As many of you may have noticed, Driftworks has developed a new RC Drift section. This could be down to many factors, but I’m going to single it down to us all being dorks. Specifically for drifting and anything remotely connected with drifting.
After landing back from the Outsiders tour in Japan, It was only a matter of time before we’d all gotten ourselves RC drift cars. As usual, Phil (Morrision) left us all behind by buying the very latest flagship model from Yokomo, the DRB. Phil’s exact words were “I want to have all the gear and no idea, I want to be that guy” – Good job so far Phil!
Just like the full size counter-part, the only real way to learn to drift is seat time, or hand time? Either way, I set about meeting up with some of the more established guys involved in RCD. Names Like Matt Tunks, Tom Walton and Peter Grey. All Yokomo sponsored and all sound dude. After meeting up with the guys a few times, we eventually found a semi-permanent base for our shinanegans, an old body-shop in Northampton. With a little help from Paul Cheshire, Matt Carter and James Littleton, we got some serious clearing, brushing and sweeping done. Amidst the chaos, we discovered a zimmer-frame inside the shop. So obviously, we started calling it Zimrcircuit, because we are creative like that :/
So the name stuck and with a couple of practice events under our belts (MK meet and Garage D meet) under the name “ZIMR” we’ve landed upon our first ever competition –
Zimr Round one at Driftworks with Team Tetsujin!
Quite a mouthful, let me take a moment to explain how the track came about and what the hell a Tetsujin is…
*RING RING* the phone goes. “Meat (yes phil calls me that) I want to build a RC circuit like them ones whats in Japan, with like, all them details” “ok Phirrip, I get on it” – Yeah, no complications there. So I set about looking more miniture Trees, houses, random features and stubled upon the number one RC circuit kerbing brand in the world – Team Tetsujin RC Drift Lounge – Awesome name and awesome gear! A few emails later and some serious name dropping, Tetsuijin had become the first official sponsor of Driftworks very own RCD Circuit, sending us over a huge box of thier signiture red and white race style kerb stones – Thank you very much Tetsujin!!!
A couple of weeks later and litterally the night before the competition, the track was finished. Well, as finished as it will be for the time being, but we did manage to fit in some custom made gaurd rails, trees and my own personal favorite, power lines complete with ghetto spec dangling shoes!
The competition started at 10am with open practice. This is for fun after all and with no 5pm noise cut offs, why the hell would we want to arrive at 7am? Drivers popped in and out during the day, with so much practice time nobody was rushing to get laps in, which made for a very mellow day 🙂
During the practice, it was clear a few people were on it. BDC regular and Japspeed driver Paul Smith was putting down solid runs with his friend Rob Black. Tom Walton was attacking everything in sight, walls, cars and kerbs with Paul Edwards in tow. Pauls OCD rivals my own, if you get the chance, check out his WATER COOLED car!
Paul Smith everybody – AE86 daydreamer!
So 5 hours deep in practice, we head into qualifying and who better to showcase the circuit than Phil Morrision himself, taking the lead run and putting in a whole 20 points! I don’t think Phil’s seen a score like that for… well at least a year 😛
The qualifying over and nobody was suprised to see Tom Walton in first place. He is the Nakamura of RCD! Driftworks own James Simpson and Flikkster Phil also did well being new to the sport. Flik managed to bag himseld 6th place with his Zimr tuned chassis whilst I landed myself in 4th – I wouldn’t mention it, but I’m actually really proud haha.
The best 16 would herald a few suprises, such as Matt “never makes a mistake” Tunks being knocked out, as well as D1RC champ Peter Grey missing the cut. Sadly, after qualifying so well, Flikkster got pipped too.
Best 8 and we start seeing some heated battles going down. Tom Vs Harry, Me Vs Brad, John wargh Vs Paul Smith. In every mini comp we’ve done so far I’ve ended up against Brad Hurr, he’s one of the oldschool RCD’rs from back in the GT Battle days in 2005 and in every battle we’ve had, it’s gone OMT several times – Resulting in Brad kicking my ass. Not this time! By some miricle, I won!
Tom and Harry had some serious aggression in thier runs. But Tom’s battle technique is seriously powerful, grabbing him the win. It’s not all bad news as Harry would win the “gangster entry” contest later in the day, nailing half the main straight backwards against the wall into the hairpin! Well in Harry!
Harry leads while Tom chases.
The top 4 was awesome, just like in full size drifting, as the battles continue the cars get closer and faster. Rob black had been working his way through the ranks leaving poor old Paul Smith in his wake. Made worse by the fact he was using Pauls old car!
The continuation of the best 4 would see Tom face up against John. The last time this happened John hammered Tom in a total shock victory… Despite John’s consitent clean lines, Tom was taking no prisoners, taking the first run on an 8/2 and the second on 7/3, landing himself in the finals with Rob.
In the final it all looked good, unfortunatley, Rob fluffed it and gave the victory away. However, Rob can be proud he went so far in his first round of competiton! Leaving us with the results –
1t Place and highest Qualifer, Tom Walton
2nd Place and 10th place qualifier, Rob Black
3rd Place and the number 5 qualifier, John Wargh.
Well done all!
To wrap up this post, I’d like to say thank you to everyone that came along for coming along, as well as Team-Tetsuji RC Drift Lounge for the amazing kerbing sysytem and finally Driftworks for investing the time, money and effort into building an RCD circuit to such a high standard ! THANK YOU ALL!
If you need parts, want a circuit building or just need some info or advice on RC drifting or getting into it, drop us a line in the forums RC section or message us on Facebook. Zimr are now the official UK agent for Tetsujin Kerbing and RC parts. Myself and the crew of Zimr are more than happy to help with anything RC related you can think of! Until then, catch you all at ROUND TWO, which will beheld at the Lowbrain Speed Shop in Lydney on May 5th! Check the forum for details 🙂
Nice event!
By the way, that blue subaru looks like crap. 🙂
Nice write up gay boy! I’m pretty sure I only lost because of biased judging. I was pretty awesome! 😀