MSUK Drift Pro Round 1 at Cadwell didn’t disappoint!
We were already struggling with the car being delayed whilst coming back from Oman. Knowing that the engine was breathing a little heavy on the last event, it was straight to the engine builders as soon as it was collected from the container. Craig at DynoTorque found a few things wrong and with overnight parts from the US, thanks to Billy’s Speedshop it was back together in just a couple of days. The next task was getting it back in the LSZ, which I did in my workshop on Thursday night, just 2 days before having to set off to Cadwell Park. There were a few systems that needed cleaning and servicing during the build up and I finished minutes before we had to load up and get on the trailer.
Thankfully the car fired up, the cooling and oil systems were bled, new doors were fitted and we set off to get set up in the paddock on Saturday evening.
Round 1 – Drift Pro Championship
Sunday morning was Round 1 of the championship. It had rained through the night and the Drift Hyper Paddock was on the grass area so it was more like Glastonbury at that time. My team had pulled the car out of the gazebo and got her cleaned ready for practice in a couple of hours. I hopped in to start the warm up and straight away we noticed a misfire. Other cars started to pull into the line as we continued to race and find the source of the problem, checking spark plugs, coil packs, etc. Unfortunately, we didn’t find the source of the problem prior to practice starting so everyone went out and we remained in the pits, working on the car. After plenty of troubleshooting we found that cylinder 2 wasn’t getting any fuel and eventually found this to be a wiring fault. A quick fix later we fired the LSZ back up and it appeared better so we were ready.
Qualifying
Next step was qualifying. Luckily the schedule was running ahead of time so there was a chance to have a sighting lap before my 2 critical laps of qualifying. Knowing I had no chance to ease myself in, I sent it, hoping I would be able to remember how the track felt from last year and we put down 3 decent laps. Maybe having the pressure of no practice is a good thing!?!?! The car was not 100% but was better than before.
When I returned to the pits we soon found out I qualified 9th which I was pretty happy with.
Top 16
Top 16 battles came up and went against fellow Ph.Drift driver Michael Bennett, a new driver in the championship but a very capable one. It was a good battle but we managed to take the win and progress on to the Great 8.
Top 8
The car was now starting to misfire worse again. However at this point, we were committed so pushed on to our next battle with my nemesis, Ollie Evans. I was almost pushing up the mountain so I could ensure he didn’t get away from me and I did one of my best chase runs ever! I was buzzing. It then came to the point where Ollie would chase me. We were side by side over the mountain and actually touched wheels as we accelerated to the initiation point, I could see him over my shoulder round corner 1 but after that I lost sight. I completed the lap and pulled into the pits followed slowly by Ollie. It turned out that he had split his 3rd gear into 3 and twisted his input shaft so he was out. I was a bit gutted it didn’t turn out to be the full battle as ours are getting closer and closer every time.
The gent, Dave Bastin was next. Dave led, hooked up well off the line and started to leave me over the mountain, the V8 torque helped regain some positioning before we initiated. The run went well with both of us putting down a good line. As we went round the circuit to re-join the back of the queue, Dave pulled into the pits as it turns out the rumble strips had destroyed his gearbox.
Top 4
So I sat on the line by myself as I progressed through to the Top 4. The next part is pretty surreal. Paul Cunnington and Martin Richards were battling at this point and I was talking things through with the Marshalls, we waited and waited and neither driver came back around. Turns out there had been an impact between both drivers and the judges were working out who was at fault.
As I was the last man with a working car sat on the start line, I took the win for the round! Not exactly the way we wanted to win Round 1 but points are points and I was happy to be stood on the top step and get some silverware!
Once the bubbles had been fired around and all the pictures had been taken following the podium, we set back to work on the LSZ to get her ready for round 2 the following morning. With some calm troubleshooting a cracked plug and split HT lead was found. I fired the car up and could instantly tell she was running on all 8, so we backed her under the gazebo and went to get some food.
Round 2 – Drift Pro Championship
Round 2 was during the Modified Live show so the crowds were already starting to grow when we arrived at 8am. We quickly got the car out on show and prepared for the day ahead. Practice would soon start so went decided to run with the left over tyres for the few laps we had. It was a dry day but the track was still damp by the time we went out so the first couple of laps ended up with me visiting the grass and covering some of the photographers. In future I won’t be using heat cycled tyres!
Qualifying
Qualification soon came around and we put down 2 solid laps. Then I heard that the judges decided that I was shallow towards the end of my first qualifying lap, so I thought “I’ll show them shallow!” So at the end of my second lap I went past the final clip on full lock, wheels on the limit of the tarmac, almost taking the rear of the car off on the wall. This helped me gain a few extra points, qualifying 5th overall.
Top 16
Harry Love was my first battle in the top 16. He was worried I was going to leave him on the drag up to the initiation point so as soon as the flag dropped he was off and was still ahead of me at the top of the mountain. This had all the hallmarks of being an awesome battle from the start but his clutch gave out after the first corner and had to retire.
Top 8
This meant my Great 8 battle was going to be against the highly experienced Martin Richards. It was 2-1 to me in regards to our battle results so I was hoping to extend my lead further. Martin led and I was focused on following him as close as possible. I came up on the inside of him in corner 2 and got myself slightly out of position, meaning I had to slow to allow him to transition so the advantage went to Martin. When I led I put down a decent line for him to follow, Martin did have a slight straighten but not a big enough error to overturn the advantage from the first half of the battle so Martin took the win, and finished my day.
I’m now joint 2nd in the championship with LWI Edwards so there is still lots to play for.
Now it’s time to go through the LSZ, fixing the little issues we found and also get some more twinning practice in so we’ll be ready for Brands Hatch in June. Hope to see you there.
