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Hungary For The Win

With a less than ideal start to the 2018 Drift Master Grand Prix, hopes were high for Matt ‘Doorhunter’ Carter and the team as the week began in the run-up to round 2 – which saw the series descend upon Rabocsiring, Máriapócs in Hungary.

After the spectacle of the first round shook the drifting world; the sweeping bends, high speed sections and perilous elevation changes of the Rabocsiring would certainly up the stakes and present a challenge for even the most experienced of drivers on the Drift Masters grid.

Nevertheless on a high from the exhilaration of what was to come the week began with Matt and the team at Garage-D filming for an upcoming documentary at the illustrious Santa Pod back on home soil. With no rest on the schedule Matt and the team set off from the UK around 8pm on Tuesday 12th June; arriving in Dover only 2hrs later for an overnight ferry to the Calais and the start of their continental road trip.

On the road at the break of dawn Matt and the team spend an arduous day driving through Germany followed by Switzerland (to take in the sights) before heading for their overnight stop in Vienna. With 24hrs to go Thursday saw the team head through Budapest to arrive in Máriapócs to setup as the evening drew in.

Early next morning and Matt was keen to get out on track and ensure the R32 was setup perfectly for the challenge ahead – with plenty of seat time in through the available practice allocation the team were confident they had it nailed.

Come qualifying Matt played things safe to begin with. Making the most of the fine-tuning of the car’s setup perfected earlier in the day; Matt put in a solid run to give himself a safe place from which he could push harder on his next run to further strengthen his overall qualifying position – at least that was the plan. An electrical issue struck just was Matt left the line on his 2nd qualifying run leaving him with only 1 qualifying run and 25th place overall in qualifying.

The team worked tirelessly to track down and resolve the issue which was soon fixed with relative ease. It was now time to look ahead to the main event and Matt’s first battle against Janis Eglite in the top 32 the next day.

Saturday morning came and several hours of allocated practice time before the main event saw spirits high once again as Matt pushed harder with every run. Unfortunately however and with only 1hr to go before the main event; mechanical issues began to present themselves – only this time it would be a little more serious.

Following some investigative work a solution was soon in place and Matt was back out for the remainder of the practice session. Unfortunately the mechanical gremlins would come back for more only moments before the top 32 battles were due to start.

With no time to resolve the issue Matt was left with no option but to withdraw from battle; bringing an altogether premature end to the weekend.

Matt and team were left with no choice but to sit back, reflect on the weekend and take in the spectacle of the event before a 25hr / 1400 mile drive back to Calais – plenty of time to make plans to repair the Skyline and come back bigger and better for Round 3 in a few weeks.

Everyone at Team Japspeed would like to congratulate Grzegorz Hypki, Juha Pöytälaakso and James Deane on taking podium at this event.