British Drift Championship Rocks at Rockingham

Rockingham Speedway welcomed the BDC over the Easter weekend…

The opening round of the 2018 British Drift Championship season was held at Rockingham Motor Speedway. While the BDC is a relatively low-budget category of motorsport, the organisation as well as the standards of marshalling and driving were becoming of those in tiers of professional motorsport with greater budgets and more staff. Variable weather conditions shook up the Pro-Am category, which competed mostly over Saturday, ending on Sunday morning. However, the proverbial cream rose to the top with Lee Scott eventually claiming victory in the category over Kristians Burkovs while Alistair Sutton would claim the final spot on the podium in Pro-Am. Incidentally, all of the Top 4 finishing drivers were at the wheel of BMW 3 Series.

The Pro category was fiercely competitive with several drivers getting to grips with new builds though along with others driving developments of familiar cars. One notable new build was Overspeed’s 1,000bhp LSx-powered Mazda MX5, driven by Christian Christensen. While it put on a spectacular show with a substantial tyre smoke display, much development work is needed to make the car competitive. Reliability became a notable factor in the Pro category with an engine failure in Simon Perry’s R35 GT-R hindered his progression beyond the Top 32 along with a broken half shaft putting Aurimas Vaskelis out of contention for a Top 8 battle. The Top 4 battle saw close battles in the playoff and the final where Kevin Quinn beat 2017 BDC Champion Matt Carter in the former to take the bottom step of the podium. Speed, managed aggression and consistency put both Martin Richards and 2014 & 2016 IDC Champion Duane McKeever into the final. Despite a valiant performance from Driftworks’ Richards, a willingness to take more speed into his transition and maintain his drift gave McKeever a consistent edge over all of his opponents and handed him victory in the Pro category.

Round 2 of the 2018 British Drift Championship will take place at the Teesside Autodrome on 2^nd and 3^rdJune.