Round 3 at Teesside Autodrome marks the midway point of the British Drift Championship. Teesside is located way out on the North East coast and it is the only banked track combined with an infield that is used by the championship.
As our British summer was still dealing out its mixture of sunshine and showers, Saturday morning practice saw part dry and wet runs. This made it quite difficult to find a good setup in order to get on the line the judges had asked for. After two sessions of slipping and sliding I had to settle for a compromised setup which was far from ideal.
As we lined up for qualifying once again the heavens opened, this was going to make it very challenging for me in my qualifying runs. Putting in two good wet runs this awarded me 10th spot. “WHOOP WHOOP” I was through to the main game.
Game day was a complete contrast to the previous day, the weather had now cleared completely and I would face Alex Law in his Team DOJO Nissan S14A for the top 32. With only one practice run to reset the car before battle it made it quite tough but after a few quick changes to the shocks, we were ready to rock. On my first run with Alex I took the advantage, hitting all the clips and pulling a gap on him. On our second run I chased Alex hard into the initiation point keeping tight on his rear quarter but he ran to deep into turn one and went off track handing me a major advantage and I moved on into the top 16.
Next up I drew Dave Waterworth in his Dodge Viper powered Nissan S15. I knew what to expect with Dave as we have meet on many occasions previously, I knew I had to give it 110%. On our first run I was chasing, I kept it pinned to his door until the final corner when the car gripped up causing me to spin out, striking the curbing damaging the passenger front suspension. The team called for the 5 minute rule and frantically tried to realign the bent suspension arm. With Dave having the advantage I returned to the start line with a car that did not feel right at all. Into the second run we went and I was struggling to hold the judged line and once more Dave took the advantage and he moved onto the top 8.
Overall another great weekend for the team, we had a lot of positives that we can take away to help us improve. I would like to say a massive thanks to all of the team for all their hard work in making the weekend run smoothly also to all our team sponsors and fans for their continued support.