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Kumakuba takes top step The 4th Round of the 2008 Japaneseusedcars.com European Drift Championship took place at Santa Pod raceway on a specially constructed “Street course” The track layout would not be the fastest this season, but was offset by being one of the more technical tracks to be used. Relatively narrow and very unforgiving, this track managed to replicate the streets where drifting was born. |
This round saw the return of Team orange from Japan once again bringing their Subaru Impreza drift cars with local support coming from 2007 Time attack champions, Zen Performance. Also new to the championship were New Zealand champion, Adam Richards and BDC wildcard drivers Matt Carter and Stewart Hansford.
Practice began in the morning and each of the drivers took their time to get to know and learn the track before pushing for higher speeds and drift angle. Due to the limited space available, the edge of the track was marked with solid concrete barriers to ensure that stray drift cars didn’t find their way onto the drag strip. As the practice session progressed the drivers were showing their usual form and started to conquer the difficult circuit. Team Orange, in particular Kazuhiro Tanaka set the standard by driving exactly on the perfect line getting very close to the wall each time without making contact. It was clear that after the defeat at Silverstone, He was out for Revenge.
Qualification began and once again, Team orange set the standard with Tanaka scoring 97 points out of a possible 100. Kumakubo also set a score of 94 making everyone believe that they would claim the top spots. This was until Phil Morrison of Driftworks appeared and put in a fantastic performance which tied him on points with Kumakubo. In the event of a points tie in qualifying, we look at the next best score which for both drivers was 92 and due to a spin by Kumakubo on one of his runs, gave Morrison 2nd place in qualification. Kumakubo would have to settle for 3rd. Another noticeable performance came from Chris “PAZ” Parry. Parry had shown great speed in his AE86 Toyota Sprinter Trueno and would have qualified 4th but an encounter with the wall called for an early end to his day. Another victim of the wall was Paul Smith in the Japspeed S15 Silvia. He got away with a lot less damage than Parry, but suffered irreparable intercooler damage calling an end to his day.
Qualification results:
Seeded Drivers: (top 6 from round 3)
Ben Broke Smith / Mark Luney / Brett Castle
Maciej Polody / Daniel Eyles / Tim Marshall
Qualified Drivers:
Kazuhiro Tanaka / Phil Morrison / Nobushige Kumakubo
Chris Parry (Crash-Retired) / Adam Richards / Declan Hicks
Kieran Cameron / Matt Carter / Scott Armstrong
James Russell / Stewart Hansford (Retired) / Steve Evans
The finals were calculated and announced and it was revealed that there would be the opportunity for some grudge matches from earlier rounds this season. Whilst each of the teams started working out whom they would be up against, the finals made a start.
The first battle would be between championship leader Ben Broke Smith against Steve Evans who managed to claw himself up to the top 16 due to Chris Parry’s crash and Stewart Hansford’s mechanical failure. Evans was showing steady improvement in his driving and was looking very fast in the finals but was unable to keep the car on line and spun on both runs handing the victory to the Driftworks Chaser.
Phil Morrison drew Nobushige Kumakubo in the first round for the second event in a row. Morrison was starting to get to grips with his new Driftworks S15 Silvia but Kumakubo was right up inside his rear bumper when leading and was unable to keep up with Kuma’s speed when following giving a small but significant advantage and win to Kumakubo.
Maciej Polody has had a roller coaster season this year and round 4 will probably be regarded as one of his lowest points of the season. He was struggling to perfect the course and made a critical error in the second run allowing BDC wildcard driver Matt Carter though to the top 8.
Daniel Eyles in the Japspeed Skyline has been enjoying a very successful season so far this year and it was to continue as Kieran Cameron in the Apex Performance Silvia spun the first run. Cameron fought back in the second but it wasn’t enough to overturn the 10-0 score from the first leg.
The SVA Imports 350Z of Mark Luney outpaced the DCY Skyline of James Russell in the first run, giving him a 6-4 advantage. The second run was evenly matched between the two giving the win to Luney
Kazuhiro Tanaka faced Adam Richards in the next battle and it was Tanaka to lead in the first run. Richards did everything he could to try and keep up with Tanaka but was struggling. He eventually had to straighten the car through the hairpin giving Tanaka the win after the second run was declared even.
2007 Champion Brett castle took on the PPS 200sx of Scott Armstrong. We have seen steady improvement from Armstrong but this wasn’t to be his day. After having to change two sets of steering arms, he spun on the second leg in a position that Castle was unable to avoid and the two cars collided. The damage did not seem too critical for either car but on closer inspection there was a lot of cosmetic damage and the cars would need to return to their workshops to see if the damage extends further. The Autoglym Abbey Motorsport 200sx of Brett Castle was declared the winner and the car seemed like it would be ok to continue running.
Tim Marshall and Declan Hicks had a fierce battle with neither one giving way in the first two runs. The third run saw Marshall claim a small advantage by showing more speed. This would eventually be the deciding factor as two were determined to be equal in the fourth run.
Into the top 8 and the first battle would be between Nobushige Kumakubo and Ben Broke Smith who would be trying to get revenge after the defeat of his team mate. The Driftworks Chaser seemed to be struggling under the bumpy conditions with the setup not being quite right. It was obvious that “Bon Bon” wasn’t himself and this showed as he couldn’t match the pace of the Orange Impreza in both runs.
BDC wildcard Matt Carter was on good form and proved that he is able to run alongside the EDC regulars by taking a 6-4 advantage in the first against Daniel Eyles in the Japspeed Skyline. Carters luck was to run out at this stage however as he spun the Team Green S14 200SX giving the win and a space in the semi finals to Eyles.
Mark Luney took on Kazuhiro Tanaka in the next battle and the SVA imports Z was starting to work better under the bumpy conditions. Tanaka however, was still able to get inside the Z33 and take the advantage in the first run and show his amazing speed in the second putting another Team Orange car into the Semi final.
Brett Castle took the advantage in the first run 6-4 against Tim Marshall by showing more angle than the Apex Performance/K Sport Skyline. This was overturned by a big mistake by castle which saw his car straighten as it was heading towards the hairpin. A bent wheel was found, probably caused by his earlier collision with Armstrong prompting for a thorough check over the cars alignment and suspension components on its return to Abbey Motorsport.
Into the Semi finals and the first pair would be Kumakubo and Eyles. Kumakubo’s flawless performances continued as he maintained a gap between Eyles and himself gaining a 6-4 advantage. To add insult to injury, Kumakubo dived down the inside of Eyles showing to everyone why he was crowned Japanese Champion of 2006. Another 6-4 advantage to Kumakubo gave him the first place in the Final.
Tim Marshall did his best to stay with Tanaka who was still showing exceptional form. The speed was there but Marshall had to sacrifice some angle to keep up with the Impreza. The advantage and win was given to Tanaka in both runs securing an all Team Orange final for our visitors from Japan.
Third place would be contested between Daniel Eyles and Tim Marshall. Both driving R33 Skylines but with very different engines. Japspeed opting for the more traditional RB25 engine which is installed in the car as standard, whilst Apex Performance have replaced their engine with a Small Block Chevy V8. There seemed to bee very little performance difference between the two cars as neither of the chasing drivers could get in to the inside of the car in front. One more time was called and into the third run for the drivers where still no difference could be found. The fourth run saw Marshall edge away on Eyles showing greater corner speeds giving him the small advantage he needed to put Apex Performance/K Sport on the podium.
The Final was an all Orange affair with both Kumakubo and Tanaka being faultless all day. Kumakubo normally has the upper hand when it comes to battles between these two drivers in Japan, but Tanaka was on form and looked ready to take the win. With both drivers using Subaru Imprezas with similar engine specifications and on the same Yokohama Advan Neova tyres, this would be purely a battle of driver skill between the two. The first run saw Tanaka dive down the inside of Kumakubo and stay there giving him the advantage in the first run. Kumakubo answered back with a similar run getting his bumper right onto the door of Tanaka. It was clear that this one would have to go one more time. Into the third run and as they made their high speed transition from right to left, Kumakubo unable to countersteer the car quick enough spun his car with Tanaka narrowly missing the car in front but continuing his drift and took a 10-0 advantage. This contest was Tanaka’s for the taking. The fourth run saw Kumakubo applying pressure from behind as per the second run and Tanaka tried to respond by pulling away. In his attempt to get away, Tanaka applies a little too much throttle and his Impreza is pointing in very much the wrong direction. It was as if déjà vu had occurred with Tanaka spinning in the same place that Kumakubo had in the previous run. With a 10-0 advantage going the other way, another sudden death was called. Tanaka chasing couldn’t get in on Kumakubo who was gradually increasing pace and so would have to settle for a 5-5 score. Kumakubo continued his ways by getting right in on Tanaka at the hairpin giving him a small advantage to settle the match.
Kumakubo was declared the winner after one of the most memorable finals to have ever taken place globally. Once again the local EDC drivers put up a good fight against Team Orange at every step but had to concede victory on this occasion. All the drivers went away having felt that they managed to learn something to help with their progression as a driver which makes it all the more exciting when we have the opportunity to have Team Orange back to compete against them in the future. Although there are no definite dates as to the return of Team Orange to the EDC at this time one thing is certain. The EDC is continually evolving and improving and promises to make it even harder for Team Orange to take the win next time.
Championship standings after Round 4
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