Last week, the Valvoline D1NZ National Drifting Championship unveiled explosive plans to reinvent itself with an indoors return event at ASB Showgrounds next month.
The event replaces Hampton Downs on D1NZ's 2020 calendar, and stands as one of the category's most ambitious projects.
Along with hosting previous events in stadiums on temporary tracks built, competed on, and destroyed in the space of days, D1NZ has also had one other indoors event at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin. However, that event was still held in a relatively open stadium facility, while this event will be hosted on the show floor of one of the country's most prolific convention centres.
The series has unveiled a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how it pieced together its activation video with former champion Darren Kelly. The clip details the process of Director Bradon McCaughey of Dynamic Motion, Kenny Ruddell from Oversteer TV, and high-speed drone operator Georges Moody from inspire.u.media.
Developments around drone footage are perhaps the most interesting. Spectacular high-speed aerial footage from cameras following cars at speed is something the series has started to become known for over the last few seasons. For the first time, this footage will now be part of the live Sky Sport broadcast as opposed to simply being used in replays and post-produced shows.
“This has never been done in New Zealand and during lockdown the goalposts for the event industry kept moving,” D1NZ Manager Brendon White said.
“We wanted to inspire New Zealanders and show that anything is still possible, so we catered for a show that we could execute during the restricted lockdown period to showcase the sport in a new light.
“Drifting is in its infancy globally and is relatively still new in relation to other codes of motorsport. It is unknown how it will evolve in coming years so it’s great to be given the freedom to present motorsport in such an engaging manner to fans."