GLORY DAZE DRIFT FESTIVAL
Queens Birthday weekend – for drifters in the south island that typically means one thing: Glory Daze. A grassroots drifting event, 2 days of non stop drifting at Mike Pero Motorsport Park in Christchurch. This year saw Jake “Drift Squid” Jones make his way over from Adelaide to take part, thanks to the Immense Motorsport team offering to lend him their RB30DET BMW E46 – something kind of familiar to Jake, who owns an E92 M3 powered by a RB30DET back in Australia.
Unfortunately for Jake, and the locals, Saturday morning saw the arrival of a heavy downpour in Christchurch and meant the track was more suitable for sprint boats, than drift cars for most of the day. To pass the time most of the drivers headed out onto the track in their tow vehicles to look at the track condition, and as you could expect from a group of drifters… Drag race their tow vehicles down the straight for a while. A Commodore wagon proved to be the more effective drag car than the multitude of work trucks, by the way.
At midday the decision was made to allow the drivers out to a specific section of track which was not as badly flooded as the rain was starting to ease. The remainder of the day allowed the drivers to get out on track and test their vehicles out prior to Sunday, which is typically the “main day” with a hardpark, spectators, and non stop drift trains. As per usual a number of teams discovered issues that needed addressing and the bitterly cold weather meant most headed home around 4pm.
Sunday morning arrived, and unfortunately the rain continued but thankfully much lighter than Saturday. The cold weather meant spectator turnout was limited with most not lasting too long in the freezing cold wind and rain, but the improved track conditions meant the drivers could spend all day on track, with dry patches throughout the day finally allowing some smoke to appear.
Despite the dramas of Saturday, most drivers were able to make it through all of sunday without too many issues. A slick track meant everybody needed to be on their game once the drift trains started, and only one significant impact too place when a vehicles front wheel got tangled with the rear of the car in front and launched the car a few feet into the air. Those who braved the cold and stuck around were treated to some 10-15 car trains and we managed to get some cool shots with the snowy mountains in the background reflecting how cold it was. Overall, it’s a really cool event, its a favourite for the drivers which means a lot of very cool cars which you don’t see too often make the trip and have some fun.I look forward to next year, hopefully it’s a few degrees warmer!
