It’s time to bring you all an update on ExtremeBHP Motorsport’s season now that everything has settled after The British Drift Championship Round 4 at Driftland, Scotland.
Ian prepped the car and headed to Driftland early on the Thursday morning to make sure he had plenty of time to relax ahead of the weekend. This event would be his opportunity to gain a British Drift Championship licence and move up from Driftcup.
During a practice day ahead of the main event the car developed an issue which turned out to be the intake cam seal, a fix was in place before the end of the day but alot of the practice time had been lost.
Saturday morning gave Ian another chance to practice on the track although only 6 runs were completed before it was time to qualify. His confidence wasnt high but his first run was good enough for a score of 59.75 and 20th place.
By the time it was his second run he was sitting below 32nd, it was all or nothing if he wanted to earn his BDC licence. He set off for the second run, pushing harder and initiating later along the wall than he had done all day. The car sat right on the line throughout the run earning him 6th oveall at the end of the session with a score of 74.33.
In the afternoon battles Ian would line up against the championship leader, Peter Hayden. He felt confident that it would be a good battle as the cars are similarly matched, Ian led first with a strong run giving Peter the room to chase closely although he struggled to gain the proximity giving Ian the advantage as they swapped over.
Peter had a sketchy first half of his lead run which caused Ian to straighten behind him, as he regained proximity Peter bailed out of his run with car issues, handing Ian the win.
Matt Denham was the next driver that Ian would have to battle, Ian pulled off the line and initiated through clip one with Matt close behind. As they came through clip 3 Ian straightened and as the car trainsitioned to clip 5 it span, snapping a bottom ball joint and the strut, ending his day. He came away from the event pleased with his performance although slightly gutted that his day ended due to car issues.
Mike was also at this round of the British Drift Championship hoping to earn his licence and move up from Driftcup. He used the practice session on the Friday to learn the line around the track although it was difficult to setup the car to the layout due to wet weather.
He was nervous as the day started on Saturday morning with another practice session, this time on a drying track. His runs were improving throughout the session as he tried to push the car further out to the clips through the first section of the track.
Qualifying came around and Mike had followed some advice from the judges and upped the rear tyre pressures, hoping that it would help him get to the outer clips whilst maintaining a smooth line. His first run didnt go to plan and the resulting score wasnt good enough for the top 32, it was all going to come down to his second run.
On his second run he threw the car at the wall through clip 1, brushing it with the rear bumper. The car bogged down between clip 1 and 2 but that was corrected with a couple of clutch kicks getting him back onto the line. The run was good enough for 30th position at the end of the session, it wasnt as good as he would have liked but it earnt him a place in the battles and his British Drift Championship licence.
The car had a few issues as he headed into the battles but he decided that he would give it a go regardless as he lined up against Jordan Boyce in his Ford Sierra. Mike chased Jordan on the first run but Jordan had a very strong run pulling a gap right from the very start.
As they swapped over Mike couldnt shake Jordan from his door throughout the run with some contact between them toward the end of the run.
It was the end of Mikes day but he had enjoyed his first British Drift Championship event. Mike would like to thanks all of his sponsors including Jackson Competition Engines, Hoskins Design & Fabrication, Auto Uniq, Thautomotive, his girlfried Kayleigh and Jason Clark and Slide Motorsport for their help and support.