At the weekend Team Japspeed made the long trip down to South Wales to compete in Round 2 of the Maxxis British Drift Championship, held at the Pembrey circuit just outside of Swansea. Having taken victory at the first round at Lydden Hill just a few weeks prior the team were in high spirits and hoping to secure another victory.
Team Japspeed drivers Shane Lynch, Paul Smith and Brett Castle were all present and eager to get out onto the Pembrey track having never driven there before. The cars had undergone a number of changes during the previous few weeks, with both Shane and Paul’s S15s now sporting coilovers from KW Automotive.
The KW team were on hand throughout the weekend in order to extract the maximum potential from the new coilovers and to give both Shane and Paul a bit of confidence in their new suspension as neither had driven on the new coilovers beforehand.
Paul’s S15 was also packing a new engine setup; the 1JZ having been replaced with a “1.5JZ” Frankenstein engine comprising of a 2JZ bottom end and a 1JZ head. Having been mapped just days before the event Paul was eager to get out on track and give his new engine a good kicking.
Saturday morning began with practice sessions for all drivers under the beautiful Welsh sunshine. The first corner was an extremely tricky hairpin that was preceded by a high speed straight and followed by a series of fast and flowing sweepers – as a result it proved to be very challenging and many drivers struggled to adapt to the unique driving style required to conquer it. However, all of the Japspeed drivers managed to nail it within a handful of runs, with Brett in particular looking extremely comfortable from the off in the Japspeed Impreza.
Come qualifying and the heat really was on, both physically and metaphorically as the Pembrey circuit continued to be basked in glorious sunshine. With only three qualifying runs to get it right, the Japspeed boys couldn’t take their eye off the ball and had to get their entries and clipping points spot on.
After a hugely competitive qualifying session, Paul Smith had qualified 3rd, Brett Castle 9th and Shane Lynch just outside of the top 16. However, due to the BDC’s decision to run a top 32 format for Sunday’s battles, all three Japspeed drivers found themselves qualifying for the battles which, theoretically at least, put all of them in contention for a potential victory.
As Sunday morning arose it looked like we were in for a fantastic day of drifting as the weather showed no signs of worsening. Once the Semi-Pro and Pro Top 32 battles had been run it was time for the Super-Pro Top 32 battles to hit the track and decide which drivers would make it through to the afternoon’s Top 16.
Brett Castle’s battle saw him pitched against international visitor Teemu Peltola in his incredible Black Smoke Racing Mercedes. Brett followed Teemu extremely closely in his chase run but unfortunately Teemu was also able to follow very closely in the next run and, after a little love tap to the back of the Japspeed Subaru, Brett found himself knocked out at this stage.
Shane Lynch had drawn Mike Marshall in his first battle, and what a battle it turned out to be! Both drivers were very equally matched in both runs and, from a spectator’s perspective, the result could have gone either way. Unfortunately for Shane, the judges sided with Mike and, as a result, Shane found himself being eliminated.
Paul Smith’s battle saw him up against Irish driver Mark Sinnott in his S15. All was going well for Paul but disaster struck in his lead run as his R154 gearbox refused to go into 3rd gear and he lost all momentum exiting the hairpin, gifting the victory for Mark.
However, all hope wasn’t lost as the Japspeed Lexus was also making an unexpected BDC debut in the hands of Jody Fletcher whose S15’s engine had decided to blow the day before the event. Never wanting to see a good friend in need, we kindly donated the Lexus to Jody for the weekend so he could continue his championship campaign.
Having never driven the car before and with a power steering fault Jody managed a very respectable 8th place in qualifying and won his top 32 battle in style. He emerged victorious in his top 16 battle against Simon Perry and was drawn against eventual podium finisher Mike Marshall – unfortunately a spin from Jody saw him eliminated at this point.
While we may have not achieved the results we wanted at Pembrey, we had an absolutely amazing time at another flawlessly organised Maxxis British Drift Championship round. We also learnt a lot about the cars with their new setups and also relished the opportunity to hold a signing session on the Sunday afternoon at the Samco store where we got to meet many of the team’s fans. With round 3 in just a few weeks time, let’s hope that our luck improves!
(All photos via Jordan Butters Photgraphy unless otherwise accredited)
