BDC Round 2 Pembrey Review

So with almost 2 months off between Round 1 at Lydden Hill the BDC is back, this time venturing for the first time to Wales and to Pembrey, home of Welsh motorsport. Located in the south of the country just a few miles outside of Swansea, it was set to be an amazing weekend of Drifting.

We just had a couple of things to sort out before leaving Birmingham.

Including testing out the traction of the new rear suspension.

The weather was set to be fantastic with temperatures over 20. Just what we all wanted after that washed out Saturday at Lydden Hill

We rolled up Saturday morning to glorious sunshine with most of the cars already set-up in the pits ready for the practice sessions to start.

The track started with a long fast straight into a tight almost 180 hairpin, plenty of opportunity for some backward entry attempts.

However if you got it wrong you either missed the hairpin or went into the run-off, or you went into the tyre wall. Luckily no one crashed into the wall the entire weekend.

Once the Semi-Pro’s and the Pros had done, it was time for the Super-Pros to venture onto the track for the first time. Once they had all seen the track on the first practice lap the runs started getting more intense…

Thankfully the first session ended with zero incidents, so the teams retired to the pits to try and work out some niggles that they were having on the first practice run.
Phil was having issues selecting 3rd gear in the Driftworks R32, when going sideways the gearstick would keep going into 5th gear causing him to lose momentum in the drift. So they set about trying to solve the issue… with a spanner .

It took 3 men to cut a single washer…

But the end result was priceless.

With that sorted, Phil headed back out for the next practice and the simple spanner appeared to solve the issue.

The drivers would enjoy a warm lunch break before the qualifying runs would start and being such a glorious day, people were just resting enjoying the sun.

After lunch with temperatures still high Phil went out for his qualifying and managed to qualify 10th. This meant he would be battling against Julie Robinson (also in a R32) in the top 32

Sunday was just as hot, and with BDC new top 32 format, the battle started from 9 o’clock so was set to be a busy day.

However as Phil was about to set off to line up for his top 32 run his clutch pedal broke, a quick fix from Paz allowed Phil to do his battle with Julie

Phil has been drawn against Julie Robinson in his first battle of the day. His lead run sucked as the gearbox refused to shift down into second with the quick repair to the clutch pedal and he straightened. He thought he’s lost the battle, but unfortunately Julie had span giving her a 0, so Phil scraped through.

With 3 hours between the top 32 battle with Julie and the top 16 battle with Paul Conlan we had enough time to try and properly fix the broken clutch pedal. Thankfully the Team Steelmate guys came to our aid and allowed us to use their welder to sort the pedal linkage, and a host of other people in the pits were very generous with bolts, taps and a few other parts.

In the top 16 Phil would be battling against Paul Conlan in his 2JZ S15.
Phil would be the lead car in the first battle.

Due to cold tyres (no practice runs) and new fresh tyres Phil went off the racing line whilst leading and Paul overtook him on the hairpin.
On Pauls lead run Phil had a decent run and stayed on Pauls rear the entire run but due to his mistake in the first run, Paul went through to the top 8.

It was a disappointing end to the Driftworks weekend, but, the show went on with some superb battles.
Brendan Stone from MG Crash Repairs went on to take the win in the Super-Pro class, just beating Michael Marshal in the Team MnM E36 estate.

With less than a month to Round 3 at Teeside the R32 is back in the unit awaiting a few changes.

We look forward to seeing you in Teeside.

For more info see https://thebritishdriftchampionship.com/ or hit their ‘like’ button at https://www.facebook.com/britishdriftchampionship.bdc

Words and pictures by Rich Starkey

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