Round 3 of the D1GB professional championship took place this weekend at Knockhill Circuit.  Our weekend started badly. We drove for 3 hours to purchase a trailer the morning of the Friday we were going to set off, only to get it back here, and have it stolen off the back of the van in less than 30 minutes. We managed to hire a trailer, so got the trade stand and the S14 with all our gear loaded up, and off we went on the 7 and a half hour drive up to Scotland. Arriving at 4:30am for a couple of hours kip before heading to the track.

 

Knockhill is a new venue for D1GB and drifting in general, so no one really knew what to expect of the track. I think everyone’s expectations were far surpassed when we saw the first of a few guys trying out for their D1 licenses come steaming over the crest of what would be the first judged corner. You could tell that this course had real potential, so I couldn’t wait to get out there and have a go. All suited and booted, the car was prepped by my team mechanic and spotter for the day Chris (Guishnu), and off we went.

In the time I’ve been drifting, I’ve seen a lot of people make big mistakes by pushing too hard on their first lap of a new circuit, so the first go was a fast grip run. I could instantly tell exactly how much fun this was going to be, with a completely blind super fast right hander falling away to an equally fast left, then slowing down for a tighter right, so hurried to cue for my next run.

The rest of the practice sessions went very smoothly, with suprisingly few people making visits to the gravel, and I progressed to the stage where I was happy with how I was attacking the track. It was hard to believe that it was possible when ljust looking at the track, but by the end of the practice sessions, we were able to initiate the drift on the straight, then accelerate the drift into the blind right hander, continue accelerating down the hill, swap direction, accelerate again, then the bit that was most challenging was scrubbing off enough speed to get your line right into the final tight right hander with a clipping zone. We were all buzzing and couldn’t wait for the competition to start.

Extremely disappointing was Brett Castles luck, who had driven from Northampton only to arrive, and break the output shaft on the S14’s gearbox. I’m sure if we had have been at Silverstone he would have been able to source and fit a replacement, but in Scotland there was no chance, so he had no choice but to pack up and set back on the long jouney home.

After a short break and the time attack guys having a bit of fun on track, D1GB Qualification started. I am not backed by a tyre sponsor so had to use excessively worn tyres to qualify which wasn’t ideal, but I made my three runs, messed the first one up a little, got better on the second, and was very happy with my 3^rd, resulting in a 99.5 which made me joint 2^nd highest qualifier with Mark Luney in the GTR, and only beaten to top qualifying position by Ralph Crampton in the SVA Z33 by 0.1 points.

 

1 Ralph Crampton 99.6
2 Mark Luney 99.5
3 Phil Morrison 99.5
4 Ian Harrison 99.1
5 Steve Evans 99.1
6 Maciej Polody 99
7 Damien Mulvey 98.5
8 Tim Marshall 98.3
9 Declan Hicks 98
10 James Hudson 98
11 Ben Broke-Smith 97.9
12 James Grimsey 96
13 Mark Coyne 95
14 Mark Buckle 95
15 Scott Armstrong 93
16 Kieran Cameron 93

Now into the evening as the sun started to go down, we were into the top 16 Tsuiso battles, some of the highlights were

 

1^st place qualifier Ralph Crampton, verses 16^th place Kieran Cameron who had just achieved a D1GB license to compete that day. In a complete shock result, Crampton span, and gave Kieran the 10/0 he needed to go through to the top 8.

 

Stephan Evans (Stiggy) in the Autoglym R32 verses James Grimsey (Bladey) in the orange RPS13. Both had tasted the gravel in earlier runs, and with Stiggy leading Bladey span out behind to just touch the gravel, then Stiggy pushing hard, went deep enough into the gravel to shake hands with the judges. Despite this ‘little off’ Stiggy went through because Bladey span first.

 

Myself verses Mark Buckle, I found this a very hard match to drive, as it was the first time Mark had competed at this level, I felt a bit bad about it for the crowds sake, but I had to play it tactically after watching what happened to Ralph, so I gave him plenty of space, and made sure I just did enough to go through.

 

Top 8.

 

Tim Marshall Verses Kieran Cameran: After seeing what happened to Ralph, Tim was taking no chances with the underdog Kieran. The difference in preperation between these 2 cars could not have been more, but Kieran representing the Scottish crowd did his best, and performed admirably. Tim’s experience and Sumopower Z33’s power and lateral grip just shone through, putting them through to the top 4

 

Damien Mulvey verses Mark Luney. This was one battle I know Mark did not want to draw, Mulveys speed between the 1^st and last corner had been noted by most of us. True to form, both Luney and Mulvey were showing incredible skill and consistency, but on the day, Mulvey pulled up behind Luney on the last corner to control a very very close door to door drift, Mr Ueno decided that Mulvey was to go through to the top 4.

Steve Evans Verses Ian Harrison: In the first battle Harrison entered the first corner very close to Stiggy,  but Stiggy pulled away ever so slightly, both made minor mistakes, but unfortunately Ian’s resulted in a spin giving Stiggy the 10/0 advantage. The second run saw Stiggy and the gravel acting like metal and a magnet once again, as he beached the R32 with 2 wheels in the gravel. After a short stoppage whilst he was yanked out Stig was sent through to the top 4

Phil Morrison Verses Ben Broke Smith: Battle of the Driftworks Works S14 and the Driftworks Sponsored R32. It was bound to happen eventually, myself and BonBon, have been entering competitions together for a while now, and there had to come a time when we’d drive against each other.

Bon had worked really hard to get the car to the stage where it’s a little more competitive. We’d spent a weekend converting a standard RB manifold to run a T28 from an S14, fabricating the turbo elbow etc from scratch. The difference was fantastic! My S14 was running a little slow as it has a pretty severe manifold blow, but on the first run I was still taken aback to see the R32 in my mirrors able to keep up as well as it did.

I started my drift about a metre later than I had previously, and carried a bit to much speed, meaning the rear wheels were about 2 cm’s from being in the gravel on the outside of the first corner. I kept my boot in and was lucky to continue at high speed, pulling a little distance on Bon, he then lunged at the last corner in an attempt to gain back the ground, which worked well, but left him a little short for the corner, and he had to straighten to avoid hitting me. The second run I would say was completely even, Bon was absolutely flying and we both had a really good run, but because he straightened up slightly in the first battle, I was sent through to the top 4. Which worked out pretty good for both of us in the end as it appears in the last section of the last run, he blew his head gasket.

 

Semi Finals:

 

Stephen Evens verses Tim Marshall: Tim had been running amongst the fastest all day using Toyo’s T888 tyres front and rear, but this didn’t stop Stiggy pulling a few car lengths on him, and forcing Tim into an error on the last corner where he tried to cut it with all four wheels on the grass. Stephen ‘Gravel Hunter’ Evens was through to the final!!

 

Phil Morrison verses Damian Mulvey: ‘Oh my god’ pretty much sums up my feelings about that match. It was absolutely unbelievable how much fun that was!!. Myself and Mulvey have driven against each other a couple of times before, and everytime we do, I get out of the car afterwards feeling like I’ve run a marathon or given birth or something! After two extremely close battles, we ended up running ‘one more time’ 4 times. Each time giving the judges no reason to determine one of us the better driver than the other, each time pushing harder and faster to try to gain a small edge. On the 6^th run we did, shortly after initiating the drift and accelerating down the hill, a large bang came from my car, and a careered off into the gravel, I knew this was all the judges were looking for so handbraked round and did a rolling burnout back up to the start line in submission but still grinning from ear to ear.

 

Final:

 

Stephen ‘KittyLitter’ Evens, verses Damian ‘Laaaad’ Mulvey

 

The first section of the first run, Stiggy had a massive advantage because for some reason Mulvey straight lined shortly after transitioning the second corner, but then of course, true to form that day, good old stiggly went and put it in the kittylitter on the outside of the last corner giving Mulvey a 10/0 advantage.

On the second run, Mulvey pulled about 6 car lenths on Stiggy before the last corner, giving Mulvey the points he needed to take the first place trophy back home to Ireland.

 

Congrats to Mulvey, I’m already looking forward to our next battle.

Congrats to Stiggy, for finally having a bit of fun in the R32 and taking home 2^nd place.

Thanks to the D1GB crew for their usual flawless organisation.

Thanks to the ‘Driftworks does Scotland’ crew James, Mel, Kel and Chris, who all helped me achieve the 3^rd place, which gave me the points I needed to now rank 1^st in the championship with an 8 point lead.. Xxx

 

 

Results

1st Damien Mulvey 20
2nd Steve Evans 18
3rd Phil Morrison 16
4th Tim Marshall 14
5th Mark Luney 12
6th Ben Broke-Smith 10
7th Ian Harrison 8
8th Kieran Cameron 6
9th Ralph Crampton 4
10th Maciej Polody 2


Championship Standings after Round 3

1st Phil Morrison 44
2nd Damien Mulvey 36
3rd Brett Castle 34
4th Mark Luney 30
5th Tim Marshall 29
6th Ralph Crampton 21
7th Ben Broke Smith 20
8th Steven Evans 19
8th Darren Mcnamara 19
10th James Hudson 18
11th Maciej Polody 16
12th Paul Vlasblom 13
13th Ian Harrison 8
13th Glen Maher 8
15th Declan Hicks 7
16th Kieran Cameron 6
16th Niall Gunn 6
18th Mat Steele 3
19th Ian Coyne 3
19th Mike Deane 2
21st Stephen Shine 1
21st Mike Murphy 1
21st James Grimsey 1
21st Mark Coyne 1
21st Mark Buckle 1
21st Scott Armstong 1