Eglinton, Northern Ireland – 4 Sep 2011
The beginning of September saw my first visit to the land of my fathers (well, great great grandfather). I was invited over by SleepyCat Photography’s Colin and Glenda to capture the day on their behalf as they wouldn’t have any time to take photos themselves due to them playing a major role in the organisation of the event. Well, having built up a friendship over the past few months, and me wanting to visit Ireland for several years now anyway, I couldn’t refuse could I?
This event was originally conceived as a one off event in aid of two thoroughly deserving charities – Marie Curie Cancer Care and Alzheimer’s Society. Monster Energy were soon persuaded on board and I think the success of the event might mean a repetition or perhaps bigger things next year.
An early(ish) start was the order of the day on Saturday 3rd. My flight to Belfast left Newcastle at around 0750. Straight through, on the plane and away. I was in Belfast before I knew it, and the weather was damp! Into the hire car and off north bound where the weather was a little brighter.
The event was held at an old disused 2nd World War airfield at Eglinton, near Derry. In fact, the track was on the perimeter of Derry City Airport. Incidently, there was an airshow being held just a few miles away on the coast at Portrush the same weekend and the airport was home to some of the aircraft, namely two Belgian Airforce fighter jets and a Consolidated Catalina. So that caused some extra excitement, especially when one of the jets gave us a mini display on his return from the airshow.
The drivers list contained some very high profile names. Some of the top drivers from JDM Allstars, Prodrift and the British Drift Championship were very quickly signed up for it, including sole female driver of the weekend Danni Murphy in her “Green Monster” S14 and the youngest top driver in the country at just 15 years of age, Duane McKeever.
The Saturday was mainly track finalisations and tweaking, and practice for some of the drivers. It gave me the chance to scout out the track and plan some shots. The track itself was designed as a figure of 8 layout. This provided an interesting mix of quick entry into turn 1, a transition into turn 2 that was taking some drivers a bit to master, another transition into a long sweeping right hander which tightened at the end for a flick the opposite way into the final clip. The feedback was that the drivers loved the track, but they were getting more and more pissed off with it because of the tricky turns.
As with most all drift events there were the inevitable bodywork casualties. The collection soon started growing as everyone got used to the track.
Sunday arrived soon enough and the competition got underway proper. There was the usual 2 hour practice session in the morning before the drivers’ briefing from ‘Chubby’ and the other judges, including top judge James Hudson from the Allstars Academy. All the drivers knew exactly what was expected of them and everything went swimmingly.
The qualification runs followed with each driver getting 3 judged runs and then ranked on their best score. Due to the high number of driver entries for this event, qualification resulted in a Top 32 being run.
The weather didn’t play ball though. Part way through the battles the heavens decided that they couldn’t hold their bladder much longer and let go. It killed the smoke but not the competition. If anything, it added to the excitement because it made the track even more of a headache for the drivers. There were one or two offs but nothing major.
Being somewhat unfamiliar with most of the drivers, I won’t / can’t give you a run down of the battles, so I’ll let a few pictures do the commentary for me.
After what were some pretty epic battles, the final top 3 were:
1st – Simon Muldrew (Nissan S13 180SX)
2nd – Stewie Gilmore (Nissan S13 Onevia)
3rd – Brendan Stone (Toyota SR20 Altezza)
Well done to Simon on the win, and to all the drivers for an excellent competition and in raising plenty money for the charities – over £1100 between the chosen charities. Also, much kudos to all involved in the organisation and setting up of this event. I know several sleepless weeks (never mind nights) was had in the run up. Also a big thanks to SleepyCats Colin and Glenda for the invite and considering my humble skills worthy enough.
Finally, film maker Michal Szymborski stepped up at the last minute to capture the event on video. This was his first ever experience of a drift event and one which I think he thoroughly enjoyed. Below is the video of the day with the soundtrack “Afterburn” being provided from local band Novice. The track is available through iTunes.
Check out Colin Clarke’s post for a behind the scenes insight at the preparation for this event.
