Drifter from ‘KaiTyre’ tops podium at Timaru champs
Liam Burke took out all comers on his way to winning the third round of the Pro Sport Series of the Link ECU D1NZ National Drifting Championship in Timaru on Saturday.
Burke defeated round two winner Jordy Cole in a rematch of their final Baypark battle to claim top spot and go 51 points clear of his nearest rival. The 24-year-old Kaitaia racer said he was stoked to finally get a win under his belt following the two second place finishes in Wellington and Tauranga.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment. We’ve been trying so hard to get there,” he said. “There’s still a few threats out there so I’m definitely not relaxed heading into the final two rounds. But having the points lead now is huge for us, its massive.”
It was an impressive comeback for the LBP Drift driver who by his own admission struggled to lay down a high-scoring run. Burke got the best of David Hunter in their top-16 battles, Kyle Jackways in a top-eight and Kurt Blackie in the top four.
During the weekend, announcers also made much of the profile on Burke which ran in last week’s Age. Apparently he’s now known as coming from ‘KaiTyre’, as in the place where there is plenty of food and plenty of tyres.
With two rounds remaining — round 4 at the Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon track in Feilding from April 20-21, and the grand final, round 5 at Pukekohe Park in May (exact date TBC) — and the title on the line, Burke said he was considering making the step up to the Pro Series next summer.
“I’ve got heaps more to work on. You look at the Pro drivers versus the ProSport drivers and it’s another level above. I’d definitely make the move up to Pro, but it would be a tough transition.”
D1NZ Pro-Sport Series overall standings after round 3 are, Liam Burke 275 points, 1, Jordy Cole 224, 2, Taylor James 207, 3, Callum Neeson 173, 4, Kyle Jackways 169, 5, Ra Heyder 158, 6, Jesse Greenslade 134, 7, James Steele 127, 8, with Scotty Dinsdale and Kurt Blackie both 123, thus 9=. **** Another local racing at Timaru was Tom Marshall. Having finished runner up on the 2017 Pro series standings to Cole Armstrong only to declare he wouldn’t be doing the 2018 circuit Marshall has had a change of heart after competing in the second and third legs in the D1NZ-owned Toyota 86 after selling his car last year.
Marshall was eliminated in the top 16 battle of the upper tier Pro championship with Bruce Tannock and settled for an overall finish of 14. This combined with his 15th place at BayPark last month has left the Haruru Falls driver sitting 21st on the standings. Nissan-backed drifter Darren Kelly took his first win of the 2018 Pro series season and the first in his GT-R since debuting it in late-2016.
“I was having really good runs in practice, but when I got to qualifying I cooked it. I don’t know what happened. I just went out and it felt like crap. I ended up qualifying 10th so I really had to step my game up for the battles. But we managed to pull through and everything went my way.”