Howdy Folks,
Wow, what a weekend!! As most of you probably know by now I was competing in the Prodrift Irish Series and Super Series finale (Japfest) at the weekend. The Saturday competition consisted of the Prodrift Irish series and this round for me was to avail of further track-time going into Sundays crucial championship decider, and also try and scalp some Irish series championship points in qualifying without risking the car too much in twin battles. I managed 2nd overall in Superlap and got a 5th place finish overall before been beaten by eventual winner Mike Deane. The Super Series final on Sunday the following day was to be my main concern.
I entered the final round of the Prodrift Super Series lying 2nd overall behind UK driver Ben “BonBon” Smith from Team Driftworks in the R32 Nissan Skyline. There was only 4 points between us but even closer behind me was Boyzone band member Shane Lynch’s team mate Danny Eyles in one of the two Team Japspeed S15 Nissan Silvia’s only 2 points adrift. All was to play for going to Mondello but I had the slight advantage of being on home soil with a lot more track time at the track.
Practice began at 9am and it was dry with all of the Top 16 drivers really laying it down. We were all adjusting the cars to suit the track conditions with some competitors making diff changes for better gearing. It was a 85-90mph entry speed into an off camber right hander. You literally cannot see the apex upon drift initiation on the handbrake but no sooner do you come over the crest you are hard back on the power to the first and second clipping points before shutting off power to transition left into a hairpin left. Balancing the throttle to find the inside clipping point on the apex of the hairpin it feels like an eternity as you wait to get hard on the loud pedal and smoke up the Maxxis MAZ1 drift tyres for the crowd over the scoring zone finish.
All went well during practice and it was a 3 hour break before “SUPERLAP” qualification started. This is a 1 lap shootout for all 16 drivers, they get no warm up run AT ALL since practice to lay down a run to impress the judges. The top 8 qualifiers in SUPERLAP get points and the remaining 8 do not so it was going to be crucial at this stage of the championship race to score high. However, to throw a spanner in the works the weather conditions changed entirely and it was raining hard since we were out on track for practice! Championship leader BonBon gets to do his Superlap first with the remaining 15 drivers in reverse order 15-2 following him. Luckily for me he span and scored zero points but the conditions also caught out a few more top runners…..like me! I only managed 9th overall and that meant I was just outside the points. 3 other drivers that were down the pecking order prior to SUPERLAP had scored substantially in and going into the Twin battle Top 16 the championship was blown wide open. BonBon led on 57 points, 3 of us were tied in 2nd with 53 points, Team Japspeed’s Danny Eyles was on 52 points and Team WKD Imports driver Alan Sinnott had emerged with 48.
In my Top 16 I was drawn against Shane Lynch, we had met in the previous round in Donington Park, UK where I bet him after a nervous start by myself so I was looking for a more comfortable battle this time. Upon going to the start line I realised my car was way down on power so a 5 minute rule was called to get repairs done to a boost pipe leak. With moments to spare I made the start line and myself and Shane battled it out very closely until he made a mistake coming out of the final corner and the judges put me through to the Top 8 where I would meet Team WKD Imports and good friend Johnny Power. He was on the very same points as myself after an impressive Top qualifying position in SUPERLAP!
In another close battle with Danny Eyles and Hankook driver Alan Lenihan, both with championship hopes battled it out until a rare mistake by Alan as he spun out putting his hopes of championship glory to bed and Danny through to the Top 4 where he would meet either me or Johnny P.
Myself and Johnny battled it out very closely and although my power steering had suffered a terminal failure I was determined to get through to take my championship hopes one step closer, especially after championship leader BonBon been beaten in the Top 16 against Nexen Tires driver James Deane. I beat Johnny and in doing so moved on to the Top 4 equaling BonBon’s points and going up against another title contender Danny Eyles. This would be a championship decider but out of nowhere in the other final 4 pairing was Alan Sinnott who emerged as an outsider for the championship should he reach the final by beating James Deane….and just my luck he did!! It was down to me to beat Danny and take the championship to the wire.
After a very close battle the judges deemed it too close to call so we had to go to a “one more time”. On the one more time battle the judges felt I was the more aggressive over the two battles and put me through to the final !! Not all good news though, going into the final I realised my front suspension had suffered from the last battle against Danny with riding the kerbs and a tension rod was on its last legs.
Battle one against Alan and the rod finally let go making the handling and steering very unpredictable. I struggled terribley and on to the second battle when it finally snapped I went straight off course and handing Alan his maiden victory in the Prodrift Super Series, there was to be a final twist with the points scoring, I was sure I was after handing the championship win to Alan as i sat in the car on track slightly upset but when we all reached the podium and the drivers championshps scores we added up it seemed a 2nd was good enough for me as I finished up 1st overall on a total of 69 points, 2nd Alan Sinnott on 68 points, 3rd BonBon on 67 points and 4th was Danny Eyles on 66. How close can a championship get.
I was the 2009 Prodrift Super Series Champion and it was a dream come through for me!! Thanks to all my team and support throughout the year and all my sponsors and a special thank you to Mike Deane and all the lads at DeaneMSport for the last minute help on Sunday. Your all legends. For now its full steam ahead on final preparations to compete in the Formula D,USA finale at Irwindale, California in October 17th. I am planning on competing in Formula D from 2010 at the highest level in the world alongside fellow Prodrift drivers Darren McNamara and Eric O’Sullivan who had made the transition from Prodrift – Formula D. Keep and eye out for all the latest news on this over the coming days at: www.deankearney.com
Dean Karnage.