The 2014 season of the British Drift Championship kicked off at Lydden Hill in Kent last weekend.
The start of the season means new cars, new drivers & new challenges. Wayne Keeber’s Toyota Soarer attracted massive amounts of attention thanks to its insane body kit, that was only part of the rebuild that Marc Huxley had done to the car over the winter. We will have a full feature on this car soon!
The Driftworks DW86 also had its debut, it has had a few issues with breaking drive shafts, we hear that it will be ready at Round 2 at Knockhill.
On Saturday morning the drivers had their practice sessions, this gave the drivers a chance to learn where the clipping points were located & how their cars were running.
The conditions were tricky as the track was wet from rain through the night but quickly started to develop a dry line, this didnt stop the drivers from pushing their cars to the limit.
Nathan Chivers was caught out during practice, he was following a group of cars when he clipped a wall which then dragged the front into it causing a lot of damage to his car. With the help of a few zip ties he managed to get the car out for the qualifying sessions, unfortunately he didn’t make the Top 16
By the afternoon the track was dry and the drivers was ready for qualifying, each driver had three judged runs with their best score being used to determine if they would make the Top 16 Battles on Sunday.
Sunday featured the Top 16 Battles for all of the classes. This is Ollie Elmore & Matt Stevenson battling in the Semi-Pro Final, Matt came away with the win but seeing Ollie to get 2nd on his debut was amazing.
The Super-Pro Final came down to the wire between Jack Shanahan & Shane O’Sullivan, the judges couldnt decided on the winner so they went ‘One More Time’.
After another close battle the judges decided that 14 year old Jack Shanahan deserved the win, his chase runs were phenomenal and he deserved to get his first professional win.
The results for the round are –
Semi Pro Top 3:
1. Matt Stevenson
2. Ollie Elmore
3. Jake Spickett
Pro Top 3:
1. Martin Battye
2. Dan Firmager
3. Pete Green
Super Pro Top 3:
1. Jack Shanahan
2. Shane O’Sullivan
3. Michael Marshall
The next round is at Knockhill, Scotland on June 7-8th, if you havent got your tickets yet then you can purchase them here – http://www.thebritishdriftchampionship.co.uk/event/round-2-knockhill/