Watch: Highlights of the tight top-16 D1NZ battles at Baypark

Round two was a couple of weeks ago, but those there to see it are still buzzing with the caliber of battles that went down. 

Not to say that the Link ECU D1NZ National Drifting Championship (rolls off the tongue...) isn't normally competitive. But at Baypark it looked and felt like the category's drivers raised the bar, particularly in the realm of proximity. 

Battling through the top 16 was tough and tight, and saw several giant-killing drives and surprise heart-in-mouth performances. 

Shane van Gisbergen's battle with Cole Armstrong — having flown in overnight from Australia to hoon a car he's rarely drifted at a track he hadn't seen before — was something special. 

Then there was Vincent Langhorn; one of the few gents in the field that drives a road-legal car. He faced up against Drew Donovan after qualifying a spectacular second in Friday's single-run sessions.

This was also the arrival of Jaron Olivecrona's V12 Silvia. The pair faced off with Darren Kelly, and gave the former champ a hell of a scare and a one-more-time shout. 

Of course there was drama, too. Mainly through Matty Hill's tangle with South Africa's George Myburgh, and contact between Daynom Templeman and Ben Wilkinson in their run. As they say, when the heat in the kitchen is this hot, there's bound to be a roast. 

Or something, I dunno. 

You can check out all of the aforementioned spectacle above, and be on the look out for further highlights of the top eight.