The drift season may be only just taking off here in the UK however competitive events are in full swing for our friends across the continent. While UK drifters spent last weekend testing if the blood, sweat and tears poured into their winter build projects had been worth the sacrifice, the Dutch Time Attack Series held its first event of the year!

As motorsport disciplines Drifting and Time Attack are considerably different beasts, each posing their own set of challenges. However ever eager to put in the all-important seat time Japspeed-sponsored driver Rick Van Goethem made his way to Zandvoort Circuit to take part in the inaugural event of the 2017 season.

Rick was keen to use this event to test out the new Japspeed suspension arms, bushings and intercooler fitted to his Nissan R33 Skyline as part of a winter re-build. Without any changes to his drift-specific setup Rick entered into the Pro Class designed for cars with semi-slick tyres.

Competing alongside a host full of specially engineered Time Attack machines, Rick pushed his Skyline to the max, earning him a time of 2.01s on his qualifying run. This automatically placed him straight into the Finals with 1 lap and only 1 chance to take the top spot.

Unlike qualifying; the Finals are not subject to stringent noise regulations which allowed Rick to push his R33 close to its limit, scoring a time of 1.596; a massive improvement over qualifying and one which earned Rick 1^st place in the process.

Everyone at Team Japspeed would like to wish Rick Van Goethem huge congratulations on his achievement last weekend. We look forward to more to come from him throughout 2017.

Check out the what its like riding shotgun with Rick Van Goethem on a hot lap last weekend: