   |
| Information | Search Cars | Sponsorship | Events and Media | Popular Models | Other |
Japanesenewcars.com - Autospecs Ltd - Japaneseusedcars.com Autospecs Ltd. japaneseusedcars.com sponsors top D1 driver. Japaneseusedcars.com have resigned Phil Morrison and Driftworks for 2008, the signing includes the 3 Driftworks cars, the S15 driven by Phil, R32 Skyline driven by James Robinson and the Chaser driven by Ben broke-Smith the 3 cars will all be carrying the Japaneseusedcars.com livery and will compete in the European Drift Championship (EDC) , British Drift Championship (BDC), Prodrift (UK rounds) and the JDM Allstars series. They will also be doing numerous drift demonstrations around the UK and Europe. Phil Morrison has released photos of his new Japaneseusedcars.com sponsored 2JZ 3000cc Toyota powered S15 Silvia
Tokyo - Autospecs Ltd., japaneseusedcars.com announced they have signed Phil Morrison of Driftworks Ltd., for sponsorship in the D1 Great Britain Championship. Phil is a top driver in the D1 Great Britain competition and currently is the D1 GB Champion having clinched the title on the 3rd September 2006. He will also be competing in the D1 GP World Championship to be held in December at Irwindale Speedway in the USA. The sponsorship will run through the 2007 season when japaneseusedcars.com will renew their commitment to supporting the fast growing sport of D1 GP. Mr Thomas of Autosecs Ltd., says " japaneseusedcars.com is proud to be associated with such a fast growing and exciting motorsport known as Drifting, A Word From Phil Morrison: "We are very proud to have the support of japaneseusedcars.com as an official sponsor of the Driftworks number one D1GP car. Driftworks Ltd is a mail order drift specific performance parts and merchandise store, based in England. We have been at the forefront of Drifting in Europe since it's inception, and are very excited to be working with the well established vehicle import/export company Japaneseusedcars.com, to import the vehicle which we will develop over the winter, to replace the Driftworks S14 for the 2007 season." http://www.driftworks.com http://www.d1gp.co.uk We are very proud to announce that at the fifth and final round of D1GB this weekend (2nd- 3rd September) Driftworks Phil Morrison finished the championship in FIRST PLACE with a clear 10 points lead.
Words by Phil Morrison: What a weekend! We arrived for practice and qualifying on Saturday to be greeted
by looming clouds. The weather ensured that every one of our runs
was done in the rain, with standing water at various points along
the circuit, making traction next to non existent, and control interesting
to say the least. This did't faze a single one of us. In qualifying
every single driver went out there and drove past the limits of
sanity, entering Brooklands at silly speed given the conditions,
and some, getting insanely close to solid steel armco barriers,
most notably Marciej Polody. I was apparently the fastest on entry,
but struggled a little with retaining the speed whilst using the
soft track tyres. By far the fastest through the corners was none
other than our own Driftworks sponsored driver Ben Broke Smith (Bonbon)
who was on fire. I watched his 3 qualifying runs, and as he came
back in, told him that without a doubt he had qualified first. I
was correct..
Top 16 Qualifiers 1 Ben Broke Smith 96 2 Tim Marshall 96 3 Darren Mcnamara 95 4 Brett Castle 95 5 Mark Luney 95 6 Phil Morrison 94 7 Steven Evans 94 8 Paul Vlasblom 93 9 James Hudson 93 10 Damien Mulvey 93 11 Maciej Polody 93 12 Tony Green 93 13 Mark Coyne 93 14 Mark Johnston 93 15 Niall Gunn 93 16 Ralph Crampton 92 Sunday Competition The main event on Sunday was looking extremely promising with clearer skies. The wind wasn't helping us put the Driftworks trade stand up, but that's a different story. D1GB had changed the final round to coincide with Trax, which is an absolutely huge car show that would ensure the crowd that we deserved for the final. We had a 30 minute open practice session at 2pm, which was the first time European drivers have been allowed out on the Silverstone track in packs. All pushing very hard to familiarise themselves with the now dry track, but also showing how far we have come, with only one driver pushing that little bit too hard and ending up in Silverstone's magnetic gravel traps. For a second the crowd seemed to be very taken aback with what they were seeing. Then they were up on their feet clapping and shouting for more. We still to this day get misconceptions about what competitive drifting is, and I think within that 30 minutes we had certainly set the record straight, with 3-4 cars nose to tail on the same corner at the same time, and smoke pouring of the tyres like you have never seen, you'd have to be a very sour closed minded person to not love every minute of it. Each time I drove back to the start line past the BRDC stand, the noise of the crowd was absolutely awesome, making each driver play up to the crowd more with each run. Top 16: So, onto the competition: The grandstands were full an hour before we started, and people scrambled to see as we came out on track. As normal the battles for the top 16 are chosen like this: 1st verses 16th, 2nd verses 15th etc. I don't get to see everything, as some of the time I'm obviously in the car waiting to go out, but here's what I did see: So we started with Bonbon in the Driftworks sponsored R32, verses Ralph Crampton in the works SVA 350z. Bonbon now has his car set up almost exactly how he wants it, and you can really tell. You don't even have to look at the car, just look at his face and the way he dances around the pits like a fairy after each run. Coming back to the start line after battling Ralph you could tell he was smiling before he even took his helmet off, and sure enough he'd beaten Ralph and was through to the top 8.
Tim Marshall (works SumoPower 350z) verses Niall Gunn (S13) Niall span in front of Tim on the first run, so all Tim had to
do was follow and stay well back on the 2nd run to go through. I
think the 350z had a little too much traction and he wasn't able
to keep his distance, as the 350z span and went off at the entrance
to Luffield, where I've never seen anyone go off before.. So it
went to one more time, and this time Tim held it together and beat
Niall.
Stephan Evans a.k.a. Stiggy (Works Autoglym R32) verses Damian Mulvey (S13) Stiggy had told me before the match that he really wanted to go to America, so was going to do whatever it took to beat Mulvey. The result came down to an extremely unfortunate and very small mistake on Stiggy part, as he went to shift into 3rd gear on the straight, he accidentally hit 5th instead, loosing him only half a second, but giving Mulvey the small advantage he needed to progress to the top 8.
Polody has really come a long way since entering the first round at Rockingham and attending every single round since. I was lucky enough to see him qualify, and if there's one thing that you can say about Polody it;s that he aint scared・ I lead the first run, and although, I make a rule of not looking
back whilst mid drift, I could tell that he was really close. Apparently
he had come very close to T-boning me though, as he entered very
fast behind me, had to lift, then straightened. In the run behind
him, I saw extremely good traction from his car, and had to push
to the limits to retain the same speed through the corners.. It
was enough though, and I went through to the top 8.
Brett Castle (AbbeyMS S14) verses Mark Coyne (S14) Brett wanted to get this right to keep his top 5 spot, and Coyne had clear intentions of doing everything he could to stop that. Both the Coyne brothers are known to be a little ruthless on track, so Brett did his best to keep his distance whilst in front and behind. He was successful, and with zero contact was happy to be progressing to the top 8. Top 8. Bonbon verses Hudson These are two very well matched cars with around the same horsepower.
It's not the first time they have been up against each other, and
Bonbon once again showed his determination, and beat Hudson, going
through to the quarterfinals
Castle Verses Green Tony Green in the Soarer was once again proving that the car is a formidable beast. After struggling a little with slowing the heavy mass down in qualifying, he really came on game again in the dry. We are sure that there's a button on the dashboard, that when pressed sets a smoke bomb off underneath the car, we just can;tt seem to find it.. Anyway, Brett once again had his sights firmly set on the goal
of top 5, and Tony's fantastic efforts in a still very new vehicle
for him, just weren'tt quite enough. Brett went through to the quarters.
These were the best runs I'd seen Tim do in the 350z all day, he seemed to have really found his line, but Mr un-phase able Mulvey just had the edge on him and went through to the top 4. Phil Morrison verses McNamara. McNamara is widely regarded as the best driver in Ireland, after doing very well in the first D1GP Exhibition Match over here. Although I beat him at round 3, I'd seen him qualify, and I'd been out in practice with him earlier in the day. So I knew my job was not an easy one, and that if I didn't beat him, I'd almost certainly lost the championship. When he lead, I was close up behind him, and had to work very hard to stop the little 400bhp AE86 pulling away. I was happy with the run, and although I couldn't hear the results, felt that at worst it was a 5:5. When I lead in the second run, it felt like we entered the Brooklands at the highest speed of the day, both trying to get even a 1mph speed advantage over one another. He had gone in a little too hard though, and span out behind me, confirming my place in the quarterfinals.
Top 4 Bonbon verses Brett Castle Unfortunately I didn't get to see this as I was sat in the holding
area waiting to go up against Mulvey. Both guys are my good friends,
and Brett's a fantastic driver, but for some reason, on this day,
I knew that it would be Bonbon that returned to the start line to
go up against myself or Mulvey.
Phil Morrison verses Mulvey. My god, had I had a difficult bunch of drivers to go up against
or what! This was it now! This was what was going to decide the
championship. At the time I was leading the championship with a
6 point lead over Mulvey, and if I didn't beat him, and he then
won against Bonbon, I would have had to settle for 2nd place overall..
This was not going to happen. It was my time, and I was not going
to give the judges a single doubt about who should go through to
the Finals. So I lead first, and we shot off up the straight, as
always playing games with each other, right up until we initiate
the drift. Then through Brooklands, I apexed late, switched direction
into Luffield early to stay on the inside, giving no space for any
overtaking on the inside. Despite my normal rule of not looking
back, I had a little peek mid corner, and had a little American
style YEAH・moment, in my helmet when I saw I壇 pulled a few car
lengths on him. So we switched places and he lead, I wasn't going
out there with the intention of hitting him, but I'd fully prepared
myself to deal with a little paint swapping if I had to. So we initiated
late to carry as much speed as possible, and I was right up on him,
literally a couple of feet from his door. I had to use the handbrake
a couple of times to slow the car to avoid hitting him before we
transitioned into Luffield, then once again I was right up on his
door, and I'd sure he knew it with my side exit exhaust pointing
right at his head.. I'd done it! I'd beaten last years winner, and
I'd taken the championship! I couldn't have been happier, and knew
that it was only going to get better, as I was now going to meet
my teammate on the start line for an all Driftworks finale.
FINAL I was still buzzing from the previous runs, but had to concentrate on the task ahead: To go up against the man of the day, in fact the man of the weekend. So my guys had a quick check of the treads to ensure we had enough to run, and we lined up.. I looked over, and could see that Bon was seriously focussed. We gave the nod that we were both ready, and Bon was off like a scalded cat. I have a nice amount of power in our S14, but I think Bon must have been running his car on sheer joy or something, as I simply could't keep up with him. I was fast, but his car was drifting like it was on rails at the front, with a trail of sheer white smoking blinding and choking me. We finished the first run, and I'd pulled a car length back that I'd lost, but that one was definitely going to Bon. On the second run, once again, his car jumped off the line like it'd been kicked up the ass. I think he had to momentarily lift off to get the car tucked in behind me, and that was the last that I saw of him up until the crossover into Luffield, where with one front wheel on the grass, I heard the external wastegate on the RB20 inching closer and closer to within about a foot. I knew he'd done enough, so I promptly looked back and gave him the middle finger for the remainder of the corner. Haha.. Bon, dude! You've finally got what you have deserved for way to
long now. I'd personally really proud of you, and we at Driftworks
know that we will be seeing a lot more of that enthusiasm and dedication
in the 2007 season. I can't wait!!
The Championship I started drifting 3 years ago, and if you;d have told me back then that I'd be the 2006 champion of a series of this scale, with this much talent in it, I'd have said yeah I know・. Haha Joke!!! I wouldn't have believed a word of it. The work that has been put into the D1GB championship by the organisers, and the work the drivers and teams put into preparing, maintaining and driving the cars is second to none, and this is only the first year. I know that 2007 is going to be an incredible year for drifting in the UK, and I know that on the worldwide scale we are already a force to be reckoned with.
I would just like to thank: Team Driftworks: James, Melissa, Guishnu, Kelly, Ed. And of course Bonbon. To you and all my other friends who have helped out, no matter how much, I thank you. Thanks to my sponsors: Japaneseusedcars.com, Federal Tires, Adrian Flux Insurance, Angrr Management, Rota Wheels, Kaaz LSD. There is no chance we would be able to compete at the level that we do without the support from these companies, so I very happy to have hopefully provided you with the results we wanted from this year. Thanks to the D1GB Team: Glen, Andy, Alex, Maz and everyone else on the team who put all the work in to make this years championship as fantastic as it was. Without the commitment from these people, we wouldn't even have a championship to come first in, so myself and the rest of Driftworks thank you for your continued efforts. The Drifting Community: You guys and girls absolutely rock!! Support from the grandstands like I've had this year, makes all the difference to how a round goes, I really really appreciate it. Championship Results Phil Morrison 78 Points Driftworks S14 200sx Brett Castle 50 Points Abbey Motorsport S14 200sx Tim Marshall 42 Points Sumo Power Z33 350z Ben Broke Smith 41 Points Driftworks R32 GTS-t James Hudson 32 Points Autoglym R32 GTS-t Maciej Polody 31 Points Toyo S14 200SX Stephen Evans 30 Points Autoglym R32 GTS-t Ralph Crampton 28 Points SVA Imports Z33 350Z Darren McNamara 25 Points McNamara Toyota SR20AE86 Paul Vlasblom 23 Points Driftking BMW E36 Mark Johnston 13 Points Weston Performance RPS13 Tony Green 10 Points Motopoint Toyota Soarer Ian Harrison 9 Points Nissan S13 200sx Glen Maher 8 Points Nissan S13 180sx Niall Gunn 8 Points Nissan S13 180sx Declan Hicks 7 Points Toyota Soarer Kieran Cameron 6 Points Nissan S13 200sx Mat Steele 3 Points URAS S14 200sx Ian Coyne 3 Points Nissan S13 180sx James Grimsey 2 Points Nissan S13 180sx Mike Deane 2 Points Nissan S13 180sx Simon Russell 1 Point Nissan S14 200sx Mark Buckle 1 Point Nissan Skyline R32 GTS Scott Armstrong 1 Point Ford Sierra V8 5 of us now have to prepare our cars ready for shipping to the USA to compete in the D1GP world match. Driftworks are organising group flight and hotel bookings for those of you that want to come and support up. Please see the news and events forum for more details. Thanks Phil Morrison
JDM cars, Drift cars, Hybrid cars, Family cars, Sports cars, Performance cars, Luxury cars, 4WDs, SUVs, Vans, Diesels, Pickups, Trucks, Buses, Race cars, Street cars, European cars, American cars, Japanese cars, Japan car imports.
|
|
Copyright 2006-2008 Autospecs Ltd.
|
...
...
