In 2012 I ran in my first British Drift Championship season after gaining my licence at Teesside Autodrome back in 2010. I had never done any competitive driving before but  well and truly got the drifting bug following a few of the popular SXOC Crail days which I had attended in my old RB’d s13 (Project thread: HERE)

Having never done anything competitive before I had a quick look over the rules and regulations and started writing a budget for important safety items and race wear. With the help of various SXOC.com member discounts I was able to get a good deal on some Sparco race wear which met the requirements of the championship.

I then decided that the road going car was “too nice” to cage up and was worth more as a whole. So it had to go making way for the drift only s13. The project thread for this can be viewed HERE . The shell I used had a cage already fitted so for the safety side of things a good fire extinguisher and cut off switch was all that was required.

The season started with a jump into the unknown, I had no idea how the days worked, whether my car would make it through scrutineering or whether I was actually any good. To make things worse Round 1 was held 7 days before my final year uni dissertation hand in! The car passed fine, the day was well organised and everyone was friendly and on hand to give advice. Practice was limited compared to the previous drift days I had attended but this was more than made up for in the fact that I could twin, something I had never done before prior to the BDC. All in all it was a superb welcome to the championship and looking back I don’t know what I was worried about.

There were two rounds this year on familiar turf at Teesside Autodrome, which I though I would be a huge advantage. Sadly however the weather was typical of the North East, leading to heavy rain and hail! This led to tight qualifying battles that I failed to succeed in on both accounts.

Promisingly however I managed to secure a sponsor along the way, which helped me achieve an 11th place qualification at Norfolk, 5^th place at Lydden Hill and a qualification result of 2^nd at Knockhill, these results coincided with the progression of the championship and the development of my car / ability. There were some minor boost / brake issues that needed “ironing” out, but other than that the trusty SR20det was unbelievably reliable.

Video from Knockhill (Round 5) of the British Drift Championship:

Highlight of the year was the team triple event at Teesside. For me, this was basically a fun day to showcase drifting and get some much desired seat time. It was awesome, tagging onto team Taysilla with Adam Simmons and Laura ‘Lozza’ Hinks. This was by far the most enjoyable time I’ve had in the car and was a turning point for me personally with how much commitment I wanted to put into drifting.

Video from (Teesside Autodrome) team triple event of the British Drift Championship:

So, my advice for anybody looking to take the leap into competitive drifting, do it! As far as motorsport is concerned it’s the cheapest and most fun around, there’s a huge social network surrounding it and it can be done on a budget, trust me.

I would just like to thank all who helped to make it such a memorable year, friends who followed me throughout and especially Chris and Cee from wefixalloys.co.uk for all their help and support.

I will hopefully be competing next year with added v8 power and potentially a team if anyone else dares join me? . Of course sponsors are always welcome too and would be a great boost to help me become competitive in 2013.

To find out more on my 2013 car please have a look at the latest project thread HERE.

Regards,

Ian Rutherford (Ian200sx)