The British Drift Championship headed to Anglesey for the final round of the 2015 season, champions would be crowned this weekend but it was just a question of who?
The track was the fastest that the drivers would see this year, a high speed entry onto an outer clip before cutting across the track to an inside clip.
The speed gun would read 62mph for the fastest drivers as they ran out wide before transitioning onto a rear clip in front of the crowds.
A long run down to the hairpin awaited the drivers, many of them got this wrong at some point over the weekend, taking out the inner cone or hitting the tyres on the outside of the corner.
If the drivers got the right line around the track then it was fast and flowing, making an exciting display for the fans.
If they got it wrong then it could easily end their weekend as the tyres and walls weren’t too far from the track.
Saturday morning, the sun was out and everyone in the ProAm class was getting ready for their practice session, a few runs into the session saw the drivers nailing the line and increasing their speed throughout the course.
Qualifying would follow on from practice with each driver getting two non-consecutive runs. Championship leader Adam Simmons would be the top qualifier after scoring 86.5 on his first run.
Fraser Stark was looking to take the championship away from Adam on the last day, he qualified in second with a score of 82.0, giving him 2 valuable points.
A surprise during qualifying was Matt Walker getting 9th with a score of 73.7. He has come up from Driftcup this year and is running just over 200hp in his BMW E30, it takes some impressive driving to be able to link the track with such a power deficit to other competitors.
There were many close battles throughout the Top 32 battles but all eyes were on Adam Simmons & Fraser Stark.
Adam battled against Stuart Egdell and Mike Lardner before meeting Matt Walker in the Top 8. Adam ran wide on his lead run at the hairpin narrowly missing the tyres, on his chase run another mistake would hand the win to Matt Walker, the championship would come down to how well Fraser Stark would finish.
Fraser would get into the Top 4 after beating James Mathewson, Mathew Denham and Tony Walker.
Joining them in the Top 4 would be Ryan Pothecary after multiple battles with Kirsty Widdrington.
Stuart Farley would round out the Top 4 after beating Lewis Mitchell, Richard McCourt and Wayne Curran.
Fraser put in a strong lead run against Stuart Farley before swapping positions, a great chase run would be enough to get through to the final.
Ryan Pothecary and Matt Walker would then battle to see who would take the remaining place in the final, Ryan would chase first, closing in on Matt through clip 3. As they entered the hairpin Matt Walker would make a mistake, Ryan couldn’t avoid him and made contact with the back of Matt’s car. Ryan would then put in a good lead run putting him through to the final.
The battle for third place took place next between Stuart Farley and Matt Walker, Stuart put in a strong lead and chase run giving him the win and the final place on the podium.
The final battle came down to Fraser Stark and Ryan Pothecary, Fraser had run well all day and this battle was no exception, a great lead run, smooth and fast would give him the advantage. A great chase run getting onto Ryan’s door would be enough to get the win.
The drivers celebrated their results on the podium, Fraser Stark had won the event and collected enough points to win the championship by 2 points.
Sunday morning, a grey sky greeted everyone at the track and stayed all day, threatening to rain.
The Pro drivers headed out onto track for their practice session, the speeds were high as the track filled with smoke.
After a couple of hours it was time for the Pro class to qualify, everyone had two non-consecutive attempts to put down their best runs. This gives everyone a fair chance on days like this where it rained for a few minutes toward the end of the session.
Wayne Keeber was the fastest through the speed gun during qualifying being clocked at 62mph, he would get 5th place after scoring 88.5 on his second run.
Keilan Woods qualified first with an impressive run, a huge entry into the first turn and good speed would result in a score of 89.8.
Championship leader Jack Shanahan only managed to put in one run as he had an issue selecting gears. A trip back to the paddock where his team would remove the clutch and gearbox, before working tirelessly to get it fixed in time for battles.
He qualified 11th with a score of 85.5, only 4 points away from first, it just shows how competitive the Pro class has become.
The championship changing story happened out on track as Jack’s car was parked on the side-lines, Michael Marshall span on both his runs scoring 0 and ultimately taking him out of contention for the championship.
At that point Jack Shanahan became the 2015 British Drift Champion, not that they stopped fixing the car to let it sink in. These guys are determined to do the best they can all the time, that meant fixing the issue and getting back onto track to battle in the afternoon.
The battles followed after the drivers were given a short break to prepare their cars. Fraser Stark would have another impressive day as he made it into the Top 8 after beating Paul Smith and Shane O’Sullivan.
TJ Berney also drove well making it into the Top 8, he had beaten Shane Lynch and Gary Mills to make it that far.
Top qualifier, Keilan Woods was on a mission beating Tom Murphy in the Top 32 before going through several One More Times against Mark Luney.
His day would end in the Top 8 against Simon Perry, Joining Simon in the Top 4 would be Jack Shanahan, Brian Egan and Martin Richards.
The first battle of the Top 4 would see Brian Egan and Martin Richards meet in a battle of the Skylines, Martin put down a smooth fast lead run whilst keeping close proximity on his chase run to advance through to the final.
On the other side of the tree Simon Perry would battle the newly crowned champion, Jack Shanahan. Jack put in a great chase run, right on Simons door. On his lead run as he came through the first corner his rear left tyre came off the rim, as he transitioned onto clip 3 the rear right tyre came off the rim too.
A quick tyre change and back out for his battle for 3rd place against Brian Egan where his rear left tyre would come off the rim during his chase run, unfortunately losing him the battle.
Simon Perry and Martin Richards would go up against each other in the final, Martin led first with a great run. They swapped over and as Simon led into the first corner something went wrong, he ran wide and bailed out of the run letting Martin past, clutch issues would cost him the final battle.
The drivers took their opportunity to celebrate on the podium with Martin Richards in first, Simon Perry in second and Brian Egan in third.
The team trophy went to the Drift Elite / Evergreen Tyres team of Martin Richards, Mathew Denham and Joe Ankers.
The Aford Awards Hard Charger trophy was given to Matt Walker for his amazing driving, managing to peddle his E30 around the track and competing against some big name drivers in both the ProAm and Pro classes.
Thats the end of the British Drift Championship season, we look forward to starting it all over again next year, until then enjoy some bonus photos.
