Team Falken UK at Round 3 of the British Drift Championship.

For 2015 we head back to Teesside Autodrome, Stockton-on-Tees. It has played home to
the UKs drift scene since the beginning and is a track favoured by Team Falken UK with it
bringing the strongest results overall in 2014.

Matt Carter finished strong here last year and is looking to do the same this year with his
ever improving R32 Skyline, mean while Kirsty Widdrington has upgraded a lot on her
Silva over the previous weeks by fitting a new Garret turbo paired up with a Walton
Fabrications manifold and stroking the engine to a 2.2. Her car is now more brutal than
ever.
Saturday was to be a warm sunny day which was a lot different to last years rain storms.
Kirsty had a few troubles with her car in practice but the team pulled together to get it
sorted and back out for some last minute seat time to get her eye in for qualification.
She bagged 32nd spot which was a surprise to the whole team as her 1st run was very
solid and deserved a higher place.
She went out and gave it her all against top qualifier Adam Simmons but unfortunately
wasn’t able to match the round 2 winner and went out in the top 32.

Matt Carter and Paul Cheshire were both feeling confident going into Sundays pro practice
but Matt was still struggling to bond with his new TDP geometry set up and could not dial
in the line he wanted. This showed up in qualifying with him just scrapping in to the top 32
and being beaten to 31st by his team mate.

Paul quotes “That was probably my worst two runs of the weekend. My car has been
feeling on point all morning and I was enjoying smoking up Teesside. I now have a lot of
work to do going against 2nd place qualifier Jack Shanahan”.

Paul fought hard against Jack and gave it 110% and the judges noticed this and ran them
one more time. This is where it ended for Paul thought as he clipped the tyre wall on his
lead run which handed Jack the win.

Matt was one but the last pair in his top 32 going up against Martin Richards. Matt quotes
“I am not going to let my weekend end here at top 32. I am going to forgot about how the
car is set up and just go out and drive it hard” and that he did taking out Martin and
advancing onto the top 16.

After knocking out top qualifier this gave Matt a real buzz and his top 16 battle against
Steve Moore was over in no time moving him into the great 8 against Irishman Gary
Dunne where Matt again went in aggressive as ever in both runs and sent him on his way
to the ferry.

His semi final would be Mark Luney and after Matt was knocked out by him at round 2 it
was all to play for.
Matt chased on his first run staying in close proximity and wowing the crowds. On his lead
run he initiated as fast as he could but the power of Marks Supra soon closed the gap and
in some instances to much leaving Matt with some battle scars on his door but because
this didn’t affect Matts drift Luney took the win and Matt went into the battle for 3rd place.
This should of been against Jack Shanahan and is something we all wanted to see,
unfortunately because of damage to Jacks car he didn’t make it to the line, handing Matt
3rd place on the podium and a big bag of points in the championship.

Matt quotes “I am really surprised I got this far due to my driving this morning in practice
but I knew that my car was prepared to the best it can be. I got my self in the zone for the
battles and drove it as hard as I could. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to battle for my 3rd
place win against young Jack but I will take the podium spot and am looking forward to
Round 4 at Lydden Hill next month.”

Overall the team walked away from Round 3 of the British Drift Championship in high
hopes. Matt brought excitement back in the team and raised the spirits of everyone.
The team now have to get straight to work to prepare the cars for their demonstration runs
at Silverstone next weekend for one of the largest automotive gatherings in the UK and
they urge anybody local to try attended as its a firm favourite of theirs.