D1RC Drift Series Round 3 - Colchester MCC

^{Written by John Turner}

^{The line up for the day.}

As we neared the circuit early morning it was already raining, fork lighting finding earth in the distance over Colchester. No problem! The ultra-reliable weather service had predicted this – this and that the sun would appear at 10am precisely. As the merry band of drifters erected the D1RC everythingbuteasyup (but cheap!) gazebo, the banter began to raise the spirits and by around eleven the rain did indeed stop and a pleasant cool, drying breeze took over.

Colchester is a new ‘island’ style track located just London side of Marks Tey, conveniently located beside the A12 . It boasts a long, fast straight followed by an seemingly endless combination of various shaped low and friendly curbed islands and a useful pit lane. The high and spacious driver rostrum stands over a large, sturdy race control and scrutineering facility. The circuit had been very kindly loaned to D1RC for the day by the club, for which we are very grateful, and a drift course had been designed and laid out the previous week by John and Eddie Turner, the Drift Series organisers. The course consisted of a right-hand 180 (turn 1) off the end of the start straight, followed by a right / left kink (T2) into a left-hand 90 (T3) into a right-hand 180 (T4) to the finish line of the judged section. The circuit continued back to the start straight for the drifters or left, back into a series of switches around the islands for the Time Attack cars.

Following the rain delayed practice, qualifying commenced at 2pm in reverse ‘seed’ order. This ran smoothly save for one or two unusual incidents, including Brad Hurr rolling his drift car (!) and John Turner, round 1 winner, spinning in all three attempts! Eddie Turner saved the family name by taking 1st position with a series first maximum 100 points (98,98,100) earning him a points bonus.

With the ever present threat of rain on the otherwise sunny horizon, we went straight into the quarter finals. First up was top qualifier Eddie against John. In the first run Eddie got some major oversteer in the kink but recovered to regain position over the line, John taking the 8/2 advantage into run two. Here though it was John’s turn to spin out of the kink and Eddie continued to take a 10/0 lead and the leg. Next up was new on the scene Stuart Cave and Adrian Simon. Stuart led into turn one but ran wide, clipping Adrian as he regained his line but Adrian then ran over the kerb through the kink, judged 5/5. In the second leg, with Adrian leading off, Stuart ran off the course through the final 180 giving Adrian a 7/3 and leg win. In the third ‘tsuiso’ battle Paul Edwards led off as Ritchie Hood chased but spun in turn 3 giving Paul the advantage 10/0. Ritchie then led off but suffered understeer into turn 1 allowing Paul to close and keep close for the remainder of the run, Paul taking the leg win. The last quarter final pairing was that of Brad Hurr and series leader Jimmy Lam. This one was eventful with a “one more time” required to find a winner but on both final runs, Brad’s car seemed to take a sudden dislike to Jimmy’s, taking Jimmy out exorcet style on both runs, putting Jimmy into the semis.

In the first of the semis Eddie took a clear win over Adrian with two 9/1s but the scores did no justice to Adrian’s smooth style and we’ll need to keep an eye on him in the future! Paul and Jimmy’s battle was somewhat closer, Jim taking the first 8/2 but Paul fighting back with a 6/4, Jim scraping through to the final.

First on the line were Paul and Adrian, fighting for 3rd overall. In the first run Adrian ran a clean course while Paul’s was a little off line giving Adrian a 8/2 advantage into the second where there was nothing between them, Adrian taking the collective win and 3rd place trophy on his first event. We now all looked to Eddie and Jimmy to entertain us with a final royal! Not wanting to disappoint, they gave us one……

With Eddie leading, both made exemplary runs but Eddie managed to stretch out his lead and took the first run with a narrow margin of 6/4.

^{A close but clean first run.}

Both lined up for the second run and, as the judges gave their permission to start, Jimmy made off looking to put some space between him and Eddie. In the process, though, he entered the first turn too fast and, running wide, Eddie held a tight inside line. As Jimmy turned back in, Eddie had nowhere to go and T-boned Jimmy. Both continued over the line where the judges declared Jimmy the overall victor.

^{The controversial point of impact.}

Jimmy was ecstatic, winning his first round, but there was a further nice touch. Jimmy and Eddie, by far the most knowledgeable of the group when it comes to the rules, were talking long before the judges had decided and Jimmy had already apologised to Eddie for taking his line congratulated Eddie on his win! This just serves to show how close it was and how complex the rules can be – this is all about interpretation and not about who is first over the line after all, something of which the Judges at the time will have to brush up on! Well done Jimmy, a well deserved win at last. Eddie will be champing at the bit come Silverstone on 20 August, the first D1RC Drift Series ‘Grudge Match’?

^{Round 3 Drift winners, Jimmy Lam centre, Eddie Turner right & Adrian Simon left.}

During the early morning rain the team had turned they’re attention to the concours competition. Ritchie Hood’s new beautifully designed and applied paint job on Yokomo’s 350Z shell was an easy winner of the Best Drift Shell trophy. Ritchie also had his old D1RC.co.uk Silvia featured car on hand with him and he very generously accepted for some photos to be taken of the cars in action. Two of the best bodyshells around...some may say so.

^{Ritchie's shells, new and old with the concours winning shell leading.}

^{Ritchie's shells, new and old with the D1RC S15 behind.}

^{Best Drift Shell winner Ritchie Hood.}

John Turner’s massively blinged up ‘Purple Power’ Pro4 based chassis took the Best Chassis trophy.

^{Best Chassis winner John Turner.}

The 3 lap ‘Time Attack’ event rounded up the near perfect day (the early rain was the only blemish). With the biggest entry to date, this proved very exciting with Brad Hurr throwing his new Time Attack Evo around the long circuit with abandon and taking 2nd place, just nudging Rithie Hood’s very nice S15 into third while Eddie Turner’s Checkpoint powered Pro4 Scooby took a clear win by some 8 seconds over the 3 laps. Mutterings of new motors for round 4 came from most pit tables!

^{Time Attack winner Eddie Turner.}

Our thanks go to Glen Horncastle at D1GB for the Option Drift DVDs and so hard to get official D1GP shirts, Jason Varley at CML for the box full of D1GP 1/24 diecasts (very nice!), Tim King of Colchester MCC for the use of what must be one of the best new R/C Circuits in the UK and, finally, Dez Chand of Radio Race Car International for the much sought after shiny trophies and coverage.

^{The cars and their owners standing after a long day.}

So how did the competitors rate the round, without the value added entertainment of the full size D1GB/GP teams competing and the long legged promo ladies to distract us? An unqualified “best yet”. It just gets better! See you all at Silverstone.
Thank You.

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Results

Drift Competition

• 1^st - Jimmy Lam
• 2^nd - Eddie Turner
• 3^rd - Adrian Simon
• 4^th - Paul Edwards
• 5^th - Stuart Cave
• 6^th - Ritchie Hood
• 7^th - Brad Hurr
• 8^th - John Turner

Time Attack

• 1^st - Eddie Turner
• 2^nd - Brad Hurr
• 3^rd - Ritchie Hood

Concours

• Best Bodyshell - Ritchie Hood
• Best Chassis - John Turner