BigX NightDrift - Phil Morrison

We were invited by fellow 2006 D1GB driver Niall Gunn, to attend an event he was organising, to help promote drifting in the north.. His choice of track was Teeside Autodrome, which I've heard good things about, but never personally driven before. So we thought we'd give it a go and make a weekend of it.

We're still building our 2jz powered S15, so I decided to also use this event to again some seat time in our R32 Skyline which is usually driven by James.

We were due to leave Birmingham at 7pm at the latest, but as usual, we'd decided to do a whole load of work to the car that week.. The R32 had only arrived back at DWHQ from Kent at 4am Friday morning, where it'd been having it's new cage fitted. So we then decided to firstly custom fit one of our new Driftworks seats, to accommodate my significantly more generous ass, and to give me some more headroom with the new cage to accommodate my massive brain.

We also decided to take on the rather daunting task of fitting an S14 rear subframe to get replace the horrible wobbly Nissan Hicas system completely with the traditional and vastly superior toe rod set up.. We built the new subframe up with new Driftworks bushes and a Four arm kit, and set about getting it on the car. Now the thing is, it's not actually meant to fit. And the only way to get it to fit is to bash the living crap out of the mounting bolts to space them 20mm wider. This took more effort than any of us wanted to expend, but finally at around 9pm, we got it bolted up to the car.

Not a single bolt was done up on any suspension arm let alone any alignment done, but at least we could now role the car onto the trailer..
Remembering momentarily that human beings require nourishment on occasion, we made a quick stop at the petrol station for a bag of Minstrels and we kicked off the 4 hour non stop journey to Teeside.

Saturday morning for me, was a case of getting to the track, and then spending the next 4 hours rolling around on the tarmac underneath the subframe finding lower ball joints and suspension not done up. Then with the aid of a tape measure and a big iron girder, taking a stab at an alignment by eye.. It wasn't great, but it all at least came together enough for me to get out on track early afternoon.

The first time out on track, I quickly paired up with Paz (Chris Parry in the red 86) Obviously we use very different cars, but we are a very good match of speed and traction. It's always great fun killing tyres with him.. Unfortunately around 4 laps in of fantastic fun , this is exactly what I did, I managed to finally delaminate one of the amazing Federal 595RS tyres I've been using.. I therefore officially crown Teeside Autodrome as the most abrasive circuit I've ever driven!..

Anyway, onto the next set of tyres, and a quick change onto the bigger circuit. We had an open practice session, where it seemed everyone really kicked it up a notch.. Most notably was my good friend Jay Walker in his white 86, who did lap after lap of brilliant drifting..

The show then started as we went into full darkness.. I think the staff radio’s went down, but the organisers still held it together.. I first went up against Mark Buckle R32 against R32. The first run went well, but on the 2nd run, my handbrake entry completely sucked, I ended up to close on the inside of the first long right hander, and had to back off to avoid T-boning him. I think with the judges positioned at the other end of the circuit, and bad lighting Mark was very unlucky to not have had a one more time called, but that is the nature of a judged sport.. Then I drew Mike Murphy from Ireland, who I’d watched drive earlier, and seemed to be really on it.. I managed to pull away a bit from him on the first run, and on the 2nd run he span. Paz had beaten Niall who had been having problems with his S13.5, and then Damian Mulvey, and had dominated both rounds with superior speed and traction, so once again we were up against each other.

The first run wasn’t ideal, as I once again initiated the drift with power over, went to pull the handbrake and it didn’t do anything. It meant I was well tight into the first corner, and I think I had 3 wheels on the grass.. I held it together and finished the run well though..  Then it was Paz leading, we initiated and I managed to get the 1st corner right this time, and was well up on him in the mid section..

On the last long 3rd gear sweeper, I heard and felt my tyres let go though. I knew the judges would call one more time, and so they did.. I had no more tyres to swap onto, so I signalled to Paz on the startline to be careful behind me as my tyres were gone, and we set off.. I think he must have pulled at least 5 car lengths on me by the time I completed the lap, but at least I did complete it without ending up in the wall.. In typical fashion I celebrated Paz’s win with a big dirty burnout.