BDC Round 1

I find it really hard to believe that were already into the 5th month of the year, time has flown by since January! April meant only one thing, British Drift Championship round 1 @ Donington was upon us!

Having spent some time in may fitting jeeks 540 out with a full 14 point weld in cage to comply with BDC regulations, and him spending some time fitting safety cut offs and all the related safety equipment, the 540 was almost good to go for round 1, with only the exhaust left to modify, it now sounds like WAR!!

Jeek will be competing in the pro class of the BDC and Team Chizfabs other driver, automotive photography wizard Ade Brannan from abcarpix.com will be entering the semi pro class.

Ades car needed some minor maintenance before it was time to make the 7 hour trip to Donington park for round 1

Friday 22nd would see all drivers from all 3 classes practice through the morning and then attempt to qualify after lunch. Ade found difficulty in the morning with trying make sections of the course in what is the lowest powered car in BDC but showed great improvement into qualifying. Unfortunately it wasn't to be his day, the cut from 40+ drivers down to 8 did not include the 24v sierra. Too many errors in his 3 judged runs meant low points, but his improvement from the morning sessions was huge and we hope to see him being competitive in his first season of BDC. The weekend went from bad to worse for Ade, washing out into the trees on open practice on saturday morning and colliding with a fence post!

Jeeks' weekend was to prove difficult due to a slipping clutch making getting power down in third gear impossible. Slow entry speeds caused by this problem meant he couldn't get the best line into the corners and get close enough to clipping points to score high, with 55 points from his best run this was not enough to make top 16 so the 540 would not be making it's debue in BDC twin drift battles at Donignton. Other than the lack of clutch the car seemed to be working well and we can't wait to get down to Norfolk arena for round 2 with a fully working car!

A good weekend all round tho, and a great start to the 2011 BDC with some awesome driving from many drivers across all classes. Danny murphie was on fire putting in some trully epic qualifying runs on friday and a shout must go to Bizz Bizz also his new LS3 power seemed to be working well and i saw some seriously impressive driving from him! We decided to leave early on saturday to get back home for a decent time with work looming the next day, so for more information on the finals check out http://www.thebritishdriftchampionship.com/blog/news/ and http://www.driftworks.com/

We would like to take this opportunity to mention that without the help from our hugely generous sponsors, Jeek and the 540 would not have been able to attempt a full season of BDC, the guys from Edeco Petroleum services Ltd, Hargreaves Jones, Zech Tech and Geokey have been very enthusiastic, giving generously providing us with sufficient funding to compete this year! From my self and Jeek we cant thank you enough for the opportunity! If anyone else would like to help out olease get in touch, Tyre sponsors especially!!!! The car is due to have the full sponsorship livery completed in time for Round 2 @ Norfolk Arena along with an upgraded solid flywheel and clutch kit later this week.


Back at Chizfab HQ I have busy on a wide variety of work on various makes, including some progress on Ades car for next season, the Classic Ford mag featured ford Capri.

The Volvo rear axle is currently being installed using 4 link setup with watts linkage to go on also.

Chizfab HQ also sees many jdm cars visit the shop for various work, recently John falons epic r32 skyline with rb25 power was here for shotgun exhaust and rear arch tubbing for the overfenders. johns car is one of my favourite cars in Scotland at the moment packed full of awesome!

Last but not least, legendary film producer Brooksie has completed his video showing highlights from Round 1 of BDC, and its awesome......

THE BATTLE BEGINS : Maxxis Tyres British Drift Championship Round One from Stephen Brooks on Vimeo.