ROUND 1 RESULTS

Round 1 of D1 gets underway at Rockingham!

D1GB kicked off with Round 1 at Rockingham this weekend with a exciting start to the Championship. Held on Sunday, our D1 licensed competitors had been working flat-out to get their machines up to spec and ready in time for the first chance to grab valuable points in the tables. Sunday morning saw a bright and sunny start to the day which carried through to give a full day of tyre smoking, big angle drift as each car navigated the high speed course only a metre form the concrete wall of Rockingham at over 100mph. Open practice in the morning was held for drivers to get to grips with the course and to find the best line enabling them to hit the point scoring clipping points during qualifying and the top 16 runs. Viewing the drivers drift through the custom-made track layout was nail biting stuff as each time they came closer and faster towards the wall, in some cases unfortunately collecting it! Brett Castle was on-form for this event and it showed as he demonstrated some impressive warm up runs showing the other drivers that he was determined to do his best this weekend.

As expected TV's Tiff Needell was also getting to grips with his 590bhp machine and the newly learned techniques which D1GB's Julian Smith had been teaching him the previous day, managing to pull off some impressive warm-up runs that also included a couple of near-misses. Unfortunately for Tiff, on his last practise run he came in way to hot and wide and didn't manage to recover from his huge angle, resulting in him hitting the wall at high speed on the cars rear end, luckily he managed to continue his run unharmed however his machine wasn't so lucky. After returning to the pits the Sumo Power crew desperately tried to find a gremlin that had presented itself after the crash in the Castrol D1 car which gave inconsistent running of the engine. After pulling the car apart and failing to find the problem they had no choice but to retire the car, dashing Tiff's chances of getting into the qualifying session and ending his day at Round 1.

Qualifying started and all drivers were feeling the pressure. There is only 16 places for the final and with 27 drivers which made it to the qualifying round all aiming for a spot, there were bound to be some exciting moments. Once more Brett in his Abbey backed S14 stormed through the course proving his morning runs were no stoke of luck, closely followed on points by Phil Morrison in the Driftworks S14, Darren McNamara in his Corolla and Tim Marshall in the Pink 350Z. Arriving from Poland to take on the UK and Irish guys was Maciej Polody who was clearly struggling with the set up of his S14 after making many changes recently without having the ability to test them prior to the competition and although his car appeared strong it was obvious he wasn't happy. Crazy Irishman Mark Luney who amazed drivers at Donington with his 4th gear drift of a 3rd gear corner was also pushing hard but battling with a power steering fault still managed to grab a place in the top 16. Ian Harrison had a bad day when he having an unfortunate coming-together with the wall and managed to crumple the driver-side front of his purple S13, ending his day and pushing him out of the competition but luckily he was unhurt. James Hudson and Steve Evans aka ' Stiggy ' were holding up the Team Autoglym corner quite well putting in consistent runs and showing that their twin Skyline combo were on level playing fields as the headed for similar points.

Drivers points standing on Qualifying solo runs:

Brett Castle 95 Points
Phil Morrison 95 Points
Darren McNamara 94 Points
Tim Marshall 90 Points
Damien Mulvey 89 Points
Declan Hicks 89 Points
Mark Luney 89 Points
James Hudson 88 Points
Ben Broke Smith 88 Points
Mike Deane 87 Points
Maciej Polody 87 Points
Mat Steele 87 Points
Paul Vlasblom 87 Points
Ralph Crampton 85 Points
Stephen Evans 83 Points
Ian Coyne 82 Points
Steven Shine 82 Points
Niall Gunn 82 Points
Mike Murphy 80 Points
John Chambers 80 Points
Garry Kennedy 80 Points
Mark Coyne 79 Points
Wilco Van Esch 79 Points
James Grimsy 70 Points
Tiff Needell 0 Points
Ian Harrison 0 Points
Glen Mayer 0 Points

After qualifying the drivers were paired up for the Top 16 spots and the show-down began for the twin drift battles. Each pairing were allowed one warm-up run of the course prior to setting off on their allocated 2 runs in a knockout formation. For these two runs each driver is allowed to take the lead whilst the other follows where they then switch positions on their second run.

The competition unfolded to see some very high speed entries into the course, most notably from Brett Castle, Tim Marshall and Mark Luney with speed around the 100mph mark, no-one wanted to get left behind. The unofficial prize for the loudest car on track went to Paul Vlasblom in his newly prepared BMW Touring which was deafening to the ear and gave a great insight in what his car was doing as you could hear every blip of the throttle throughout the course and with a cheer from the crowd as he came past at high speed.

As the twin drift battles went on a pattern was forming for the drivers with a no fear attitude to the course and with determination to hang on to a prime spot. The course took no prisoners and only the most committed survived. An unexpected early exit from the eliminations came from Darren McNamara, a favourite and peoples hero from Silverstone last year after taking on Japans Kazama, Darren failed to compete with the might of new comer Ralph Crampton in the brand new SVA Imports 350Z with 500bhp on tap, a car which was on its first competition in the hands of a driver who had never competed in a D1 Round before and a battle which gave an air of unpredictability to the competition where ' anyone could win '.

Another close fight unfolded between Autoglym's James Hudson and Ben Broke Smith, both paired with R32 Skylines, they went at it only for James to spin on the first run giving an advantage to Ben seeing him run clear in the second run and knock James out. Another surprise to the top 8 was Tim Marshall in the Sumo 350Z. This being Tims first event in D1 and although a stranger to twin drift Tim managed to grapple with the respected and talented Irish driver Damien Mulvey who eventually fell off the course after coming in too hot and giving Tim the break he needed to go through to the top 4. Also moving forward to the Top 4 was Mark Luney after a high speed battle against D1 Favourite Phil Morrison who fought with under steer giving Mark the space he needed to move up and in the process end Phil's day.
 

The Top 4 battles saw a mixed line-up between veteran and experienced drifters Mark Luney and Brett Castle alongside newcomers Ralph Crampton and Tim Marshall who were in their first ever D1 battle. Although giving 100% effort neither Ralph or Tim could match the twin drift experience that Mark and Brett had under their belt and both 350Z's were knocked out within a sniff of victory leaving Mark and Brett to go head to head in the final but giving good experience to both drivers who came away pleased with such a high result.
 

Still struggling with power steering failure, Mark Luney set off to put up the best fight he could, knowing Brett was on a charge and determined to win which gave an inevitable result as Brett stormed both runs with near perfect timing and with Mark doing his best to put up a good fight, dashing any hope Mark could have for 1st place and proving that Brett was the man on the move and it was his day. Throughout the competition Brett demonstrated his ability to not only compete alongside the best but to also notch up countless runs with a high level of skill resulting in a well deserved 1st place.

Congratulations to Brett!

Second Place Mark Luney

D1GB National Championship Drivers Points Board after Round 1

Brett Castle 20 Points
Mark Luney 18 Points
Ralph Crampton 16 Points
Tim Marshall 14 Points
Damien Mulvey 12 Points
Ben Broke Smith 10 Points
Phil Morrison 8 Points
Declan Hicks 6 Points
Maciej Polody 4 Points
Mat Steele 2 Points