Invercargill driver Joshua La Rosa has made a successful start to his motorsport career by winning the 2022/2023 Drift South Development Series.
La Rosa was also presented with a Special Recognition Award for the achievement by the Southland Sports Car Club, of which he is a member, at their recent prizegiving.
Drifting is a branch of motorsport where a combination of corners form a section of track where competitors are marked on their ability to complete that section of the course while sustaining a loss of traction, enabling the vehicle to achieve the greatest angle whilst moving in a forward direction without losing control.
Twenty-five-year-old La Rosa is originally from Auckland and was living in Australia when, ten years ago, he enrolled at the SIT. Since then, he has studied and then worked in the south as a mechanic, most recently at Evolution Motorsport, owned by local motorsport identities Rick and Fiona Michels.
Always a car enthusiast and a keen television follower of D1NZ, New Zealand’s top-level drift series, it was working on race and drift cars at Evolution Motorsport and going to Teretonga Park to test them and work on them that gave Joshua the bug that saw him take the plunge into motorsport himself.
“Getting into motorsport was in my head, but I don’t think I would have got into it without working in the sport,” he said. That plunge has brought immediate results.
At the beginning of the 2022/2023 season, La Rosa bought a Toyota Chaser. “I had one test day at Teretonga Park and one in Christchurch and then took part in the opening round of the Drift South Development Series at Euromarque Motorsport Park at Ruapuna in Christchurch, where I won first time out,” he said.
There were four more rounds throughout the series, all in Christchurch, bar the penultimate round at Timaru International Motor Raceway, and La Rosa compiled results of second, fourth, second and sixth in the remaining rounds to take the championship.
The layout for the final round certainly did not favour La Rosa, but he did enough to take the title. “The layout didn’t suit the Chaser as we had low horsepower, but I knew I just had to get some points to clinch it,” he says.
The Toyota Chaser JZX90 was powered by a 4-litre Lexus V8 motor with a gearbox from a Toyota Supra. “It was a really basic car,” he continues. “It featured an aftermarket ECU and electronics, but I bought it as it was. Along with Rick (Michels), we tidied it and sorted some safety stuff and started competing.”
The Chaser has now been replaced for the upcoming season by a Nissan Skyline. “It will be a lot more competitive,” says Joshua. “It is a nicer, faster car, pretty much top-notch. We have only had to do some safety things with it. It is an RB25 Skyline and produces 550hp.”
“I’ve done two test days and have one more scheduled before I start competing in it.” Joshua is taking a sensible approach. “It is a new car and new chassis. I’m going to start in the Development Series with it until I get comfy and competitive, and only then will I make the step up to the Pro Sport Class.”
With the series once again based in the Canterbury region in the upcoming season, La Rosa will have to make the trek north once again to compete at each round. However, as he has shown in the past season, that has not held him back at all, and after a successful debut in the sport, his progress will be keenly watched this season.
Words: Supplied
Images: Supplied (Vanessa Adcock)
