Kirsty “Kerbs” Widdrington–Irish Drift Championship – Round 1

So we finally made it after many hurdles in the build up to the start of the season with the help of many people along the way & especially my partner David from DLR Motorsports myself & Syril were reunited & as we arrived at Mondello Park for the practice/test day on Friday the first stop was off to scrutineering – which I am pleased to say that we passed with flying colours!

After sponsors stickers being added onto Syril he was starting to look the part however sadly due to shortage of time the main decal design for Syril’s new Savage 2016 look could not be completed in time for Round 1 – However the feedback on his new look at this event was fantastic with people really taking a shine to the new colour scheme.

We headed out onto track on the Friday but sadly as soon as Syril was under load on the track it was clear that there was a boost issue so we frantically worked to get to the bottom of this & managed to borrow a boost controller & install it to help source the issue – this meant purely driving laps of the track to test for boost.
Boost issue finally under control and I headed back out into the last practice session for the day & followed another driver around the track.
1st corner initiation fine but when turning into the left hand corner Syril completely cut out on me, I started him up & carried on around the track to see if he did it again & he did so back off track to carry out some further investigation into this new issue.
After liaising with various people in the pits we managed to source a new in tank fuel pump & purchased a new battery. The in tank fuel pump was kindly delivered to us on the Saturday Morning but for Friday practice it was a frustrating day with only 3 laps around the track completed and 2 of those were driving!

Saturday morning arrived after a great nights sleep, we were positive & confident that we would fix up Syril & get back out on the track!
We had new parts in hand & got cracking to get them fitted.
At the start of the 1.5 hours practice session prior to qualifying we were out on track – due to heavy track traffic & layout (amazing to drive & for spectators) I only managed to get 4 practice laps in – not ideal however Syril was now flying with his old spare fully forged 2.0 engine back in him – he felt so spritely.

So here I was only a handful of laps on this brand new track to me & we were queuing up for qualifying…
I gave it my best shot but sadly having very limited time to get used to the track & clipping points we did not qualify on this occasion.
So for track action that was the end of it for myself & Syril.
Sunday we were cheering on the pro class & Syril was strutting his stuff on display in the paddock & WOW did he get some attention from the adorning public & fellow drivers!

I love letting both kids & adults sits in Syril if they so wish – after all the kids could well be the next genration of drift drivers.