This week we are going to run a series of articles about one of the rising stars in drifting, Jack Shanahan, he had a great year in 2015 suprising us all at times with his abilities on the track and the support of his friend and family off the track.
This first article is a round by round review of how Jack took the British Drift Championship Title.
BDC Round 1 – Lydden Hill
It was a very interesting weekend as we got the car finished just in time for the weekend. As I went for practice we started to have issues with the rear mounted radiator so we spent the whole lot of the day Saturday fixing the problem resulting in no practice time.
The teething issues are always there when rebuilding a car but it would mean that I would have to give it everything during qualifying with a relatively unknown setup. On my first qualifying run I threw the car into the gravel trap on the outside of the Devil’s Elbow, this would put a lot of pressure on me for the second run.
The second run was good enough to qualify 7th.
I would then battle Gaz Taylor, Brian Egan and Daniel Eyles on my way to the final against the team boss, Phil Morrison.
I managed to stay close on my chase run whilst Phil span on my lead run giving me the first win of the season.
BDC Round 2 – Knockhill
The weekend started off well with some consistent runs in early in the mornings practice session. After a few runs I noticed the oil pressure drop as I returned to the start ling so I headed to the pits to check it out.
There was no knocking noises from the engine so we carried on, hoping everything was ok. It was only as we got ready for qualifying that the temperature gauge started showing the real issue, the head gasket had gone.We decided to go out and qualify anyway as we had nothing to lose!
We made it into the battles after qualifying in the top 10, it would be a difficult afternoon though as the car needed more water between each battle. My Dad, David Lamb, Jack O’Donovan and Tom Murphy worked hard to keep the car going and out on track.
I made it all the way to the final against Steve Moore where I made a slight mistake, second place gave me some more points toward the championship.
BDC Round 3 – Teesside
This was a very hectic weekend from the start, we had some issues with the driveline resulting in me driving the track without using third gear. With some help from fellow competitor Dan Firmager we got the gearbox running with first and second gear only, we also changed the ratio of the diff to help.
After all that work the release bearing had failed so we then spent the whole night making up an external cylinder with the help of William Rose, Marc Huxley, James Roberts and of course my dad.
I managed to qualify in second with a run scoring 95 points, a few more adjustments were made before heading out for the battles.
I went up against Paul Cheshire, Dan Firmager and Wes Keating on my way to the Top 4.
There I would come up against Michael Marshall, unfortunately my clutch cylinder had other plans and gave up completely leaving me in fourth place for the round.
BDC Round 4 – Lydden Hill
This weekend was looking good from the start, I am unbeaten at Lydden Hill so my confidence was high going into the event and a good result here would give me a strong run at the championship.
Practice was going well although we had a slight fuel leak which caused a fire at the end of one of my runs. It was quickly extinguished and soon the car was on the lift so that we could drop the tank out of the car to repair it.
This time it was Willie and Keilan Woods helping to fix the tank and get us back out on track. The car was ready for qualifying and I headed out to complete my two runs, scoring enough for 13th place.
During the battles I went up against Anthony Mortley, Dan Firmager, Rhys Gamble and Wes Keating before meeting Matt Carter in the final.
We had a great battle with me taking the win after Matt Carter straightened.
BDC Round 5 – Anglesey
Going into the final weekend I knew I had a massive lead in the championship with Michael Marshall being the only person able to stop me from becoming the British Drift Champion for 2015.
Practice went well with me getting several fast and consistent runs in before preparing the car for qualifying.
I went out and put in my first qualifying run, it was good enough for 11th place. I then headed back to the pits with more issues in the driveline.
Michael Marshall would go on to score a 0 in both his qualifying runs taking him out of the championship race, it didn’t stop us from repairing the car and going out to battle though.
I battled William Rose, Jay White, Gary Dunne and Simon Perry before meeting Brian Egan in the Top 4.
My rear left tyre came off the rim during the battle and I rushed to fit another before the second run, again it came off the rim but it didn’t matter as the car had other issues as well.
The championship had been won and I’m extremely happy to be able to say that I am the 2015 British Drift Champion. It’s an unbelievable feeling to know that you’re at the top of the game beating so many great drivers, I’m proud to have succeeded in taking the championship, thanks to all the hard work from by family, friends and all of my sponsors.
