British Open Drift Championship

Monster-Mat · October 17, 2007

The British Open Drift Championship brought to you by Drift UK

As most people are aware Eurodrift has become a great championship in 2007

Since its beginning Eurodrift has set out to achieve an infrastructure for drifting to be available all over the UK. The British Open is the culmination of 4 years work to hold the first British Championship which will establish Britain’s best drifter for 2007. The event is open to all licensed drivers from N.Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland.

We will run 2 Categories at the event, Amateurs and Pro class. The pro class will be qualifying for 12 places and the other 4 will be the top 4 amateurs with a roll cage. The scores will be taken from the qualifying scores in both classes to create the top 16. This is unusual but the standard of drivers at present is very high and some amateurs have scored higher in qualifying than the pros.

This event is about showing how the standard at all levels has increased and although some might not know the track, this event is hoped to pull all driver from EDC and Eurodrift and drivers from Northern Ireland together at a track were speed and technical driving can come together.

Teesside was chosen as the venue meets all criteria for this type of event,

We hope you will support this event like you have over the last 4 years.

peter026 · October 17, 2007

Are you performing there Mat?

Monster-Mat · October 18, 2007

yup

peter026 · October 18, 2007

Best of luck and bring home the bacon ;)

Paul-J · October 18, 2007

Shame it's so far away, I had a blast at the chepstow eurodrift event.

Would like to be there to cheer the monster on

Moffet · October 20, 2007

Haven't been on here in a couple of weeks and so only just seen this! :tsktsk: I would've gone if I'd known about it sooner!

How did you get on mate? Got any vids/pics you can put up?

Monster-Mat · October 21, 2007

pics will come soon me thinks...

well what a day...or weekend

after the 8 hour drive up, i unloaded, and went straight out for an evening practice(Friday), did 4 laps and killed a set of 255's........hmm not looking good for the Saturday.....i only took 3 sets of rims and 2 spare tyres.

Saturday morning started with open practice......i was struggling to get to grips with one of the corners, basically, i was carrying too much speed into the corners, so after some excellent advice, i started my initiations about 15 meters before everyone else......

got the corners licked and waited for qualifying.......

qualifying came i did 3 runs, 1 practice and came away with 2 decent scores...well decent for me, total gave me a 121 point score (not bad considering it was my first time to actually drift a track)

after qualifying the results were given out, i had come 9th, so didnt quite make the Top 8....( the last qualifying score for one of the pro drivers was 104)

anyway, because 3 of the top 8 drivers didnt have a Roll cage they were not permitted to go into the top 16 with the pro drivers, i and 2 others were given the wild card to enter.....

now, the pressure was on.

we moved to the bigger, much much faster track, and again did an hour of open practice, never before had i done 3rd gear full power drifts.

sheesh its fast, initiating on the handbrake at speeds around 90-95 mph and drifting the top bend was awesome,

in the twin drift i was lined up against James Russell (who eventually came 3rd overall), but by this point i was having issues with the clutch, or should i say lack of clutch pedal!!

went into the practice run.....and i was bloody blinded by my shift light......... :tsktsk: so i had to back of as i couldn't see poop, so i re angled it(i bent it out the way)

we lined up for the first judged run, James leading, i got mid long curve and couldn't change down for the hairpin, i was carrying too much speed, and span.....ah well

2nd judged run, i was leading, i thought....hell go balls out, and i absolutely caned it into the curve, i swear i was hitting 95+ on the limiter in 3rd, the car sailed round the curve, and was beautifully aiming for the hairpin, i went to change down to second, tweaked the handbrake to scrub of some speed, it felt perfect.... :tsktsk:

................i was out of 3rd, but had no pedal to select another gear, i hoped if i persuaded the hears to select, id get 3rd again....nope, i got first, let up on the remaining bit of pressure id persuaded the clutch to give, and had 1st gear, it locked up the back end, and spun me, i was totally gutted

the car stalled, and i couldn't move it for a few moments as it was stuck in first, after a bit of frantic pumping, i managed to get it out, started and off the track....

it was an amazing weekend to say the least....

i hit the tyre wall, i lost the bumper........i used 80l fuel, im tired and aching, but id do it again right now if i could.

(interestingly the clutch now seems fine, so there must be air in the lines somewhere)

Bring on next season!!

Unregistered_User · October 21, 2007

Very interesting read, Matt. From what you're saying, is this the first time you've actually drifted a full blown track, rather than a coned-out area?

Sorry to hear about the problems you had and I hope they get resolved soon!

I look forward to seeign the photos and hope that I can make one of the events you run next season...

All the best,

Jamie

Monster-Mat · October 21, 2007

yep, first time on a proper track.....

cones are great but the thought of coming off isnt as focusing as it is on a track with tyre walls and armco

sparkystav · October 21, 2007

Sounds like a good day mate,

Congrats on how well you did and i'm sure many lesson's learnt for next time.

Stav

Unregistered_User · October 21, 2007

the thought of coming off isnt as focusing as it is on a track with tyre walls and armco

Monster-Mat · October 21, 2007

couple of pics ive found so far.............

chrisis200 · October 21, 2007

Awesome m8, congrats on the work.. It's all experience that you need to get better as you know and I'm sure you cant wait for the next one :D would love to come an see this in person saw some doing it round cones at Santa Pod last weekend I couldn't believe how fast you guys can do it as well it's incredible...

Ellz · October 21, 2007

Looks good mate i take it the passenger in the first picture was out for a ride in practise rather than proper racing. Another GB loss this weekend then :D lol car looks good with no front bumper as well what the blue stuff ???????????

Monster-Mat · October 22, 2007

the purple strop is for recovery......

RoadRash · October 22, 2007

Awsome story, awsome pictures Mat..... B)

Monster-Mat · October 22, 2007

thanks Mike, and everyone, next year will be busy fo sure

Bazza · October 22, 2007

looking good Mat

all that work is starting to pay off at last

i will look forward to seeing your name alongside all the other drifty people a lot next year

any videos ??

Dave-Ellen · October 22, 2007

Looking good Mr C

what was the gearbox/clutch prob in the end ?

Monster-Mat · October 22, 2007

the clutch issue seems to be heat soak into the clutch master cylinder.....

it got progressively worse throughout the day, until no pedal for the top 16 event... :o

all seems well now, so am looking at a way of moving the cylinder into the car to keep cool.

also need to fit the Kaaz 2 way.....(yes, i know ive had it nearly 2 years)

looking good Mat
all that work is starting to pay off at last

i will look forward to seeing your name alongside all the other drifty people a lot next year

any videos ??

yup, was bloody great to be out there, regards video.

dunno, i do know there was 2 film crews there