D1RC Drift Series Round 1 - Rockingham

The D1RC Drift Competition
^{Written by Eddie Turner}

^{Early morning practice, before the crowds arrived.}

Qualifying

With each drifter venturing out there to qualify for a good position in the finals, they all put in their one practice and three qualifying runs of which their best was carried forward.

First to go was Darren Read, managing to break the ice with a great first run which would prove to be the benchmark score for the other drifters. Not far from all the clipping points and moving forward with great speed, he obtained a run score of 94pts.

Next to go out was the youngest competitor of the day, Chris Brooke. His car’s setup and his driving looked nearly spot on and he put this to good effect racking up a very presentable score of 97pts.

Following on was Steve Brooke, unfortunately only managing to achieve 85pts, his car running a little too wide into the corners, missing the clipping zones, but he was still able to keep his entry speeds up.

Paul Edwards was next up. On his best run he was not dropping any points through the first two corners, nailing them perfectly with good speed but very unluckily overcooked it in the final 180 hairpin which resulted in the back end coming almost right around. Managing to recover from this and getting it through the finish line in good fashion, he racked up a good score of 95pts.

Brad Hurr embarked on the next qualifying run in his lovely looking Sumo Power 350Z replica which was pulling a lot of onlookers. Going all out, he was really trying to get that perfect 100pt score with ample speed but this decision was his downfall. Three runs with a spin in each resulted in only a 5pt best which subsequently would put him right at the bottom of the competitor list, not a true reflection of the driver’s ability.

Next it was the turn of Jimmy Lam to go out and show how it’s supposed to be done. Hitting the first corner spot on, missing the next clipping zone by a mere few inches and getting the last corner down neatly brought him what would be the top qualifying score of the day of 98pts.

Moving on towards the end of the list, it was then the turn of Eddie Turner. Driving as though he didn’t want to scratch his new, virgin, bodyshell, he only managed a mediocre score of 90pts and with the high level of competition that was around on the day, this was to put him down in the lower half of the grid.

Last out was John Turner. Getting the nose into the clipping zones well didn’t penalise his scores but a tendency to get a little too much drift angle compromised his speeds which gave him a final score of 93pts.

^{The circuit, showing the start & end of the judged section.}

Tsuiso Quarter Finals

The first quarter final consisted of top-ranked Jimmy Lam versus the unlucky Brad Hurr. This match was again another disaster for Brad as a kingpin failure on his Yokomo DP rendered his steering almost uncontrollable. Jimmy took the full advantage of this and calmly drifted his way into the semi-finals. Better luck next time, eh, Brad?

Next it was the first of the ‘father versus son’ battles with Steve Brooke threatening it would be a “long walk home” for Chris if he was beaten! This, however, had no affect on Chris’ drifting with him being only slightly beaten in the first run, 6 - 4 to Steve. The next run, though, saw Steve holding the advantage of leading and neatly bringing it home, securing the 6 - 4 win over son Chris.

The next Tsuiso battle was between 3rd position Paul Edwards and 6th position Eddie Turner. A heated first run with Paul leading saw him slightly pulling ahead which resulted in a 6 - 4 lead over Eddie. Eddie pulled it back in the 2nd run, taking masses of speed into the first corner, turning in early to the clipping point which consequently opened up a gap between the two. Paul unfortunately took the last hairpin wide, giving Eddie a 7 - 3 win and a pass to the semi-finals.

The last quarter final was between Darren Read and John Turner. This match would prove to be the closest of the day with Darren leading after the first run 6.5 - 3.5. With John leading the next run he managed to mirror Darren’s performance in the first which brought back the scores level after the 2nd run to 5 - 5. There were shouts from the crowd of, “One more time!” which the judges just had to agree on and the drivers were sent back round to the start line again. Going into a sudden death situation put pressure on both drivers but John managed to keep his cool, closing in behind Darren but not presenting any kind of real danger. This caused the judges some thinking and, after a minute or so, they again called “One more time!” With John leading this next run he opened up a gap on Darren and carried more speed through the course with both hitting the clipping points. This brought a 6 - 4 win to John after 4 consecutive runs.

Tsuiso Semi-Finals

The first semi-final pitched the top qualifier Jimmy Lam against Steve Brooke. After seeing Jimmy’s great drifting all day long, Steve must have been shaking in his boots. Under pressure, Steve grabbed the chance to close in on Jimmy’s lead in the first run, pushing his nose in where he could, scoring a 6 - 4 lead. This presented Steve with a great chance of going into the final, leading the second run, but he unfortunately ran wide into the first corner and Jimmy smoothly clipped the apexes and ran through the inside to overtake and take a 9 - 1 victory home over Steve. This put Jimmy through to the final and gave Steve a chance to grab 3rd place.

The last semi-final run was made by John Turner and Eddie Turner. The second father son battle of the day, again, showed us that everyone was eager to win no matter what the relationship! The first run, with Eddie leading, was close with him making a smooth transition through the chicane and pulling a slight gap on John, giving him the initial 6 - 4 lead. The second run showed how vital it was to get the car set up perfectly for the track conditions with Eddie suffering understeer, attempting to recover by initiating one-way braking which resulted with him oversteering wildly and beaching himself on the track markers. John kept his cool and neatly drifted the remaining two corners well securing a 9 - 1 win over Eddie putting him through to the overall final against Jimmy.

Tsuiso 3rd Place Drift-Off

Both eager to win prizes, Steve and Eddie fought hard to win 3rd place. The first run saw Steve lead Eddie into the first corner and both drivers had scrappy drifts resulting in a hard decision for judge, Ken Nomura, to make. He didn’t make his scores public until after the 2nd run where Steve unluckily spun entering a corner which gave Eddie the opportunity to make a safe run for home and take 3rd place with a 10 - 0 win.

^{Spot the celeb? Yes, he's the only one without a pink polo!}

Tsuiso 1st / 2nd Place Final

^{John and Jimmy battling for the honours.}

The final took some time to get underway with Judge, Ken Nomura, insistent that the rebel drivers were properly lined up on the grid. This they finally managed and were ready to go. Jimmy pounced off the line and John followed straight after with both initiating a power over drift early to get their cars sideways well before the corner. Feathering the throttle, they were side by side around the first clipping zone and flicked back to the left to get through the ‘chicane’ and clip the next apex. Jimmy braked to get the back end to drift right around the final hairpin which pushed John wide and let Jimmy take a small advantage into the next run. They lined up and waited for the judge’s ‘okay’ to go. John shot off into the first corner with Jimmy right behind on his bumper, very close. They flipped back through the chicane and went for the final hairpin where Jimmy tried just too hard and clipped the back of John’s car which sent him into a spin. John finished the run well sweeping out towards the outside of the track and Jimmy’s car sat there as though everything was lost. Nomura announced that, due to the crash, John was the winner 10 - 0 and Jimmy showed great sportsmanship, graciously accepting 2nd place.



The Other Competitions
^{Written by John Turner}

Time Attack

With so much to keep the competitors busy, only those on top of things were available for the Time Attack, Brad Hurr, Eddie Turner and Darren Read entering. Despite only running a 27 turn motor in his Pro 4 race chassis, Eddie used all his racing experience to post the quickest time of the day and took the Time Attack trophy over 2nd place Darren.

^{Eddie's winning Best Chassis and 3rd place Drift Competition car.}

Best Drift Shell / Best Chassis

^{The team select their favourites for the Best Chassis competition.}

The competitions for best Shell and Chassis were judged by the competitors in a blind ballot, 10pts for 1st choice, 5pts for 2nd. The final scores were close but John Turner emerged winner of the Best Drift Shell with his ‘Purple Power’ Tamiya Supra and Eddie Turner took the Best Chassis trophy with his much modified Yokomo SSG.

^{The entering cars line up for the Best Drift Shell competition.}

Top 3 points scores:-
Body - John Turner 45pts, Brad Hurr 30pts, Steve Brooke 15pts
Chassis - Eddie Turner 55pts, John Turner 45pts, Paul Edwards 15pts

^{John's winning Drift Competition car and Best Drift Shell.}

I'd like to thank, on behalf of D1RC and the Drift Series competitors and guests, D1GB for the use of the superb Rockingham facilities for our event, the opportunity to meet and see the D1GB teams in action and prizes for our event, CML for the loan of their portable track, the publicity and further prizes for our event, Radio Race Car International for the trophies and the D1RC Drift Series magazine coverage, Abbey Motorsport for the use of their vehicle truck as a rostrum and, finally, the Rockingham management and staff for making us very welcome and helping out with all those little last minute problems! Thank You.

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Results

Drift Competition

• 1^st - John Turner
• 2^nd - Jimmy Lam
• 3^rd - Eddie Turner
• 4^th - Steve Brooke
• 5^th - Chris Brooke
• 6^th - Paul Edwards
• 7^th - Darren Read
• 8^th - Brad Hurr

Time Attack

• 1^st - Eddie Turner
• 2^nd - Darren Read
• 3^rd - Brad Hurr

Concours

• Best Bodyshell - John Turner
• Best Chassis - Eddie Turner