Tauranga's Cole Armstrong has taken a dominating hometown victory in round three of the Demon Energy D1NZ National Drifting Championship Series, held at the ASB Baypark custom drift-course.

A bumper crowd enjoyed two days of sunshine as top tier international drifting returned to the Bay of Plenty, with more than 7,500 fans packing in to witness the Pro-Championship main event on Sunday.

Cole Armstrong in action in round three of the Demon Energy D1NZ National Drifting Championship Series. Photo: Erron Soon.

Piloting the V Energy 250GT Skyline, Armstrong qualified first by one-and-a-half points ahead of series young-gun Joe Kukutai in the Rockstar Energy R32 Skyline; who held an 87-point provisional pole for much of the qualifying session after a spectacular bar-setting run.

Armstrong was the only driver to better Kukutai's score with an 88.5, earning himself a bye-run in the Top32 competition, before defeating V8Supercar ace Shane Van Gisbergen in the Top-16, former champion Curt Whittaker in the Top-8, and series points leader Darren Kelly in the Top-4.

The V Energy Drift Team then found themselves in the final against Californian Andrew Redward in the Club Auto Insurance FC RX7.

With a capacity crowd on their feet once again, Armstrong continued a faultless drive to take the round victory as Redward suffered a broken half-shaft during the first pass.

'It's so good to finally put on a strong show here in my hometown,” says Armstrong.

'The local support has been fantastic and to grab the win here in Tauranga is pretty special. Finally we've got this new beast going, and as we've seen she goes pretty good.”

Ecstatic with his performance, the Australian-based Kiwi was happy to be back at the top, with his team continuing on-going development with the new Dodge NASCAR V8 engine which had its debut at Manfeild late last year.

Nicknamed the ‘Concrete Jungles', the Club Auto Insurance-backed event at Baypark was the second and last custom course of the season.

Pro-AM Driver Calvin Clark found himself in the Sector 2 wall in practice on day one with GVI's Nico Reid smashing into the Sector 1 entry wall in his RB25 powered Nissan S15.

The biggest hit in Pro-Qualifying on day two saw local fans-favourite Drew Donovan hit the entry wall hard in his Milwaukee S15 Silvia, with Donovan doing his best to salvage points by stepping into his partner and team-mate's Milwaukee JZA/GT86 Supra, driven by Jodie Verhulst.

Tauranga drift-fans were treated to a star-studded line-up as Kiwi international Shane Van Gisbergen made a return to the series alongside Australian Drift Grand-Prix star Michael Prosenik.

Other internationally-renowned drivers included Gaz Whiter, Daynom Templeman, Curt Whittaker and Daniel Woolhouse.

The next round of the Demon Energy D1NZ Drifting Championship Series will be held in the Waikato at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park on February 20 and 21.