D1 GB Drift Champs & D1 GP event report
Discussion
Hi Everyone
Here's a not so quick report from round 2 of the D1 GB Drift champs at Silverstone
Plus some news of the D1 GP event the following day.
I was once again in My GZ20 Soarer sporting the number 8 my position in the championship
A hot day loomed 30+ degC & the 40 odd drivers of the championship took the grid for their morning practice runs & my Soarer was sporting the number 8 showing my position in the championship. This year the Silverstone gravel appeared to have gained a new magnetic quality that was attracting cars like bees to a honey pot, I'm pretty sure no-one was immune to it, me included, some even managed to find it four of five times. The judges were also suffering from the huge dust clowd the engulfed them everytime someone fell off corner 1 much to the amusement of the crowds
The entry to corner 1 was 4th gear down the national straight, into turn one, up against the tyre wall, across the track onto the F1 circuit, so traction went from nothing, to heaps then not a lot again as our lines took a different course to the F1 boys of the weekend before.
Bon Bon (Ben Brooke-Smith) takes the entry into corner 1 in 4th gear
My second practice run was aborted when I spotted a huge oil slick, just a a driver in front spun & the guy behind did too. A quick diversion across the grass to the marshalls post to tell them saw the action curtailled for 20 odd mins as the slick was mopped up.
I was managing the entries no problem, but the straight from corner 1 - 2 I was really struggling with a lack of power to keep the rear tyres lit up for the entire section making my runs a little inconsistent. Still I was doing OK just not great. My car could do with more traction on the rear under deceleration at turn 1 to give a little more adjustably but with only 260bhp I would struggle with excess traction under power, so I had to compromise. Still I'm not complaining these things are sent to test us.
Silverstone is fast, it's so open & vast, on turn 2 you have time to read the Sunday papers & wave at the crowd in between lining the car up on the clipping points, it takes ages to make the 180deg 3rd or 4th gear corner the car is so nicely balanced its amazing. My clutch received some serious abuse to maintain the drift throughout with a clutch kick every couple of seconds to keep the wheels spun up & angle on, as the heat definately sapped the power on my car. The more powerful cars were pulling 4th gear through this huge corner.
Paul Vlasblom in his M3 engined BMW Touring could pull 4th gear at 130db it's loud very loud too
Same point same corner I'm struggling to pull 3rd gear
Tiff Needell 5th Gear TV Presenter has decided he's now doing the whole series as its much more fun than racing, TV Cameras monted on the car
ready for a report for the first Monday 8pm on Channel 5 after the Football world cup
On I think my 5th or 6th practice run I managed to find the gravel on corner one ooops. I was not the first & definately not the last!!! A quick tug from the Silverstone tractor had me out in no time & the car continues to drop gravel from strange places today, two days after the event.
Yes this is what happens when you hit the gravel, yes it gets everywhere
At about this time the Japanese D1 GP guys had their practice session for Sunday's D1 GP event & I bumped into Mr Tokita in the pit lane with his "new" car (Goodyear Sponsored), now until recently he had an earlier Soarer similar to mine just a more angular vintage version. Turns out his new car is a GZ20 too!!, just like mine. A quick exchange of handshakes, comparisons & general delight at the rarity of our cars in a combination of sign language, smiling & nodding set up what was to be an interesting weekend, but not the way it was planned!.
Tokita's new GZ20 (he copied me honestly!!)
On only his 3rd lap he managed to blow a piston on his 7M-GTE engine, after having the car shipped all the way to the UK from Chiba in Japan, he was gutted when I met him in the pits again. Now at this point, many of us would simply give up there & then but good old CptFixit (me) was on hand, by which time the D1 TV crew had arrived to see what was going on. Me being me & having done two [url]www.plymouth-dakar.co.uk[/url] rallies nothing is impossible !!!. So some quick thinking was required...... A phone call to one of the MK3 Supra Owners Club members, see's a post go up on the website forum, for a 3.0L Turbo engine or complete car whatever anything will do. Now much to my amazement & the other Japanese drivers & pit crews all now gathered round for a look at the drama, 5 mins later I receive a phone call. "Hiya, saw a post on forum, I've got a complete wrecker car if you want & I live 20 mins from Silverstone" total awe as this is translated into Japanese amid bouts of laughter, surprise & jubilation. I then ran to other end of the pitlane to find Buff's (Mark Luney - Skyline) pit crew who I knew had a tow car & trailer & some spare hands. Within 20 mins they were on their way to collect the "wrecker" MK3 Supra Turbo 3.0L
At this point I had to go back out for my qualifying runs,
knowing I was struggling with a lack of horsepower I tried but I knew it was'nt going to be good. Three clean but struggling runs, If I'd scraped into the top 16 I would have been lucky. Driver briefing reveals as thought, I'd not made the top 16 into the Tsusio battles & no chance of further points today. So I'd be taking the sidelines for the rest of the day. So I parked the car up on the edge of the pits so the public could see it (still dropping gravel) as most of the cars were tucked away in the pit garages.
So Back to assist Mr Tokita I went, to find the car had been dropped around to WRC Technoligies workshops round the corner & his engine was already out.
At this point the Supra arrived on the trailer with the donor engine in & the other Japanese guys took great delight in making fun at Tokita not having a JDM engine for his Soarer (JDM = Japapenese Domestic Market it's a cool term for Japanese made tuning parts) He'd recruited a couple of spanner hands in the form of two of the Driftworks forum members & a few of the other Japanese drivers pitcrew how many other sports can you get so much help from competitors??. Looks like they had their work cut out to have the car ready for 10am the next day. The D1 TV crew were on hand filming the drama & the Smile on Mr Tokita's face assured me they'd sort it.
I headed back to the pits to catch the action of the Tsusio battles to keep all you guys up to date with news of the battles. The crowds are hotting up in the stands as it reaches 32deg C in the UK!!
Some more gardening - Where did I leave the flowers?
Some fantastic battles saw the top 4 drawn down to Phil Morrison, Brett Castle, James Hudson & Marceij Polody of Poland (who I beat in battle last round)
Marcaij V Phil
Phil V Brett Castle for the Final
Phil Morrison came top of class & won Round 2 of the D1 GB, a well deserved win, Brett came 2nd & James Hudson 3rd place.
Next up the Japanese & the D1 GB top six qualifyers were allowed out for free practice - utter madness !!!
I popped back to the workshop where Tokita was busy swapping engine bits over & assisted where I could, we had to fabricate a special tool to remove the spigot bearing from his old engine, as the "new engine" was an auto without one. This took at least two hours & I did'nt leave till 9pm when I realised I had'nt eaten all day. I left the guys to carry on working & awaited the news the following day.
Tokita & friends swapping engines bits over
[IMG]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j7/[/pic]
Sadly after all that effort it turns out the engine had a blown head gasket - noooo. Mr Tokita was still very happy though & he got to assist the Judges for the match, it'll be featured on one of the [url]www.v-option.co.uk[/url] D1 Video's & no doubt we'll all be famous. I'm being sent an honoury Samurai headscarf by Mr Tokita for helping him out & I appeared to have gained a mr fix-it status amongst the Japanese drivers that warranted some additional VIP tickets for Sundays GP event.
I'll make sure I bring my toolkit next time I meet the Japanese then
Onto the D1 GP of Sunday
I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, the D1 GB guys only got through to the top 8
Hibino
Mr Vlasblom catches out the Vertex car by some crafty left foot braking
Brett goes gardening & that new bumper is no more
Spot the difference Nismo V Greddy
Darren McNamara's Smoke Machine does the business Corolla V Corolla
Yasayuki Kazama wins the D1 Exhibition Match
Big thanks to all my sponsors who helped me out, especially Prolex-UK who fitted a lovely new straight through exhaust on Wednesday this week in time for the weekend. Cheers to Custom Graphics, Universal Turbo's, RHD Japan & Surrey Rolling Road
Cheers to the photographers too, great job as always
Here's a not so quick report from round 2 of the D1 GB Drift champs at Silverstone
Plus some news of the D1 GP event the following day.
I was once again in My GZ20 Soarer sporting the number 8 my position in the championship
A hot day loomed 30+ degC & the 40 odd drivers of the championship took the grid for their morning practice runs & my Soarer was sporting the number 8 showing my position in the championship. This year the Silverstone gravel appeared to have gained a new magnetic quality that was attracting cars like bees to a honey pot, I'm pretty sure no-one was immune to it, me included, some even managed to find it four of five times. The judges were also suffering from the huge dust clowd the engulfed them everytime someone fell off corner 1 much to the amusement of the crowds
The entry to corner 1 was 4th gear down the national straight, into turn one, up against the tyre wall, across the track onto the F1 circuit, so traction went from nothing, to heaps then not a lot again as our lines took a different course to the F1 boys of the weekend before.
Bon Bon (Ben Brooke-Smith) takes the entry into corner 1 in 4th gear
My second practice run was aborted when I spotted a huge oil slick, just a a driver in front spun & the guy behind did too. A quick diversion across the grass to the marshalls post to tell them saw the action curtailled for 20 odd mins as the slick was mopped up.
I was managing the entries no problem, but the straight from corner 1 - 2 I was really struggling with a lack of power to keep the rear tyres lit up for the entire section making my runs a little inconsistent. Still I was doing OK just not great. My car could do with more traction on the rear under deceleration at turn 1 to give a little more adjustably but with only 260bhp I would struggle with excess traction under power, so I had to compromise. Still I'm not complaining these things are sent to test us.
Silverstone is fast, it's so open & vast, on turn 2 you have time to read the Sunday papers & wave at the crowd in between lining the car up on the clipping points, it takes ages to make the 180deg 3rd or 4th gear corner the car is so nicely balanced its amazing. My clutch received some serious abuse to maintain the drift throughout with a clutch kick every couple of seconds to keep the wheels spun up & angle on, as the heat definately sapped the power on my car. The more powerful cars were pulling 4th gear through this huge corner.
Paul Vlasblom in his M3 engined BMW Touring could pull 4th gear at 130db it's loud very loud too
Same point same corner I'm struggling to pull 3rd gear
Tiff Needell 5th Gear TV Presenter has decided he's now doing the whole series as its much more fun than racing, TV Cameras monted on the car
ready for a report for the first Monday 8pm on Channel 5 after the Football world cup
On I think my 5th or 6th practice run I managed to find the gravel on corner one ooops. I was not the first & definately not the last!!! A quick tug from the Silverstone tractor had me out in no time & the car continues to drop gravel from strange places today, two days after the event.
Yes this is what happens when you hit the gravel, yes it gets everywhere
At about this time the Japanese D1 GP guys had their practice session for Sunday's D1 GP event & I bumped into Mr Tokita in the pit lane with his "new" car (Goodyear Sponsored), now until recently he had an earlier Soarer similar to mine just a more angular vintage version. Turns out his new car is a GZ20 too!!, just like mine. A quick exchange of handshakes, comparisons & general delight at the rarity of our cars in a combination of sign language, smiling & nodding set up what was to be an interesting weekend, but not the way it was planned!.
Tokita's new GZ20 (he copied me honestly!!)
On only his 3rd lap he managed to blow a piston on his 7M-GTE engine, after having the car shipped all the way to the UK from Chiba in Japan, he was gutted when I met him in the pits again. Now at this point, many of us would simply give up there & then but good old CptFixit (me) was on hand, by which time the D1 TV crew had arrived to see what was going on. Me being me & having done two [url]www.plymouth-dakar.co.uk[/url] rallies nothing is impossible !!!. So some quick thinking was required...... A phone call to one of the MK3 Supra Owners Club members, see's a post go up on the website forum, for a 3.0L Turbo engine or complete car whatever anything will do. Now much to my amazement & the other Japanese drivers & pit crews all now gathered round for a look at the drama, 5 mins later I receive a phone call. "Hiya, saw a post on forum, I've got a complete wrecker car if you want & I live 20 mins from Silverstone" total awe as this is translated into Japanese amid bouts of laughter, surprise & jubilation. I then ran to other end of the pitlane to find Buff's (Mark Luney - Skyline) pit crew who I knew had a tow car & trailer & some spare hands. Within 20 mins they were on their way to collect the "wrecker" MK3 Supra Turbo 3.0L
At this point I had to go back out for my qualifying runs,
knowing I was struggling with a lack of horsepower I tried but I knew it was'nt going to be good. Three clean but struggling runs, If I'd scraped into the top 16 I would have been lucky. Driver briefing reveals as thought, I'd not made the top 16 into the Tsusio battles & no chance of further points today. So I'd be taking the sidelines for the rest of the day. So I parked the car up on the edge of the pits so the public could see it (still dropping gravel) as most of the cars were tucked away in the pit garages.
So Back to assist Mr Tokita I went, to find the car had been dropped around to WRC Technoligies workshops round the corner & his engine was already out.
At this point the Supra arrived on the trailer with the donor engine in & the other Japanese guys took great delight in making fun at Tokita not having a JDM engine for his Soarer (JDM = Japapenese Domestic Market it's a cool term for Japanese made tuning parts) He'd recruited a couple of spanner hands in the form of two of the Driftworks forum members & a few of the other Japanese drivers pitcrew how many other sports can you get so much help from competitors??. Looks like they had their work cut out to have the car ready for 10am the next day. The D1 TV crew were on hand filming the drama & the Smile on Mr Tokita's face assured me they'd sort it.
I headed back to the pits to catch the action of the Tsusio battles to keep all you guys up to date with news of the battles. The crowds are hotting up in the stands as it reaches 32deg C in the UK!!
Some more gardening - Where did I leave the flowers?
Some fantastic battles saw the top 4 drawn down to Phil Morrison, Brett Castle, James Hudson & Marceij Polody of Poland (who I beat in battle last round)
Marcaij V Phil
Phil V Brett Castle for the Final
Phil Morrison came top of class & won Round 2 of the D1 GB, a well deserved win, Brett came 2nd & James Hudson 3rd place.
Next up the Japanese & the D1 GB top six qualifyers were allowed out for free practice - utter madness !!!
I popped back to the workshop where Tokita was busy swapping engine bits over & assisted where I could, we had to fabricate a special tool to remove the spigot bearing from his old engine, as the "new engine" was an auto without one. This took at least two hours & I did'nt leave till 9pm when I realised I had'nt eaten all day. I left the guys to carry on working & awaited the news the following day.
Tokita & friends swapping engines bits over
[IMG]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j7/[/pic]
Sadly after all that effort it turns out the engine had a blown head gasket - noooo. Mr Tokita was still very happy though & he got to assist the Judges for the match, it'll be featured on one of the [url]www.v-option.co.uk[/url] D1 Video's & no doubt we'll all be famous. I'm being sent an honoury Samurai headscarf by Mr Tokita for helping him out & I appeared to have gained a mr fix-it status amongst the Japanese drivers that warranted some additional VIP tickets for Sundays GP event.
I'll make sure I bring my toolkit next time I meet the Japanese then
Onto the D1 GP of Sunday
I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, the D1 GB guys only got through to the top 8
Hibino
Mr Vlasblom catches out the Vertex car by some crafty left foot braking
Brett goes gardening & that new bumper is no more
Spot the difference Nismo V Greddy
Darren McNamara's Smoke Machine does the business Corolla V Corolla
Yasayuki Kazama wins the D1 Exhibition Match
Big thanks to all my sponsors who helped me out, especially Prolex-UK who fitted a lovely new straight through exhaust on Wednesday this week in time for the weekend. Cheers to Custom Graphics, Universal Turbo's, RHD Japan & Surrey Rolling Road
Cheers to the photographers too, great job as always
Edited by cptsideways on Monday 19th June 22:23
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