It only seemed like yesterday when we were getting ready for Knockhill for the Final Round of the 2013 season, lots has changed in the last 6 months. We have a new vehicle in the type of the DW86, 2 new group mates with Chris Smiffy and Wealthy Grindrod as nicely as a new truck and trailer to finish off the new outfit. A lot has changed in Drifting more than this period and a lot of teams have upped their game with new vehicles, liveries and drivers.
Many drivers from seasons past have also returned to the Sport, Allan Green in the Falken Tyres S13 and Danny Eyles in the Japspeed Subaru are just a couple of the big names who have made a comeback.
The atmosphere in the pits wasn’t dampened by the terrible weather that was forecast over the weekend, drivers and fans have been excited to see the DW86 in the flesh just staring at the vehicle as it went up on the air jacks or when we had been operating the rear pads in. It is some thing that I personally hadn’t knowledgeable before and was taken aback by the sheer number of people that were interested.
Modifications to the timetable this year meant that Phil in the DW86 was 1 of the initial out on the damp track. We have been all a little bit worried about how the auto would deal with as we had never tested the automobile in the wet. However on the extremely initial lap Alex Laws span out in his S14 and Phil was driving as well close to take avoiding action and just clipped the driver’s door, rear wheel and arch on the DW86. Not as well considerably harm was carried out but we missed the rest of the session inspecting the damage.
Other drivers were struggling with new cars and damp circumstances but as the track dried, the normal started improving. Dan Chapman, another driver returning to the series was seeking very good in the CMR S14.
In the Pro class our 2 new drivers were each out practising in freshly built vehicles. Smiffy was struggling in his S14 due to also considerably grip (thanks to his new rear geomasters) but managed to place in a lot of clean runs.
Rich in his freshly engine swapped Supercharged LS2 E36 was having teething difficulties with his new fuel system so only managed to get 1 run in prior to retiring the vehicle before as well considerably damage was done to his engine.
In the course of the first practice session the DW86 tore a seal on a brand new AP Master cylinder in the handbrake, which meant that under a particular combination of hand brake and footbrake there have been no brakes at all. Thanks to Mark Lappage who kindly lent us a master cylinder which solved the concern and got the brakes functioning perfectly for the rest of the weekend.
In practise session 2, the DW86 was working better than ever, we have been nonetheless having problems with also considerably grip thanks to its short wheel base, rear biased weight distribution, and awesome Nankang NS2R tyres
Due to Rich’s mechanical concerns he was unable to do any far more practice but Chris was able to get a couple of laps in, however his automobile wasn’t revving properly and being quite hesitant between gear modifications. He managed to mainly drive round the problems and got 5 clean runs in, gaining self-assurance with the new setup.
Onto the Qualifying rounds, the DW86 had developed a bit of a missfire beneath load at higher revs, which got worse as the day progressed, but Phil managed to put in some safe runs and we jumped onto fixing the difficulty straight after. It turned out our posh fuel tank and the pickup for the fuel pump had been blocked with crud from a jerry can that was peeling paint from the inside.
Lots of disassembling, cleaning and filtering later and the auto was back together, but we had broken the fuel filter throughout cleaning and it leaked. Buff and the SATS team came to the rescue, and leant us their spare Aeromotive filter with some fittings to convert to our -6AN lines. Cheers guys!
Thankfully we managed to qualify in 13th spot in what Phil described as his weakest ever entries into the very first corner, 13th location meant he would be up against Mark Luney in the SATS Supra.
Chris was up subsequent in the pro qualifying but a combination of a troubled engine, gearbox issues and as well considerably grip caused him to just miss out on the prime 16.
Sunday was scheduled to be wet almost the entire day, with this in mind we set about prepping the auto for a damp track. Unfortunatley Mark had concerns in the SATS Supra and pulled out so as not to risk any further damage to his automobile, so we were promoted to 12th and now against the Jack Shanahan, the 14 year old from Ireland in his S14a with a Turboed M3 engine. This was going to be a very good battle!
Almost everything was operating effectively and we had been all confident and excited for the battles, but as Phil pulled onto the track and set about warming the tyres, we heard an almighty and all as well familiar bang as the propshaft snapped the massive front UJ. This meant we have been unable to compete and had to be towed away from the line. Gutted…..
This is the 4th driveline failure we’ve had in the auto, regardless of selecting the absolute greatest and strongest parts. So we’re going to have to dampen engagement with a Tilton adjustable flow delay valve and hopefully dial some of the shock loads out of the transmission.
Congratulations to Jack Shanahan for taking the very first win of the season.
Though the weekend wasn’t what we had anticipated, we’ve nevertheless come away with Championship points and when the DW86 was functioning it was spectacular. With 6 weeks to go before Knockhill there’s a lot of work to do to rectify the problems we’ve identified, but we’ve had a glimpse of how excellent it can be now and we’re hungry and excited for more.
Tags: 2014, BDC, drif2rks, DW86
Written by Rich Starkey Posted on April 30, 2014. Filed beneath Drift Events. You can adhere to any responses to this entry via the RSS 2.. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry BDC 2014 Round 1
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