A new boy on the Whanganui race car scene has claimed the annual 4 and Rotary Jamboree Battle of the Rookies Drift Competition at Manfeild at the weekend.
Matt Lauder, relocated his race car engineering business, Louda Created, to Whanganui in January to be closer to his fiancee Hayley and after racing his Nissan 180SX car at a fun event in Taupo two weeks ago the drift fire in his belly was reignited.
"I've been drifting half my life beginning when I was 15 and I turn 30 next month," Lauder said.
"There are two tiers to drifting, rookie and pro and in my first season in rookie I came second in New Zealand, but didn't do that well after moving to pro. After years of racing I got sick of spending money and gave it up for a while, so haven't raced competitively for about four years.
"Initially I actually didn't think I would be allowed to enter the rookie competition at Manfeild, but I had tyres and stuff left over from the fun event in Taupo, so asked the organisers. They said because I hadn't raced competitively for four years and I didn't have the $200,000 car with 1000 horse power most the pros have, I could race in the rookie class again."
