2 October 2010

ODC Final Round at Mallory Park - British Grassroots Drifting

First off all I have to admit, the week approaching the Open Drift Championship Final at Mallory Park I was beginning to get a bit worried. It hadn’t stopped raining in the midlands for about a week solid, and standing in the open air getting drenched was getting un-surprisingly less and less appealing. But I proceeded to get all my stuff ready the night before in the vain hope that it wasn’t going to rain.

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It Turns out my prayers were answered. I woke up early Thursday morning to be greeted by the bright sun & blue skies, what a Brucie bonus! Brother Jay was due to meet me in his new Miata and then we were going to fly up to Mallory to do some skids and take some pictures. With the wonders of the British motorway system in full effect, traffic doubled our journey time but we finally arrived ready for a good day’s Drifting. The day had been split into two halves, one being the Open Drift Championship Final and the other half being a normal full lap drift practice. Jay had been enlisted to Judge the ODC event alongside Belinda & Chunk so I donned my High Vis in search of a good spot to get some photos.

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For practice & qualifying the organisers had decided to run the Chicane directly after Gerard’s in reverse which worked quite well offering a fast entry into a smooth left, right, left transition. All the drivers seemed a little wary of the layout to begin with but soon started getting more & more aggressive with the initiation and pulling Smokey exits.

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Unfortunately, the spot I picked during the practice session wasn’t exactly perfect for getting good results from the camera, so before the qualifying I made the trip over to the opposite side in the hope of catching some of those awesome smoke bellowing exits.

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It paid off. Some of the guys really stepped up their game during qualifying and the entries were getting much faster and closer to the clipping points, which also resulted in certain drivers literally grazing the first clipping point which was great to watch. No.28 Mike Whiteley in his MX5 was pulling some great manji entries flicking in from further back than what looking physically possible & No.14 Will Ashmore in the 350Z was getting some super sweet angle at the first clipping point.

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It’s probably worth mentioning as well that Will has created possibly the best sounding 350z I’ve ever heard, image what the end of the world sounds like...got it? Well that’s exactly the noise which pours out the back of his car. Other stand out drivers for me was Mike Graham in his BMW E36 & Neil Leggy in his Nissan S13 both of which were pulling consistent speed during their runs.

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It seemed the judges agreed with me on the latter two drivers runs putting them both through to the final 5 drivers alongside No.11 Richard Dalby-Smith, No.1 Peter Green & No.12 Matthew Samuel with Will Ashmore just missing out on the top 5.

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The organisers & judges decided to run the final 5 slightly further down the track at the following chicane. This time running in the normal Mallory Park direction the sequence was left hander entry followed by a quick transition to a longer flowing right hander. The drivers had to work real hard to keep from spinning at the quick fire transition whilst scrubbing off speed to ensure the correct line for the second clipping point. I took my place right on the inside corner of the first clipping point hoping to catch some good mega angle entries and I wasn’t disappointed.

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First up was Mike in his E36. He pulled awesome entries on both of his runs but unfortunately spun out on the transition during his second run. Most consistent during both of his runs was Neil Leggy in his S13 pulling nice speed and angle through both clipping points.

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Peter Green had luckily brought along his spare 2.7litre E30 after he had to retire his Matt Black V8 powered E30 due to what I believe to be mechanical issues. Peter pulled to smooth runs with both good speed and angle showing his ability and knowledge of the Mallory Park circuit.

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Richard Dalby-Smith put in two great runs in his S13 was pulling some nice angle in & out of the first clipping point whilst Matthew Samuel in the black S14 knew he had to step up to the plate and provided the judges with 2 fast but smooth runs.

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After each driver and completed 2 runs the Judges were left to decide who to award the win to. I for one couldn’t decide with all 5 drivers putting down some nice smooth runs it was to be a tough decision.

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But B, chunk & Jay managed to put their heads together and make a decision crowning Mr Neil leggy the ODC Champion in 2010! Neil had possibly been the most consistent driver throughout the whole day putting down some real nice runs during both practice and the final. Mike Graham rested in 2nd place due to the very unfortunate spin in the 2nd run and Matthew Samuel 3rd, Richard Dalby-Smith 4th and Peter Green in 5th.

A big congratulation goes out to Neil and all of the ODC Final drivers and giving high hopes for the future of grassroots drifting. Big well done to the organisers of ODC for creating such a great little championship and let’s all look forward to the 2011 season!

Stay tuned for the Full Lap practice photos & write up coming soon.

James.

6 comments:

  1. Just to add. There were SO many photos to choose from for this write up, so if you were a driver at this event and I havn't included a pic of your car I will still have plenty of photos of your drifting. I can supply Photo CD's of you car from the day and the prices range from £5 to £10 depending on how many images there are.
    If you would like one, drop me an e-mail at CorollaBrotherhood@yahoo.com

    James.

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  2. You got 3rd and 4th mixed up!

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  3. All sorted now. cheers!

    The information provided to me was incorrect.doh. but all sorted and corrected now:]

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  4. i will have some funds wednesday if you got any tidy images of the black 33 even though i sucked at the reverse section lol

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  5. Great write up dude

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  6. @gordon - Yea i've got a few of your black R33. I'm still going through each photo a car at a time so I should have them all sorted sometime this week.

    Glad you all like the write up:]

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