Having only driven Teesside track once before at the British Drift Championship license day earlier in the year, I was a little apprehensive that I may struggle with how technical the track was in places. I once again was in my new and permanent class of Pro and also given the chance to try and qualify with the big boys in Super-Pro.
After briefing where the judges gave us a new line to run than has previously been used I went out there and tried to learn the track and judged line as quick as I could! Two 45 min practice sessions was all the time I had to set the car up and nail the track!
After the second session I dialed in the entire grip I could to face the now drenched track! Pro qualifying was still wet, and from the start line I could see several of the other guys struggling with their runs! I got my three runs done and felt very happy with one of them.
Super-Pro qualifying was much of the same, wet but starting to dry in places making it almost impossible to judge how much power to get down. Both sessions done, now was results time!
I qualified top of my group in Pro which was great news and bagged me some extra points too! I also qualified in the supers even with the changing conditions.
Onto the Sunday and battles, Pro first… my top 32 battle was against Ben Manuel in his E36 BMW. I was lead driver and put in a good tidy run, on my chase run I pushed hard and went through to the top 16. In the top 16 battle I had Anthony Mortley in his Skyline, again my lead run was very good and also my chase….so much so that the judges wanted to re-run the battle.
So in I went to change tyres, having to change to a different tyre than I had previously been using the grip levels were completely different and the car washed out in my runs….that was the end of pro battles for me, leaving me in 9th on the day and currently running 4th in the championship.
Super-Pro battle saw me up against last year’s number 2 Simon Perry in the Lassa tyres R33. This was the big time for me, most high ranked driver I’ve been up against in the British Drift Championship. On my chase run I tried to keep the pressure on through the first corner and stayed as close as I could to Perry, coming into the tight section Perry put 2 wheels off track and I took the opportunity to make a clean undertake! With the first run in the bag I know all I had to do was finish a run without any major “offs” and that’s just what I did!
Through to top 16 battles, Up against Jay White in his M&M Engineering prepared S14, both runs felt very close but with a couple school boy errors I gave the win to Jay!
I now can’t wait to get back to Teesside; I feel I can push the car a lot harder now! Every event I seem to feel more confident with the Skyline and the door to door proximity of BDC racing!
Preparation for the 4th round at Lydden hill is well underway now and I’m very much looking forward to it!
As always I would like to thank my sponsors, as without them none of this would be possible, and many thanks to the British Drift Championship for running the event so smoothly.