This is a post that myself and Ian should have made a long long time ago, and I’ll do my best to portray a fraction of the fun and events that occurred with some light captured from that day.

Back in Late July a regular FCD:MP (Full Circuit Drift: Mallory Park) drift day at Mallory Park was advertised for the 24th of August – however – this time Bob, Mallory’s man in charge, unfortunately had to report this was likely to be the last of the FCD:MP days that would run at the venue due to a lack of attendees.  Getting race circuits to commit themselves to drifting in the UK is generally a hard task so it would be an incredible shame if this venue fell through as so many have over the years.  A cry for help was posted on the Driftworks forum to try and rally together as many people as possible to make sure this day went ahead and also to help convince the circuit and organisers that the demand was still there.  The response was huge and the event was filled to the brim – many people changing their plans so they could attend and show their appreciation.  The day was set to be a great gathering so we decided we’d also do the same and try and get this amazing venue some much deserved attention.

Mallory Park is situated in Leicestershire smack bang in the middle of the country. The circuit has a rich history dating back to the 1940s and has regular usage from many race championships and track days for bikes and cars alike.  Pulling out of the pits you run the last third of the pit straight and enter immediately into the formidable Gerrards corner that runs over 180 degrees right round the edge of the lake that takes up most of the infield.  The back section of the track runs up to Edwinas and then through the John Cooper Esses before a gentle climb up to Shaws Hairpin.  There is a short little straight past a bus stop before the circuit drops sharp left though Devils Elbow and back onto the start/finish straight.  Its really great fun.

The day started early as I met Brad from Mutant Engineering and the rest of our crew at some services to fuel up the ever hungry drift cars with the V Power they deserve. Brad had a new weapon in his arsenal and was ready to abuse it within an inch of it’s life, the little E36 missile above was picked up for pennies and ready to be bashed, rubbed and tapped against any wall it could reach.

We arrived pretty early to a near empty car park, then over the next 20 minutes or so cars started to fill the tarmac around us. Drivers and photographers all lined up and entered the briefing room to be told the usual health and safety, clipping points and all the rest, then it was time to hit the track.

Which Brad did, with a vengeance. The poor little BMW popped it’s coolant after his first session of 4 laps of constant limiter abuse, surprisingly not through the cap though. The bottom hose had blown clean off which meant it was time to bodge, a few jubilee clips, zip ties, and plenty of gaffer tape later it was back out for more abuse. More interesting than the bodge itself was that for the rest of the day it ran without a fault on said cooling system.

Rich Newton (Chunk) is no stranger to Mallory and from the off he was smoking up Gerrards in this borrowed R33 Skyline.  Chunks confidence in this corner allowed him enough time to flip Ian the bird – its nice to see him driving more regularly nowadays as he has been plagued by medical issues with this left leg for a long long time.  Chunk has a rather tasty 4Door R32 Skyline tucked away somewhere so I hope we get to see it in action soon.

Paz and fellow members of the Driftworks crew graced us with there presence, showing how the dirt drop is correctly performed round Gerrards on the above shot from Ian Gratton, who joined me trackside and put his camera skills to damn good use.

Another Team Night Spirit driver Kenny Lamb was firing his absolutely beautiful Toyota Chaser round the track.  This is a real gentleman’s car and is still equipped with this all of its luxurious interior and creature comforts.  The underside of the car paints a different picture as its kitted out with a serious suspension package, extra lock and a proper 2-way differential.  I’m sure the longer Kenny owns this car the better it will become.

Team D:Mon’s Steve Carter was also smoking round Gerrards in his very tidy looking 180sx.  From very early on in the day he was attacking hard with many years of drifting experience really showing.  Its a shame the bus stop/chicane was in use at the bottom of Gerrards and I’m sure he would have made it the full length of the corner.

Stuart Hansford was another that quickly got used to the fast entry speeds into Gerrards and was showing good smoke as soon as he came into slight from our vantage point mid way round the corner.  Stuart’s S13 is powered by a Toyota 1JZ engine and that power combined with a good few years drifting experience in the British Drift Championship saw him tackle the tricky Gerrards with a high success rate..

James McAllister’s R32 Skyline above had been doing really well all day.  As you can see above tyres were not lasting especially long as the tread on the nearside tyre is trying to escape from the heat.  Flapping tyre destroying paintwork could be heard right the way through the corner.  Tyres were taking a beating and later in the day Luke Fink blew a tyre clean off the rim of a borrowed missile car.

The track was at maximum capacity and a brilliant array of cars hard turned. S-bodies, MX5s, RX7s, Chasers, Laurels, Skylines, BMW’s new and old, when I say new and old, I mean brand new.

Drifted’s Ian Gratton took his pretty much brand spanking E90 M3 round for a quick spin, initially a strict “no drifting”  couple of laps then turned into  cheeky little skid session around the corners exiting Gerrards, naughty naughty!

This is Dylan T’s 1JZ powered S14a, which I believe was a university project, if so it’s by far the coolest project I’ve ever seen. You could hear him belting it from the other side of the track, the screamer exiting from the wing (just above the Ultralite decal) provides the audience with without one of the best noises known to man, pure un-silenced 1JZ boost goodness; it makes grown men cry with a cocktail of joy, fear and utter amazement.

Proving that outright power isn’t the only way to produce smoke was this little NA6c MX5, sweeping the entire length of Gerrards, into Charlies and on through Stapletons. It’s seeing things like this that makes everyone want an MX, myself included.  Matt is really dedicated to drifting having slept in a tent at Santa Pod raceway after the practice day held the previous day.

Many cars were missing various bits of body work, some from incidents with gravel traps, some with barriers (although thankfully not many), and some for function.

Karl was chucking out some crazy smoke in his Cresta drift taxi. Karl is also Buxton regular but its nice the see the Cresta stretching its legs more on a bigger circuit.

As were the Tramp Drift crew, getting plenty of angle for there moneys worth into Stapletons.

Stew Noble (Now photosnapper for OMG Drift) turned up to take a few photos, as did fellow photo geek double team Daniel Bridle and Josh Allen.

Who float from location to location, rarely touching the ground whilst others take photos, it took a while to stop them posing like mere walking mortals for this shot.

Dan Chapman (above on the BMX) and Luke Fink were available for tuition all day, and in exchange for a trip around the course in your car they were more than wiling to shout various instructions at you, along the lines of “POWER!”, “TURN!” and “HANDBRAKE!”. You may think this is a cheap way of being taught by the best, but don’t forget they win events by burning out a set of tyres in three or four runs maximum, if given half a chance they’ll do the same to your treads.

As the light started to die down the tyre smoke started to diminish and people started filtering off one by one, until there were just a few remaining. I think everyone came away with a really good feeling from the day,  There was a really nice relaxed atmosphere and everyone had lots of fun.  Spectators took rides in some of the cars to get their first experience of drifting – and with a corner like Gerrards there is really no better place to be robbed of your drift virginity.  There is no pressure to drift the entire circuit which allowed for less experienced drivers to find their feet in the lower speed corners before building confidence for the more demanding bends.

The day obviously had a positive effect on the future of events and Mallory park and drift days have been running once a month like clockwork.  It just goes to show there is enough care and enthusiam within the UK drift community to keep things going strong.   Driftworks have also recently announced their AwesomeFest event that will be taking place at Mallory in July 2011 so be sure to keep a space in your diary.

The next event to be held at Mallory Park is on the 16th December.  We hope to get back to capture more of the great action at this venue.

Last weekend was the final of the British Drift Championship up at Knockhill in Scotland. I’ve been so lucky this season, not one single event I attended had been spoiled by poor weather! There was a good turn out with a nice wide variety of cars, not just the usual rows of Nissan/Toyota!

This Honda S2000 was a personal highlight, out with a few other chums from Monster Unit. I never used to be a fan of the S2000 but this one was nice and clean, maybe a few less stickers though… I don’t like stickers…

Knockhill has a mini track for some Go Kart action, many a person were attempting a skid or two round the corners!

The semi-pro’s qualified on the tarmac behind the drivers briefing room, Saturday was a great day with a great feel for the progression as the drivers start to know the course and feel a little safer entering the corners at bigger angles and higher speeds. Taxi rides were held on the Sunday around the same course, with long queues of people jumping in the cars, being taken for a few laps then jumping out either green, white, or screaming “That was quality!”

Semi Pro Qualifying

1. Jamie Kenyon – 87
2. Ian Phillips – 84
3. Matt House – 73
4. Danni Murphy – 71
5. Rich Tovey – 68
6. Mark Lappage – 68
7. John Glaister – 68
8. Adam Blackwell – 65

Jamie Kenyon was working his magic all day and managed to qualify in a well deserved 1st position. The first thing I noticed about this MX was the “wrong” noise it was making. On further inspection it turns out there’s 300bhp worth of SR20DET motor crammed into the bay, brilliant motor!

Tom Simpson was on form all weekend, his Launch Motorsport Skyline sounds like pure evil!

Danni Murphy on the lock stops on the way into Duffus corner, the entry is around 100mph, completely blind, and over crest. A recipe for disaster in some ways but drivers managed to get plenty of nice clean runs after a few practices, but not always.

Quite a lot of people ended up in the grass or sand traps, much to the entertainment of the crowd, but not to the delight of the pit crews and drivers. I thought Jamie was rolling when he came off sideways at nearly 100mph, I didn’t catch the shot sadly but Ross Ianson of Speedhunters did however manage to snatch it. You’re a lucky boy Jamie!

The Semi-Pro point scorers from Round 5 were as follows -

1. Ian Phillips 30 Pts (28 + 2 bonus for qualifying 2^nd)
2. Mark Lappage 24 pts
3. Rich Tovey 21
4. Jamie Kenyon 19 pts (6 + 3 bonus points TQ)
5. Adam Brackwell 18 pts
6. Matt House 15 pts ( 14 + 1 bonus for Qualifying 3^rd)
7. Danni Murphy 12 pts
8. John Glaister 10 pts
9. Phil Maclachlan 8pts
10. Robert Finn 7 pts
11. Andy Redmond 6 pts
12. Belinda Challis 5pts
13. Andy Stroud 4 pts
14. Damien Barrett 3 pts
15. Marcin Klawikowski 2 pts
16. Jordan Patton 1 pts

On to the Pro Class….

Greg Gush storming along the straight section between turns two and three, this is one of my favourite cars from the entire paddock, I just love Onevias.

Ant “Google” Cahill was running round the pits looking for various parts which got snapped after an all or nothing entry, which kind of went wrong and took out all his kerb side suspension arms and wheels. Finding parts was proving tricky though as most other S-body competitors in the BDC are running the later S14a shape. The wider track and different geometry means the parts aren’t interchangeable, but after a frantic 5 minutes he managed to stumble upon what he was after.

His team stole them from “Smiley” Brad at Mµtant Engineering, impressive how quickly these guys work on there cars. Within a matter of minutes Brad’s car was up in the air, parts were off and fitted to Ant’s car all in the time it took 3 other drivers to qualify, impressive stuff. Ant went out for his runs and came back into the pits, parts were removed once again and Brads was back doing his passenger rides in no time much to the delight of the girls wanting a go in “the pink car!”

Most drivers had the odd scuffle with the dirt at some point of the day, and each time someone had a brief encounter with the rough stuff zip tied bumpers liked to go for a wander…

Leaving body kits here there and everywhere! The above shot is one runs worth of damage!

Simon Perry has a slightly off beat first qualifying run, followed by a 95 point second qualifying run, getting him the top spot!

Phil Morrison was close on Perry’s tail with a 94 in qualifying, as the championship stood so close even the extra point or two from qualifying could make all the difference!

Pro Class Qualifying

1. Simon Perry – 95
2. Phil Morrison – 94
3. Paul Smith – 90
4. Declan Munnelly – 89
5. Mark Luney – 85
6. Keith Hammond – 80
7. Steve Whitbread – 79
8. Shane Lynch – 76
9. Gavin Cummings – 76
10. Stephen Biagioni – 76
11. Matt Carter – 76
12. Danny Eyles – 73
13. David Waterworth – 70
14. Ashley Stevens – 67
15. Jarack Federica – 61
16. Julie Robinson – 53

Shane Lynch of Team Japspeed/Stobart was there with his twin turbo v8 powered Silvia, he was being filmed by ITV film crew all day for a new documentary with plenty of drift footage in let’s hope! He was driving flawlessly all day, I doubted Shane’s driving at first in all honesty. I thought he’d be the pop-star that brings in the sponsors, but he was one of the best drivers I’d seen all weekend, I didn’t see him make a single mistake, and as far as I recall he may have been one of the only people to have a clean sheet throughout the day?

Declan Munnelly was using a different technique to most into the third corner, where most drivers would use a hand full of wand to slow the pace, Declan gave it some “manfoot” coming out of turn two then used his extra momentum to take him to the corner speed scrubbing, completely off the power and handbrake! It was a brilliant technique and I don’t think many noticed, this deserves credit!

Luney had some technical problems after qualifying 5th he managed to blow the oil pump and in turn put a hole the size of a fist in his sump, it was a real shame as he only took a hand full of runs, the second of which resulting in the above photo. A quick learner mixed with raw driving talent!

There wasn’t much left of the bumper in the body kit graveyard once Team Green’s Matt Carter had a swipe at it!

In the battle for second Perry just lost out to Danny Eyles, but he could still get on the podium with a win against Dec Munnely in the battle for third.

Which he won, placing Perry 3rd on the podium!

Danny Eyles and Phil Morrison battled it out for the first and second places on the podium. But not only that as Phil had the entire series on his shoulders, in order to win the championship he had to beat Danny, watching Danny go all out whilst Phil needed the points was great to watch!

But after a few extra decision aiding runs the winner of the Knockhill round of the British Drift Championship was crowned, Danny was going all out into the last corner, slightly overshot and landed in the gravel, giving Phil a 10-0 win at round 5!

Pro Class Result

1. Phil Morrison 30pts (28 for the win + 2 for 2nd place qualifying)
2. Danny Eyles 24
3. Simon Perry 24 pts (21 for 3rd + 3 for top qualifying)
4. Declan Munnelly 18pts
5. Shane Lynch 16 pts
6. Gavin Cummings 14pts
7. David Waterworth 12pts
8. Jarack Federico 10 pts
9. Paul Smith 9 pts (8 pts + 1 for 3rd place qualifying)
10. Keith Hammond 8pts
11. Steve Whitbread 8 pts
12. Matt Carter 8 pts
13. Stephen Biagioni 8pts
14. Ashley Stevens 8 pts
15. Julie Robinson 8 pts
16. Wayne Keeber 8pts
17. Mark Luney 8 pts (Qualified but unable to compete in battles)

After a tense and exciting final round the British Drift Championship 2010 comes to a conclusion. The final season standings are as follows -

Semi Pro Championship Standings

Pro Class Season Standings

Congratulations to Phil Morrison for taking the Pro Class and Ian Phillips the Semi Pro Class! Next season seems a long way off but Drifted will be following the BDC in the off-season bringing you news of the cars being built and the faces and names to look out for in 2011.

Will

Just a teaser of what’s to come…A few shots from todays open track session, Team Japspeed driver Danny Eyles coming out of Taylors, and proceeding to Manji all the way down to Duffus, where the track falls off right and entries are completely blind, takes some guts shall we say!

Duffus was then smoothly linked through into McIntyre leaving long clouds of smoke behind!
Really looking forward to this weekend, Knockhill is a brilliant track with lots of level dynamics so there will be some brilliant skidding!

Danny’s smoke a good minute later and still no sign of clearing!
Head down on Sunday 26th September, gates open at 09:00! For more event info check out www.knockhill.com

Do your best to make it down, and if you do we’ll see you Sunday!

Will

On the road to BDC Knockhill and look who I bumped into, A Ken Block lookalike (Mr Alex Broadbent)
chasing sheep round a field… Knockhill coverage coming soon!!

No matter how much they make, no man will ever get bored of fire!

Whilst prepping Brad’s 200sx for BDC Knockhill this weekend, we thought it would be a good idea to get a “Sad S13″ shot. One idea turned into another, and before we knew it cardboard boxes were being soaked in brake cleaner…

Exterior

UK spec 200sx s13 with EP racing supermade kit
Rocket Bunny rear spoiler
Rocking the matt pink vinyl and hand sprayed black paint look
Purple strobes in front, clear in the rear
Advan SA3R’s in 8 and 9j
235 45 17′s all round

Interior

Fabricage rollcage
Full interior for that “stock” look haha
Recaro spa carbon drivers seat
Willans 6 point 3″ harness
Skyline gtr passenger seat
Omp wheel with many spacers to make up for his
MAN spec hydro with wheel brace breaker bar as the lever!
Lots of fire extinguishers

Engine

Fully forged CA18det with steel crank
T04e turbo on “pikey spec” manifold
38mm wastegate and screamer pipe
Big FMIC
Mocal oil cooler
Koyo rad
555 nismo injectors
Power fc mapped by the legend of greg at protune rto 335 bhp at 1.1 bar.

Chassis

Solid rear subframe bushes
Apex rear toe
Camber and Driftworks traction arms on rear
S14a lower front arms with apex tension rods
5 stud Z23 conversion with 2 pot rear callipers with 4 pots up front
Tenabe adjustable coilovers
Cusco 2 way diff with “custom” choppy choppy driveshafts.

Look out for Brad this weekend and give him a cheer!

With the top 16 runners determined and the weather thankfully clearing to present a nice sunny bright sky we were straight back to business. In the above shot Motormaven’s Dan Bridle, Speedhunters’ Paddy McGrath and Drifted’s Will Epps get ready for what looks set to be a promising afternoon’s drifting. Top 16 rundown after the jump….

Top 16 Battles

The Top 16 drivers made their way back onto the track with their respective pit ladies and parked up their machines for the crowd to see – obviously a few smokey burnouts were required to set the scene and the drivers gladly obliged. Whilst the Allstars MC’s set about introducing the drivers and interviewing them for the sizable crowd the media peeps snapped away for their static shots.  The turnout for Saturday’s event was absolutely huge, probably the biggest number of people in the UK who have witnessed drifting at any one time and they only got to see the qualifying. The on/off weather had dampened crowd numbers slightly for Sunday’s main event but had not dampened spirits in the slightest.  The real drift fans who travel the length of the country to support these events are in for an absolute treat.

The first pairing was Master McKeever against John Calvert.  Same cars, different motors and equally talented drivers it was going to be a good one.  Both cars came over the first left hump into the main area really close and marked each over perfectly taking a wide line close to the wall around the first long concrete-lined sweeper. Two runs wasn’t going to be enough so it’s a OMT!  There was a distinct knocking coming from the rear of Dwayne’s car and once checked over by McKeever senior it was deemed to be a broken halfshaft.  Team McKeever were given some time to fix this but after 2 more runs Jon Calvert progressed into the Top 8.  Amazing effort for getting the car sorted so quickly guys!

Next up was Stiggy in the little Mighty Starlet and Walton Smith in the GC8 Impreza.  The Type R shell is by no means large but it looks massive at the side of the ‘Mighty’.  Both drivers are on it and head straight out and run the wall all the way around the sweeper.  After a spin in the first run it wasn’t looking good for the Starlet.  Stiggy pushed Walton hard in the second run but it was Walton who made the 8.

Next came Christy Carpenter vs Poitr Jankowsk. Ireland vs Poland. Again very, very closely matched until Christy makes the first mistake.  Jankowsk and the white S13 punch through.

Dan Chapman’s Team Driftworks Silvia had to battle with Nigel Colfer’s Toyota powered S13.  Seeing Dan regularly go to the Top 8 and beyond in the JDM series is the norm but on this occasion a spin in the final corner would mean that it was Colfer continuing on to the next set of battles.  This could be the last time we see Dan Chapman behind the wheel of this very capable machine as there is talk of the car going up for sale.  This would be a real shame as the car and driver have made a formidable pairing.

Next Portugal’s Bruno Esperanza from Team Twisted vs Poland’s Pawel Trela.  Bruno’s S14a cant match Trela’s speed and and angle on the first run and drops behind.  Trela follows much closer in the second battle and moves on. Bruno leaves the event with his car in one piece, which, if you know Bruno you know is a rarity!

Despite the home-court advantage Brad ‘Lightning’ McQueen had his work cut out to drop Australian Luke Fink out of the running.  After a OMT Fink pulled ahead and followed closely however Brad makes a small mistake which pushes him out and sends Fink into the Top 8.

The next pairing up is Alan McCord and his V8 S15 against Krys Terej in the SR20-powered FD.  Unfortunately for Terej the engine in the FD fell poorly which put an end to his challenge and McCord joined the others in the Final 8.

Several rotary-heads in the crowd had a smug satisfaction at the irony that ended Terej’s event.

The last of the Top 16 battles drew James Deane vs George Tilling.  What an match up this is – a Formula Drift driver against the man that is often responsible for changing UK grassroot driver’s tyres at practice days.  James’ car has had a few issues over the weekend and was seen being pushed back into the pits a few times and maybe isn’t working at its best.  Both of George’s runs are solid and he makes his way into the Top 8 as Deane’s car limps off track.  Amazing stuff,  first time in the Top 16 and now first time in the Top 8, George is having a great day.

A little bit of a breather and we are straight into the Top 8 battles.

Top 8 Battles

First up Walton Smith and Jon Calvert.  On the warm up run Calvert flies straight up the inside of the big right-hander and passes Smith’s Subaru, the crowd go wild but the judges would prefer Calvert to have shadowed Smith’s line.  After the hard-fought judged runs it’s Walton Smith that progresses onwards.

Next up we have Nigel Colfer’s Black Toyota 1JZ S13 alongside Poitr Jankowsk’s white/green S13.  This round of JDM Allstars has a big Polish contingient – Trela and Marciej Bochenek present at JDM Alpine earlier this year have obviously spread the word about the series and others want a piece of the action.  There’s no clear winner after the first two battles and after a OMT its Colfer’s Black s13 that goes through.

With both drivers eager to do well, Luke Fink vs Pawel Trela was a Final Battle-type pairing.  Both drivers pushed super hard and it was going to be a tough call.  Initially Fink was given the win but this was later overturned due to an incident where Fink impacted Trela’s rear that was unclear from the judging point.  After protests from both camps the judges decide the fairest way to decide is a OMT.

They run again and Fink parks up in the pits a little confused about the judges call and Trela advances.  I really don’t envy the job of the judges in these situations.

Next up we have David vs Goliath, George Tilling against Alan McCords monsterous V8 S15.  The power deficit between George’s near standard RB20 motor and the turbo charged V8 in the S15 is approximately 400bhp and the judges quite rightly take this into account when they make their decisions.  You can easily see George’s new found determination as he floats the low powered R32 skyline through the first corner in the the main part of the course making sure he carries plenty of speed down to the big right hander in front of the crowd.  Some of the crowd have made a impromptu banner from a piece of tarp and the hand made black gaffa tape letters form the words ‘GO GEORGE!’.

Mr Tilling must be on a massive natural adrenaline rush as he plants his car right next to the wall past the crowd.  Two runs just aren’t going to cut it so the judges call OMT and the crowd go crazy.  After the first fun McCord’s S15 is making some nasty noises at the back end and he unfortunately doesn’t return from the pits. Diagnosis – one broken differential.  George heads for the semi-finals to the delight of the crowd!

Semi-Finals

First Semi-Final pairing are Nigel Colfer in the 1JZ S13 and Walton Smith in the RB-powered Impreza.  These guys go at it crazy hard, staying nice and close through the course.  Colfer is controlling things well from both lead and chase positions but on the second battle he romps ahead to seal his place in the finals!

Not content with making the Top 16 and and Top 8 George Tilling’s Semi-Final fight is to be with Polish Pawel Trela in the uber-lock S13.  Both drivers truly deserve to be in this battle and its maximum viewing pleasure for everyone gathered around the course.

Trela takes the win and a spot in the Final whilst George has yet one more challenge for the day – to see if he can make 3rd on the podium by defeating the formidable Walton Smith.

After a tough battle George Tilling takes 3rd place and a spot on the Podium. Great driving that man!

So onto the Final – Pawel Trela against Nigel Colfer, both S13 Nissans on the outside, but  Toyota 1JZ vs Nissan SR20 under the bonnets.

Both drivers take turns to lead but NOTHING can seperate them after two runs. Super-close and consistent driving from both sides means the judges have to run them one more time. The crowd are just happy for the chance to see them battle again – this was going down to the wire!

As the smoke settled from two awesome runs it was announced the judges had made a decision, i’m not sure how as both drivers were on FIRE in the final runs.

Maybe it was because English wasn’t his native language but Trela took this unfortunate wording a bit too far, his turbo feed dumping oil onto the red hot manifold and setting the turbo and surrounding components alight. Thankfully fellow competitor Mr Tilling was at hand with an extinguisher and put the flames out before any serious damage occurred. What an end to an eventful and tiring day!

The crowd was gathered and the champagne and trophies were ready for the judges decision. The JDM Allstars Wembley 2010 winner was – Pawel Trela!

Final Standings

1st – Pawel Trela – Nissan S13

2nd – Nigel Colfer – Nissan S13

3rd – George Tilling – Nissan R32

4th – Walton Smith – Subaru Impreza

That wraps up another year at JDM Allstars Wembley. You can catch the final round of the 2010 JDM Allstars season at Silverstone, UK on Sunday 5th September. The championship is still wide open at the top and Drifted will be there as ever to catch all the action.

After a busy Saturday shooting the qualifying the Drifted team were straight back on it for the main event.  Sunday was sure to be an awesome day.

When I ticked the box that said I wanted an alarm call on Sunday morning I didn’t think for one moment they would use the fire alarm!  Myself and Jim’s Factory main man Jay Walker caught a fast breakfast and headed back to the stadium to find drivers and pit crews finalizing their cars before the morning practice kicked off.  With the drivers and media briefings out of the way we were off!

Lennard Wanders was one of the first drivers round the track and gave the crowd a proper good smoking out.  The standard of driving in the final 32 was going to be stunning and make things extremely difficult for the JDM Allstars judges Chris Parry,  James Hudson and Andy Jaenen.  We really are taking degrees of excellence here.

The Top 31/2.

Bon Bon, whilst absent from yesterday’s qualifying session had arrived early this morning in his S14 road car.  After a frantic few days and little sleep he had managed to install all the safety equipment into his car so that it would meet the JDM safety standards.  Unfortunately for him he would not be able to compete due to missing qualifying so the judges deemed his battle with first place Man (Boy?) Dwaine McKeever to be purely exhibition.

What an interesting match up this was – most 14 year old boys would be busy delivering newspapers on their BMX’s on a Sunday morning but Dwaine was tearing around the Wembley circuit in a 700bhp RB26 powered S13.  Bon Bon on the other hand was without his fearsome Driftworks R32 Skyline using very mush standard S14 with some Driftworks suspension goodies, a proper differential and mandatory safety gear.  Bon still managed to smoke up the super grippy rear Federals and put the car right on the clipping points with less than 300bhp on tap.  It would have been interesting to see how far Bon could have made it with only rage as his weapon but it was a straight pass into the top 16 for Master McKeever.

Next battle was between the Team Neuton Tyres drivers Matt Steele and Jon Calvert.  Both of these guys go at it 100% and are not afraid to push their driving to the level where things can get broken and damaged.  Both cars have been intimate with concrete this year (JDM Alpine) but its all part of the game.

With close driving like the above there was nothing between the Neuton boys and a one more time was called.  Jon Calvert made it into the final 16.

Next up was Steve ‘Stiggy’ Evans in the mighty pinto-powered Toyota Starlet vs. Bass Plugge’s seriously wide and purposeful Z33.

Angle was not one bit scarificed for speed and Steve and the mighty Starlet progressed onwards.  Its really great to see this little car still doing well when its surrounded by much much more powerful machinery.

Next we had Walton Smith in the RB powered GC8 Subaru Impreza against Vince Noott.  RB passion runs deep within the Smith family and I’m sure brother Julian was really enjoying watching the Impreza do battle from the sidelines.  Vince had taken a heavy front end impact when he and Dan O’Brien had a coming together it Saturday’s practice and unfortunately span out in both of his runs meaning Walton went through to the 16 with his Subaru.

The next pairing was Liam Marsterson in the black s14a vs. Christy Carpenter in the purple Nexen Tyres s15.  Christy pulled good ground in both runs and pushes through into the next round.

Poitr Jankowski potent 2.3L stroker kitted S13 had drawn Dan O’Brian in the yellow s14a.  Dan’s car was still missing a lot of its front end after the coming together with Vince Noott in the practice session on Saturday and the intercooler was being suspended by a couple of tie straps as there was nothing left to attach it to.  Jankowski stomped through.

The Team Falken Tyres s14a of Lennard Wanders had to knock out Nigel Colfer’s 1JZ powered s13 if it wanted be in the next round.

Wanders was making lots of smoke in practice but he just couldn’t match the speed of the black s13 so his day came to an end and Colfer enters the final 16.

As Team Driftworks Dan Chapman contemplates the sale of his car right now he has to focus on pushing out Holland’s Frank Van Heeren in the Driftking NL V8-powered s13.  Frank spins! Chapman goes through.

Jungle Power’s sweet street style 4 door R32 vs Pawel Trela semi-spaceframed s13.  Trela has been super consistent all weekend long (and any other time I’ve watched him drive) and wins.

Anthony ‘Scotty’ Scott’s Rocket Bunny has been in the wars and on a recent trip out of the country it toasted the amazing RB30 that normally lurks under the bonnet.  In the last few weeks Scotty has managed to get the car back up and running on an breathed upon SR20 setup.  I wonder how different the Bunny feels up front with a slightly lighter nose?

Scotty was paired with Team Twisted’s Bruno Esperanza. Unfortunately the Rocket Bunny started to guff plumes of smoke out of the back indicating a turbo issue and that was Scotty out and Bruno through.

Matt House in the MPH Customs V8-powered Mazda FD had to fight it out with Luke Fink in the freshly repainted LowBrain/Severnside PS13 if he wanted to go any further.  Unfortunately for Matt he span out giving Luke a path into the next battles.

Next up was Francis O Shea in the Top Fuel Nissan s15 against Brad McQueen in the Ouch Tattoos s14.  Brad had some trouble with the turbo inlet pipe being sucked shut in qualifying but there was no such problem now.  Attacking hard and making some good smoke and earned himself a place in the top 16.

Alan McCord in the V8 S15 faced Tom Yates in the purple Team Twisted S14-fronted-S13.  Tom has to straighten twice and and McCord goes through to the 16.

Anoher Polish driver Krys Terej in an sr20 powered FD vs Brad Hacker in the Dragon Motorsports FD.  The Dragon Motorsports FD is one of the most savage rotary engines you will hear aside from the Crazy 4 rotor systems used by Mad Mike.  However, in this instance the SR20 powered car of Terej goes through.

Formula D driver James Deane’s newly prepared Severnside Imports PS13 was looking hot and ready to do battle against vs Brian McCann’s green Chaser, above. After a long hard battle James Deane progressed through.

In the last of the Top 32 battles we had the Mint Tyres R32 Skyline driven by George Tilling going up against Matt Chiappa in the LBD/Severnside S13.  George has really improved again this year and he really knows how to get the best out of the standard(ish) RB20 motor.  George confidently takes the win and ventures into the top 16.  Well done indeed.

At this point the final 16 had been decided and the track shut down to make way for some more crazy FMX riding and a monster truck stomping over some cars.  By this time we’d been shooting for approx 4 hours so we figured it was a good time to grab a bite to eat.  With the burger van completely devoid of anything left to eat we decided we’d take a trip to a popular American burger joint.  As we rounded the corner and saw the mighty ‘Golden Arches’  the heavens opened and what was moments ago a bright sunny sky became very dull and proceeded to entirely soak the crowd and track.  That would make the Top 16 very interesting!

Click through to the Top 16 to the Podium report!

Qualifying from yesterdays action at JDM Wembley! Going for a different approach with these shots.
All straight from camera, no level tweaks exposure change or anything, let me know what you think!

10. Walton Smith (Above)

9. Brad McQueen

8. Steve Evans
Check the tire flex on the compression after the jump, surprised it stayed on at all!

7. Luke Fink

6. James Deane

5. Dan Chapman

4. Christie Carpenter

3. Alan McCord

2. Paweł Trela

1. Duane Mckeever

Looking forward to todays event, why not come down and watch some of the action?
Visit the JDM Allstars website for more info.

Will

Spec:
Garrat 2871r turbo
Z32 maf
Nismo 555 injectors
Horsham Development Management (around 350bhp)
Apexi AVC-R
Big ally rad with HKS fan controller
Bride seat and super low rail
R33 GTS-T brake set up all round
Greddy Gravity 18×9.5 et10 all round
Nardi wheel
Yashio Factory radiator spray

I’m heading over to Mallory this Tuesday with fellow Drifted snapper Mr Ian Gratton, taking a few snaps of drivers and shenanigans that happen throughout the day. So if you see either of us running about with a Drifted Hi viz stop us and say Hi!

Hope you like the shots, this is a car you have to see to believe!
Why not check out some of my other work over on Flickr?
Mallory Park photo’s up later this week!

High running temps,
Oil starved engines,
De-lammed rubber smacking away at the arches,
Diffs’ crunching and grinding,
Rear quarters without a straight section,
Paintwork left on as many cones and walls as possible,
Clutches slipping, and gearboxes forever whining.

Next time your out, remind the other half just how much you love her, how you’ll never treat her wrong again,
and that if she’s lucky you’ll even fill her up with V-Power next time…