Round 3 of the British Drift Championship, time to return to arguably the best track on the calendar, Teesside Autodrome, Middlesbrough.
The driving level is always good at this track, many of the drivers come here to test their cars between events and it’s probably the favourite track for most of the drivers too!
The track sits lower than the spectator area ensuring everyone can see all of the action. A long straight leads into a long righthander that tightens to a hairpin. A left hairpin follows before opening out into a sweeping bend before crossing the finish.
This year the judges were looking for an outside line, the track was made up of six outer clips, this forces the lead driver wide and gives the chase driver plenty of chances to close up onto the lead driver’s door.
Practice started on Saturday morning for the Pro-Am drivers, they had plenty of time to learn the required line before qualifying.
Conor Shanahan was quickly showing everyone that his results at Round 2 weren’t luck, he was fast and consistent throughout the practice session.
When it came to qualifying he would take third place.
Mark ‘Cookie’ Annette put in the best performance we have seen from him to take second place in qualifying.
Danny Grundy, a first year driver in the BDC, managed to get the top spot in the qualifying session. He has quickly built a reputation for himself within British drifting as he has finished well at every round so far this season.
The battles got more exciting as the day went on, one of the most talked about moments came in the battle of Nick Brady and Danny Grundy. Danny started to over rotate as they came through clip two, Nick hit Danny, denting the door and shattering the drivers side window.
Danny would then chase hard, almost too hard! Rubbing doors before the wheels made contact, pushing Nick off the track.
The battle went One More Time where Danny would manage to take the win as Nick dropped a wheel infront of the judging tower.
Conor Shanahan knocked out Ryan Caldwell after some contact handed the advantage to Conor.
Conor continued through to the Final 4 after defeating the championship leader, Ben Manual, in the Great 8.
Joining him in the Final 4 was Lee Scott, Danny Grundy and Brett Perry. The first battle saw Danny Grundy advance through to the final after Brett Perry wasn’t able to keep with Danny throughout the run.
Lee Scott and Conor Shanahan battled for the remaining place in the final, a big lead run from Conor gave him the advantage after the first run.
They swapped over, Conor was all over Lee Scott in the BMW E46, it wasn’t going to go any other way, Conor was through to the final!
The battle for the third place podium position took place next between Brett Perry and Lee Scott. Lee chased well, diving onto Brett’s door at every opportunity, his driving had earned him that podium place.
The final battle saw Danny Grundy lead first, Conor pinned it to his door throughout the run and it would take a lot for Danny to pull this one back into his favour. On his chase run he was close but it wasn’t going to be enough.
Conor Shanahan took his first win in the British Drift Championship, jumping him up the championship standings into third place. The drivers celebrated on the podium before they would have to prepare themselves to take on the Pro drivers on Sunday.
Sunday would see plenty of action from the Pro drivers, they were on it from the start of the practice session in the morning to the end of the day.
Jack Shanahan had gone out onto the track in his S14 for the morning practice but swapped over to the S13 before qualifying, where he would go on to get first place.
Marc Huxley was looking strong as he took second place in the qualifying session followed by Richard Grindrod.
The Sudden Death battles saw Danny Grundy get knocked out of competition by Kevin Quinn.
Mark Lappage made it through to the Top 16 as he knocked out former champion, Paul Smith.
Gaz Taylor went up against Wayne Keeber, we hate these battles as only one of our drivers will go through, both drivers gave it a good run. Gaz had done enough to go through, although Wayne continued his consistency of qualifying at each round.
In the Top 16 Jack Shanahan would battle Kevin Quinn, he maintained amazing proximity on his chase run, defeating Kevin and continuing through to the Top 8.
A battle of the biggest and smallest cars took place between Simon Perry in his R35 GTR and David Waterworth in a Honda S2000. The battle went One More Time before the judges picked in favour of Simon.
Third place qualifier, Richard Grindrod knocked out Gaz Taylor after a close battle.
As the battles went on it became clear that the drivers through into the Final 4 would be Jack Shanahan, Aleksandar Kantarovski, Richard Grindrod and Nigel Colfer. Jack Shanahan and Nigel Colfer battled to decide who would go through into the final. Jack Shanahan managed to take the win with his great proximity on his chase runs and smooth line on the lead runs.
Richard Grindrod was then knocked out by Aleksandar Kantarovski as he pushed hard toward the final battle.
Richard’s car then gave up so we saw the first ever third and fourth place battle with both drivers in the same car. Nigel Colfer took the place on the podium although the crowd enjoyed the sportsmanship more than anything.
The final battle was full of controversy, Jack Shanahan led first and Aleksandar Kantarovski made some contact as they slowed for the first hairpin after clip three. They swapped over and it was another close run, the judges had decided that the contact was enough for Aleksandar to be penalised for it, giving the advantage to Jack and the win.
The drivers collected their trophies and celebrated on the podium.
Jack Shanahan has extended his lead in the championship to 24 points over Marc Huxley, can he stay there until the end of the season and take back to back championships? Find out here as we bring you more coverage from the two remaining rounds.
