Driving a car sideways with the gauge showing 150km/h might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

But the driver’s seat of a car drifting around a bend at one and a half times the open road speed limit is Corbyn Wilson’s happy place.

Last year, at 15, Corbyn won the MSC Challenge New Zealand series held over four rounds at Meremere Drift Park.

Now 16 and halfway through this year’s series, he is well-positioned to retain the title.

In round 1 on November 9, he was top qualifier and finished second to Jason Wu.

In round 2 last Saturday, he was overall winner.

These results gave him the series lead on 193 points – 16 ahead of second-placed Wu.

Rounds 3 and 4 are at Meremere Drift Park from December 13 to 15.

MSC Challenge was started in 2006 in Japan by Kazuhiko Iwata.

It is a feeder series to the top-tier Formula Drift Japan competition also founded by Iwata.

Toting the Formula Drift Japan licence that came with his MSC Challenge NZ success last year, Corbyn – accompanied by his father Shaun – visited Japan for two and a half weeks in April this year.

The aim was to make connections that would help in any foray into big-time drifting in Japan.

One of those connections was an introduction to Formula Drift Japan founder Iwata.

“From that trip, we know what we have to do in New Zealand to achieve our goals in Japan,” Wilson said.

First up is the MSC Challenge NZ.

Then in late January comes the first round of D1NZ - the national drifting championship series. Corbyn intends to contest all four rounds.

“That goes all round the country,” he said. “You don’t necessarily have to win it to qualify for the next level.

“It has two sections - Pro and Pro-Sport. I’m going into Pro-Sport ... the cars have 235-millimetre tyres compared with the Pro class, which has 265mm tyres.

“I aim to move up to Pro-Sport, then to Pro and then to Japanese competition. I’d rather go up in small increments than get blown away by going into the higher levels straightaway.”

Corbyn’s sporting background includes ministocks and judo.

“I did judo for seven years,” he said. “I gave it up when I was 12, once I started with the cars. I did both for a year, then had to choose one or the other.”

His family has a passion for performance cars of all makes and sizes, and his first motorised vehicle was a motorbike.

A move into speedway ministocks was accompanied by plenty of success across three years of competition all over the North Island.

Corbyn was introduced to drifting during a family visit to Auckland when his uncle Greg Munt mentioned he had bought a drift car.

“It was nothing fancy,” Wilson said. “He took us to Meremere Drift Academy, dumped me in the seat and taught me how to do doughnuts and stuff. I was 13.

“It wasn’t long before he bought a new drift car and sold that first one to us.”

Using the car was problematic. The closest suitable track was in Taupō, but Corbyn and his father opted for Meremere Drift Park, midway between Hamilton and Auckland.

In the summer months they’d go there every second weekend, leaving Gisborne on Sunday at 3am, arriving at 9am, leaving about 4pm and getting home about 2am on Monday.

They followed that routine for about 18 months and ended up buying a more competitive car from Drift Academy New Zealand founder Sky Zhao, who had tutored Wilson in the art of drifting from his early days turning up at Meremere Drift Park.

The car is a Nissan 350Z with an LT4 6.2-litre supercharged V8 and a Haltech engine management system. It has a TTi sequential gearbox, Wisefab angle kit and Parts Shop MAX rear end, and runs on Strom wheels wrapped in Kenda rubber.

Parents Shaun and Tamsin Wilson are supportive. They bought the cars, but “Mum is too scared to watch”.

The speed, going sideways at 150km/h, close calls an everyday occurrence ... it’s easy to see why.

“MotorSport New Zealand pretty much takes control of everything,” Corbyn said. “All our cars need a homologated roll cage for when you flip. I haven’t flipped yet; just a few fender benders.”

He followed up his 2023 MSC Challenge success with the top qualifying spot and second place in the D-Spec Knockout Kings competition this year.

More recently he competed in a Taupō competition called Driftwars in which he topped day 1 qualifying and finished fourth in a field of 30 professional drivers.

The action was featured in NZ Performance Car magazine.

Corbyn made his D1NZ debut at Baypark in Tauranga in April this year. Over two days at the country’s top drifting event, he qualified and won battles.

He looks forward to doing the full circuit early next year.

An influence in his motorsport development has been the example set by another young driver, Kase Pullen-Bury, who won the D1NZ Pro Championship at the age of 19 this year after dominating the Pro-Sport Championship in 2023.

For the Wilsons, motorsport is a family affair. Tamsin and sister Sofia, 14, are dedicated followers of Corbyn’s exploits while Shaun, a builder with his own business, pits for his son.

At least Corbyn - a learner-licence holder on the nation’s roads - can now share the driving when they travel to competitions.

Drifting is a relatively recent phenomenon in motorsport although its roots can be traced back to pre-1950s racing.

The history of drifting

According to Wikipedia, Italian automotive titan Enzo Ferrari credited Italian driver Tazio Nuvolari with inventing the four-wheel drift. Later, British racing driver Stirling Moss improved on Nuvolari’s technique, mastering the art of drifting through curves in Formula One racing with his use of the accelerator pedal in steering.

More recently, Japan has led the way in developing drifting as a specialised competitive sport.

Often called the “father of drifting”, motorcyclist-turned-driver Kunimitsu Takahashi made a name for himself in 1970s Japanese touring car racing with his distinctive driving style. While most racing drivers feared oversteer in their cars, Takahashi used it to drift through corners at high speed.

Takahashi’s bold driving style grabbed the attention of 1980s “Drift King” Keiichi Tsuchiya. In 1987, car magazines and tuning garages got together to produce a video of Tsuchiya’s drifting skills. Known as Pluspy, this video inspired many of the next generation of drift drivers.

From the mid-1990s, competitive drifting spread to North America, Ireland, Britain, Europe, Russia, China, the rest of Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Modern drifting competitions typically entail a field of high-powered, extensively modified rear-wheel-drive cars being steered into a series of controlled slides. Drivers do individual qualifying runs in front of judges, who choose the final 16.

These drivers are paired off in “battles” and the winners progress in knockout fashion until an overall winner is found.

A drift track is only a few hundred metres long, with as many curves as possible lined up. Straight sections allow cars to accelerate so they slide through corners at the highest possible speed and with a high drift angle.

Drivers are judged in both qualifying and final runs on -

• Speed and fluidity: the faster and more fluid a drift runs, the more points are awarded.
• Drift angle: the larger the angle, the more points given. If the angle is too low, hardly any points are awarded; too high, and the car might slow down.
• Line: before an event, the judges give drivers an ideal line. The closer drivers stick to this, the more points they score.
• Style: the most important consideration in drifting. How precisely is the drift initiated? Are frequent corrections needed? Is much of the drive at full throttle?

Each battle comprises two laps. Drivers each have one turn in the lead (as leader) and one with their car behind the other (as chaser). The leader aims to score as many points as possible according to the judging criteria. The chaser tries to stay as close as possible to the leading car without touching it, like a shadow in solid form.