The boater x is one of the biggest feilds in the country with more then 70 mens competitors, after a long day we had the final set and ready to go with myself Sam Sutton  Mike Dawson and another young slalom paddler.It was a great race with me hot on mikes tail but couldnt make a pass and Mike ended up taking the win with myself in 2nd and sam 3rd.

After a few good nights of partying and a sweet day hucking off Mururia Falls it was time to head to the wild west coast to do somw heli boating with Bruce Dando and his awsome little hughs 300 chopper.

Monday we went up the Kokatahi river for a sick days boating on one of my top 3 runs ive done in the world.

Photo. mike dawson. Paddler Wills marton

The river had changed alot after alot of flooding this year which opened up rapids like this sick drop, but
also changed rapids for the worst the couldnt be paddled any more



I flew up with Isaac the American, Fabian the Argentinean, Sam, Ryan, Wills and mike. Making a pretty stout team. The action started pretty early on, with Ryan missing a boof and getting beat down in one of the numerous holes. I bagged him out to the side. Next up was Fabian getting slotted into a little seive... Super dodge. I pulled him out with some help from the U.S. The last of the action saw Isaac getting stuck in a little surprise hole before getting bagged by Sam and pulled out. No swims, but a bit of action.

Photo mike dawson

Day 2 was a chill day up the hoki river with a massive crew of 12 paddlers which dose take a bit longer but everyone had a sick day with the 2 girls on the trip lou jull and martina doing awsome and sticking there lines.

after a good night sleep in the back of the trusty van with my room mate Ryan i headed off back to the north island for round 5 of the D1NZ in Auckland.

round 4 vid

D1NZ round 4 Taupo video I put together.

d1nz website photos

 Heres afew photos and comments from the d1nz web site after round 4 over the weekend

 

This is from the d1nz website:

 "Over the course of the day the Top 16 kicked of with some sure stand outs. Alu Nathan borrowed Graeme Mutch’s car (dad) to really stomp his mark on the track picking up a well deserved 4^th place, local Pukekohe resident Brandon Rogerson picked up the pace in his 180sx and pushed to claim 3^rd spot for his first podium in D1Rookie, The 2 to beat currently in the Rookie Championship battled it out with Bradley lauder narrowly missing out and giving young gun Nico Reid top podium spot – watch out for these 2 they will be some future stars in NZ drifting."

 

D1NZ round 4 Taupo

Hey, after a very stressfull month trying to get the car all back together for round 4 a 2nd place was pretty well earnt! After a long morning on friday trying to repair a blowen intercooler pipe for qualifying i was a bit nervous that it was going to do it again but still ended up qualifying 2nd behind Nico reid who i also ended up lossing to in the final.

drift car upgrades

hey all, I know its been awhile since I last put sumthing up here but ive been a little busy out in the shed!! after round 3 i new my motor was alittle sad after around 4 years of beating on it drifting. so pulled it out and found 1 piston had nipped up abit from getting to hot, so a little freshen up was in order, with the cost of the after market parts being around the same as the nissan oem parts i went out and found a few top of the line parts to get a little more out of the motor!

 my motor now has a set of acl race bearings, arp rod bolts, cp forged pstion in the botom end and up top a cometic head gasget, kelford cams "ultimite drift cams" along with a set of heavyier valve springs. Hanging of the side now is the beautiful Sinco Customs manifold with a lager holset turbo, for now just cos i had it in the shed and looks cool as! but next week will be geting a gt37 masterpower turbo

As the motor was now out of the car and had sum time i cut out the old front wheel arches and made these sexy big tubs that now allows me to run as bigger wheel and as much lock as i like with no rubbing. so with that done i took out the cross member cut the steering rack mounts off and moved the rack forward about 15mm which gave me around 5 degress more look after taking the grinder to the steering lock stops.

I cant really beleve it myself how good the engine bay looks now, and very staunch with that big turbo hanging off the side!! stay tuned for the end results!!! i cant wait to drive this thing now. hopfully ill get about half as much power again out of it