The anticipation of the BDC season was somewhat heightened this year. 2016 see’s David Egan take the reins of the championship. David has done amazing things with The Irish Drift Championship pushing it to heights that were once deemed unreachable. Now his aim is to do the same with The British Drift Championship.
The opening round would see Kieran Hynes back as head judge with Ryan Pothercary and Wes Keating for company. Both highly respected and competitive drivers in their own right. After a strong finish to last season I had very little to change to my car. I definitely ran with the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ philosophy! An oil and filter change, a new track rod, geometry set up and a bolt check was the extent of the mechanics over the winter months.
On the other hand the livery was due to be a huge change. With Carzoola.com as my main sponsor this year the car would be transformed by Craig Western of Violent-d and now looks the best it ever has.
This year the line at Lydden Hill remained mostly unchanged. An earlier, faster entry was required which in turn put the second clip slightly later in turn one, however it still remained to the extreme outside. Clips three through seven remained the same as last year. Practice went very well for me. I found the line and was able to put in some good consistent runs throughout the session. I tried varying settings with suspension and tyre pressures, but as luck would have it my original set up actually felt best.
When qualifying came around, I felt confident that I had a chance of placing reasonably well given how practice had gone. It’s funny, it doesn’t matter how long I have been competing, be it drifting or racing the butterflies are always present whenever things get serious! I suppose that is part of the buzz of competition and why we all crave it so much! I managed to get the butterflies to fly in formation for my first run, and despite tagging the wall on clip two pretty hard, I managed a 79 which at that point was good enough for 1st place.
By the time my second run was due I was still holding on at the top of the leaderboard but only just. I wanted to throw down a better run to put on a show for the fans that had come out to see us, and to try and cement the top spot. I thought I had done a better job from inside the car, but a slightly shallower line through turn one meant that the first run was in fact the better run. And so it would be that run that gave me first place in qualifying.
My first battle in the top 32 would see me get a bye to the top 16. Chris Hawker was unable to repair his car after a pretty bad crash that tore the front leg off! Hopefully he’ll be fixed up and fighting fit for round two.
My next battle would pip me against Lewis Baker in his s14. I was to lead first. My lead run was good, I hit all the clips and made no mistakes while pulling a good gap on the chase car.
Unfortunately my second run was not so successful! On entry I was a little too aggressive and came in a bit too close for comfort to Lewis. At the time I did not realise the speed differential between us on entry. My car is heavy – probably a little too heavy – and it takes a lot of speed to keep the old beast sliding. Lewis pulled an insanely early entry which I reacted to. However by the time we reached turn one I was rapidly running out of speed and the car was desperately trying to straighten. Despite a big clutch kick I was simply travelling too slowly to get the wheels spinning again, subsequently I straightened mid corner which handed the win to Lewis.
It was a shame as I felt I had a lot more to give. But that is drifting, it was the one and only mistake I made all day and it was the one that sent me home. Drifting is the most ruthless sport I have ever taken part in, and that is also part of its charm. You are constantly on the edge. It means that anyone can win one of these things and that is why we all take part and why you all come to watch, you just never know what is going to happen!
So with round one in the books some lessons have been learned and I have some improvements to make. However I also have a lot of positives to take away from the weekend, the car is working great and I feel very comfortable in it once again.
Next up is Driftland in Scotland where concrete walls will be playing a big part in the weekend! It should be a great event. It will be my first time to the UK’s only purpose built drift facility and I can’t wait.
Before I sign off I would like to say a huge thank you to all of my sponsors this year, Carzoola.com | Everythingdrift.com | Violent-d | Nispro Performance
See you in Scotland!
Nick