Japspeed

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Team Japspeed Grab The Glory At Lydden Hill-Round 4 Report

Effort Pays Off With More Silverware at Lydden Hill!

In the run up to Round 4 of the Maxxis British Drift Championship the Team had lots of work to do. Paul Smith was involved in an incident in practice at Round 3 and needed a serious overhaul on the car to get it prepared in time. The mechanics worked tirelessly and it duly made an appearance, which made all the late nights worthwhile.

Once we’d set up in the pits it was soon time to send the team out onto the track for the practice sessions. This brought some issues for the mechanics to deal with. Firstly Shane Lynch’s V8 S15 needed some arch work modification as it was catching on the bumps and gradients of Lydden Hill after a recent alignment change before the event. Shane O’ Sullivan destroyed a differential on the first corner and it was quickly swapped for a spare one. Baggsy was suffering with an issue on the front end as it was knocking which required the mechanics attention and Paul Smith found he has lost some water due to it having a pin-hole leak from his accident at Teesside. So, it was a tough time for the team but they dug deep and made it happen. When practice started, a full field of four cars was out in force!

Practice sessions were a tight affair, with only a handful of points separating large numbers of drivers. It was a tough one. The Subaru was suffering from a misfire and Baggsy decided it would be prudent to use Shane O’ Sullivan’s S15, it served him well! All of the team qualified! With positions 4th, 10th, 11th and 14th achieved; things were set for the following days battles.

Shane ‘o Sullivan was the first shock as he lost out to Barry Leonard in the first round. This at least allowed Baggsy the free reign of the S15 as he battled against a familiar competitor to him, rival Steve Moore. Baggsy made sure he did enough to progress onwards and next up was Shane Lynch.

Lydden Hill is almost home turf for Shane and it showed as he looked on form again against Ashley Stevens and he pulled clear to take the win.

Paul Smith was facing the powerful SATS Supra, Smith engulfed the hill with Maxxis tyre smoke as he battled to victory.


Onto the Great 8, we still had three drivers in contention for the podium. Lynch had to face an imposing new rival in the form of Patrick Ritzmann. Unphased by the BDC newcomer, Shane stuck onto the door with close proximity that gave the judges what they wanted to see.

Next up was a Team Japspeed battle as Paul Smith and Baggsy faced up. It was a close affair until an error from Baggsy put him into the gravel trap and allowed Smith to progress onwards to the Semi Final.

Shane Lynch once against proved to have regained his form as he pulled incredibly close onto Barry Leonard, it was an obvious win for Shane and put him into the final!

Paul Smith didn’t want to be left out and had some good luck when Mike Marshall had a failure allowing Smith to drift cleanly and onto the final against his team mate Shane. This is when everyone started to stand up for a better view, Shane wasn’t going to make it easy for Smith and went in hard and put in another one of his previously impressively close runs, maybe too close though as some mild contact from Shane forced him to correct. It was in the hands of the judges to separate them now.

The efforts from the mechanics before and during the event, had been rewarded by some true on-the-edge driving and noticed by the Judges. The just rewards came in with a win in the Team Event for Team Japspeed!

 

If that wasn’t enough we had both Paul “Smokey” Smith in first place! Shane Lynch in a commendable second place and with both Baggsy and Shane ‘O Sullivan in the points too, the championship points table is starting to look very strong! With two more high profile events left in the calendar, nothing is taken for granted and it could all dramatically change once again. Be sure to come and see us live in action at Silverstone for the next round of the Maxxis British Drift Championship.