Boss Motorsport took a break from the UK’s domestic championship to enter the first ever Monster Energy King of Europe Pro Series to be held in England at Lydden Hill race circuit. This gave all our drivers the opportunity to compete against some of the best drivers from the continent with some of the most modified machinery.
The weekend began on the Friday with registration and inspection in a very chilled out and relaxed paddock, with some of the main contenders arriving including, current KOE leader Adam Kerenyi in his Supercharged M5 powered BMW E36 and last year’s champion Francesco Conti with his new Liberty Walk Performance Wide Body kit on the E92 M3 GT4.
Saturday was a tyre shredding full day of practice with qualification for the top 32 at the end of the day, the hard charging Martin Wonnacott in his JZX90 Toyota Chaser suffered clutch issue’s throughout the day which saw him finish just outside the top 32 qualifiers.
The teams two other drivers Steve Moore and Ollie Elmore finished 19th and 20th respectively dialled into the circuit and getting used to the alternative layout for the KOE round, whilst learning the sophisticated telemetry system the judge‘s use for scoring the battles.
Race Day and the team woke to find out Steve had drawn fellow UK driver and KOE regular Matt Campling in his JZ RPS13, and Ollie’s Top 32 battle would be against defending KOE champion Francesco Conti. An awesome days battles was expected and with one last hour practice session in the morning giving the team the chance to put final touches to the S14 and Skyline set up’s.
Tyres were now getting to a premium for both drivers and the hunt began for some spare rubber, once again the paddock delivered with some help from another team coming to the rescue.
First up for Boss would be Ollie against Francesco. Nailing the first sighting lap and the Skyline smoking up the track the confidence was high in the team. Chase run began with both cars hitting the first clipping point with loads of angle but the R33 Skyline wash out to the edge of the track and dug into the gravel causing Ollie to lose ground, giving Francesco the advantage going into the second run.
The lead run for Ollie saw him push the car to its limit and take the win, but with too big an advantage to Conti’s BMW the judges advanced him to the Top 16.
Steve had been putting in some awesome laps in morning practice, turning the Lydden Hill bowl into a smoke screen and throwing loads of angle through the final corner with full commitment.
Top 32 battle with Matt Campling began with Steve chasing hard with some very close proximity and hitting every clipping point throughout the battle with the Judges narrowly awarding Matt the advantage with a score of 6-4.
Steve’s lead run again was flawless but with Matt staying close to him and consistent driving he progressed to the Top 16.
Our first King of Europe experience was a good result for the team overall with all the drivers competing at the highest level , the specification and customizing of the cars in KOE are the next level which the team aim to achieve in the future. The Championship itself is an awesome experience and a huge thank you goes to Mike and all the team from KOE for organising such a good event.
A special thank you goes out to http://www.crturbos.co.uk/ for Ollie Elmore’s turbo rebuild and excellent service to get him out on track for the weekend.
Next Up British Drift Championship Rd3 Teesside.