Ian ‘Bizz’ Phillips – Brands Hatch Race Report 2023

Round 3 of the MSUK Drift Pro championship brought us back to Brands Hatch, my favourite track on the calendar because of its crazy speed and big crowds.

The weather was crazy hot, almost equal to the first couple of rounds in Oman which was something I really wasn’t expecting. After the practice day I had at Teesside, I set the car up with the same settings as Brands from 2022, dialling in a ton of grip so I had a hope of keeping up with the faster boys.

I went out for the first few laps of practice and instantly couldn’t believe the level of grip the track had. It felt like I was back to being a learner, coming off line, struggling to keep the wheel speed up in drift, etc. We quickly pulled into the hot pit, stiffened the rear and pumped up the rear tyres to give a little more freedom in rear and off I went again. This helped a lot but with the speeds involved and the specific line the judges wanted, qualifying was going to be tough.

The heat kept on going up and it was soon time to head out for my 2 laps of qualification. With the team on the sidelines, I accelerated down the straight, one of the few places I can actually put my foot to the floor in multiple gears in the LSZ and sent it into the first corner. I ended up a little on the inside of the track at turn 1 and then wide on the final corner so I had a lot to do for lap 2.  The second lap was a little tidier but not my finest work at Brands Hatch, dropping me in 13th position.

Qualifying so low meant my top 16 battle would be against the super fast, Josh King. He led and I was doing my best to keep up with him, his line was great so learnt some extra things following but it wasn’t a clean run from him so I had a chance. When I led I went in 100% and messed up a little into the final corner but I couldn’t see him behind. It turned out Josh had made a couple of errors behind me giving me the win.

Now on to the Great 8. I’m always happy to get this far and anything further than this is a win in my eyes. Jon Smith in his LS powered MX5 was next, definitely one of the better sounding battles of the day with 2 V8’s thundering away. I took the win after laying down 2 clean laps in chase and lead.

Putting me against top qualifier of the day, Martin Richards in the Top 4. Martin has been setting the standard all day for line and speed so I knew this would be a tough one. He was so fast on initiation I got left behind however I managed to close the gap a little through the transition. Martin was next to chase and again showed why he competes at European level. He reeled me in on the last corner, maintaining perfect proximity and I had my hand out of the window as usual to celebrate. Martin went on to the final and I went into the 3rd/4th battle against Ryan Hughes.

Ryan was 2nd place qualifier of the day and was just as on point as Martin. My driving for this battle was my best of the day and neither of us made any huge errors. Unfortunately, the win went to Ryan as I was a little more shallow through the transition than he was so he took 3rd place.

At the end of the day I was still in 2nd place overall in the championship with the points I had scored and coming from the very challenging start to the event we were all very happy.

The day started off super hot, even getting a sweat on having a drink of coffee to perk myself up. We were the first group out for practice and I was hoping for a big improvement over yesterday’s performance. I went out feeling confident and started to lay down the laps with the help of Stef and Carl in the hot pit. I’m now at the point of “tightening the screws” on my driving, generally no big errors just learning to manage the aggression and keeping the car on line whilst maintaining the highest speed possible. The judges help by providing their feedback after each session, continually helping my own development.

Qualification lap 1 was good, a little on the inside of clip 1 which knocked me down a lot of points but maintained good speed through the remaining part of the course. For lap 2, I wanted to prove to the judges I wasn’t scared of taking the wider line around clip 1, so I went for the big flick, similar to Martin on his laps. Trying this for the first time during qualification probably wasn’t the best idea as I was amazed how much further the added momentum took me down the track. In this case, well past the line I should’ve been on.  Luckily I caught the car before it tried to spin out, with some fancy footwork and I completed the run, even though my score was already low from the mistake.

The qualification scores dropped and I had improved a little coming in at 11th.

Top 16 battle would now be against Nathan Chivers, a good friend of mine running an immaculate S15 with Magnuson Supercharged LS3. If I was going to want to drive another driver’s car on the grid, it would be this one! Nath has been flying all weekend, getting 6th place on both days. We had been wanting to battle since we started MSUK so this was our chance.

I lined up beside Nath at the top of the hill, big thumbs from each of us as we both wanted to go 110% and we set off. I tucked in behind before the drag cone so I could get the racing line through the corner and started to accelerate. I was about to shift to 4th when I looked over to my right to see where Nathan was and the next thing was BANG! I saw his car coming sideways at me very quickly and before I could do anything I had been spun off the track and went backwards into the tyres. I pulled forward and there was no bad knocking noises from the rear so I slowly drove the remaining part of the circuit back to the pits.

My team was already there, with Nathan’s mechanic Jamie, to assess the damage. The front hub for the steering lock kit had been bent as well as the rear suspension arms from the impact with the tyres so the rest of the day was looking pretty bleak.

I limped the car back to the pits and we started to strip the car to see if we could fix it before the next battle. If I could get the car back running I would be allowed to continue with the competition, as Nathan had caused the crash through no fault of my own. We jacked the car up, got it on stands and then half the team worked on the front and I worked on the rear with the other guys. We had 2 hours to get her back together before the next set of battles. Carl and Si had the hub off in no time, saw there was a simple bend in the upright which they were able to get straightened with Jamie’s help and the Oxy, Acetylene set. Stef and I were removing the rear hub, driveshaft, suspension all to work out where the issue was. Luckily we found the bent part of the hub and bolt within it.  A bit of crazy hammering later it was straight again and we could start to rebuild the car. At this point we had 45 mins left.

With all the parts back on, I took the car for a very slow drive around the pits making sure the last few yards I drove the car straight ahead to see what the wheel alignment was like. There wasn’t much we could do about the rear with the time we had but with the toe plates we set the front up the best we could. More importantly we got all this done minutes before we had to head out again which was amazing.

All the drivers agreed that with the impact I would be allowed a sighting lap to check out the car and make sure everything was ok for my next battle. I had a chat with my team to work out the best way to run the sighting lap, 3/4 speed in to the first corner, slow weaves, etc. The end result was to SEND IT! So I drove the lap as if the car was brand new and hoped for the best. The front end felt fine but the rear was definitely looser than it had been all weekend. With no time to do anything about it I lined up for my Great 8 battle against my old nemesis Ollie Evans.

I chased first and was right behind Ollie down the straight and through the first corner. With the speed I was gaining on him and the loose feeling in the rear I backed out of the transition more than I should have giving him a gap that I could only just close around the final corner. Ollie’s chase was great, being right up behind me for the second half of the circuit giving him the win and finishing my day at that point.

My team had done an amazing job getting the car back together after the accident as well as the help from Nathan and Jamie so I was happy that we could continue. The love for Brands Hatch is still strong and I can’t wait to get back there later this year.

I hope you enjoyed watching the craziness and will see you at Oulton Park in July!