At the weekend, Knockhill hosted the second round of the British Drift Championship (13/14 June) as over 100 competitors – the biggest BDC entry to date – participated in two days worth of spectacular drift action; with perseverance being a key component of the entire weekend for all concerned, including the winners.
Saturday’s Pro Am competition saw the drivers take on a damp and slippery circuit for most of the day. With the top 4 qualifiers making it through to Sunday’s Pro competition; where once again greasy track conditions made the opening practice sessions of the day tricky for all concerned. Thankfully, the weather gods smiled just ahead of Pro qualifying and that set the tone for a spectacular afternoon’s drift action, with the circuit bathed in sunshine for the remainder of the day. And as anyone will tell you, drifting needs to be performed on a dry surface to get the full effect – vast plumes of smoke trailing in the wake of these 600+ bhp rear-wheel drive brutes, in an amazing assortment of colours, shapes and marques.
As the qualifying runs came to a close; a star studded 32-strong field were announced for the head-to-head battle part of the event – that sees two drivers drift side by side at extremely close quarters for two laps (a chase and lead lap), with the winner being the one that meets the judges exacting standards and meets the speed, proximity, clipping point and angle criteria the best; with that driver proceeding to the next head-to-head battle, all the way to the final, and the loser being eliminated from the competition.
Round one winner, Jack Shanahan was driving well and made his way through to the semi final stage; dispatching of Team Japspeed pairing Danny Eyles and defending Champion Shane O’Sullivan on route to a showdown with another former Champion, Mike Marshall in the mean and moody BMW E92 M3. However, two off-track excursions for Marshall saw Shanahan make it into his second final showdown of the season.
In the other semi final, former EDC Champion Mark Luney in the Lucas Oil UK Drift Team 1000bhp Supra was pitched against Steve Moore in his Boss Motorsport Nissan Silvia S14. However a slight mistake from Luney on one of the runs, when his back wheels were adjudged to have been off-track, gave Moore the victory and a chance at scoring yet more BDC points following his 36-point haul from the opening round.
In a close final, with not much between both drivers and both making small mistakes, it would be Moore who would receive the Judges approval for the win. With Luney taking the remaining 3rd place podium position.
Afterwards, all three had talked of their trials and tribulations over the course of the weekend that saw the leading duo contemplate returning home much earlier in the day.
Shanahan blew a head gasket earlier in the day and had to manage the car on a round-by-round basis, removing and refilling the car with fluids after each battle. Luney, has struggled at Knockhill in the Supra for the past couple of years but was delighted to take home 3rd spot on the rostrum this weekend.
“We had a really tough start, the car was struggling with understeer and we thought about packing up and going home. But delighted we stuck around and l’d like to dedicate this win to my late uncle who just passed away”, said BDC Knockhill round winner Steve ‘Speed’ Moore.
There was also a podium award for Scottish drifter Fraser Stark, who we’d featured on a number of videos leading into the event. Fraser took home the ‘Hard-Charger’ award for his efforts, making it through the Pro Am qualification process on Saturday; all the way through to the BDC battles on Sunday afternoon.
In summary, the weekend has been very much about perseverance, from the drivers, to the officials, to the fans and of course the weather; but thankfully, for those who did, we hope they were rewarded with a thrilling and entertaining weekend of drift action.
Check out the official BDC website for all the latest reaction and make sure you log onto Power-Images.co.uk for all our pictures of the weekend’s action. Also a big thanks to all those individual owner’s and car clubs who showed their vehicles at Knockhill on Sunday.
See you all again in 2016.
#DriftTheHill
