Kirsty Widdrington – BDC Round 1 2018 Rockingham Motor Speedway

Firstly I would like to welcome you all to the 2018 Competition Drifting Season!
Before I get stuck into my event write up I would like to take this opportunity to once again Thank each and every Sponsor/Partner that we are working with for this season as without your help & support we would not be able to continue on our mission to compete in this fantastically crazy (quickly growing) Motorsport that is Drifting!

Myself, #syrilthesilvia & the team headed to Rockingham Motor Speedway to get all set up & ready to rock it after a small amount of pre-season testing! To say it was “rather wet” would be a slight understatement as the rain was fiercely falling from the sky along with strong winds which made setting up our pit area a soaking wet tough affair.
Set up complete we bedded down in the van for the night still with the rain hammering the roof of the van & sadly some other competitors gazebo’s not making it through the night unscathed, thankfully ours was strapped down to the van & Syril.

Saturday morning drivers briefing completed & prior to practice we needed to get #syrilthesilvia’s fuelling checked – luckily John Allen from WCP was on hand over from Ireland so we carried out some live runs to check everything was ok – a few adjustments later & Syril was now safe & ready for action!
Huge Thank You to John for taking the time to check my boy over – massively appreciated!

On to Qualifying we went, unsure how the weather was going to go..
Run 1 was dry on track & felt ok inside the car however I knew we could have gone faster & the lack of speed on entry meant I was shy of a few clipping boxes so the score was not great!
This meant that Run 2 was all to play for…

Whilst sitting in the queue waiting for our second Qualifying run a VERY big, dark, moody cloud was heading our way – it had started to rain a few cars before my run so the track was wet in most places.
I was sent off the line for my second Qualifying lap, I had a correction in the first corner along with a slight correction by clip 6/7 but we managed to gain a 58.7 run.
Disappointed as I knew we could have pushed harder to obtain a higher score however the track was sketchy after all the rubber being laid down in practice – That being said we were in the game for the Top 32 battles!
TOP 32:
Top 32 battle found me paired up against Stuart Egdell a good friend who I have battled in the past except now Stuart had even more power running a 2JZ engine. With the weather wet power was not such a big issue so I knew I had to stay cool, calm & focussed to win this battle!
Run 1 saw Stuart leading as he was the higher qualifier, he ran a very smooth lead run which made it very easy to follow behind in #syrilthesilvia & over the course of the lap we closed the gap to get close to him.
Run 2 was myself leading & Stuart following and after initiation into the 1st corner as we came out of the corner I hit the go-go pedal followed by Syril squatting his backside & gripping up and allowing us to pull a gap on Stuart & grow this gap throughout the run.

I was speaking with David on the radio & was advised of the gap we pulled, so we sat in the boxes waiting to hear the result & was very confused when it was announced that Stuart was the winner – we drove off track & I got out of the car to go & congratulate Stuart as we are friends on & off track to then be approached by Minnie on the radio to advise that there had been a “technical mistake” on the new scoring system & we had in-fact won the battle & progressed into the Top 16 battles.
Obviously, I was ecstatic but also felt sorry for Stuart because of this confusion & emotional roller coaster.

The Top 16 battle was against Stephen Fitzgerald, I had never met Stephen before and whilst we were in the queue waiting for our battle we had a chat along with some great banter, I could tell that he was going to go for it & not play any games so I was super excited to get started with our battle!

TOP 16:
In the battle with Stephen Fitzgerald, we both made corrections on the lead & chase runs with them both being sketchy runs (conditions not helping this now been fully wet ) it was so close that the judges could not make a decision on this battle so they opted for a OMT (One More Time)
Back to the line we went and a few deep breaths later to collect myself together and we were ready to go!
Having a deep hunger within me & really wanting to win this battle & progress through to the Great 8 I tried to gain closer proximity to Stephen than on my previous run and as he has more power we had to hot foot Syril to keep up with Stephen even in the wet but I was happy with the run at the time, back to the line & time for me to lead with Stephen chasing.
Throughout the run I kept to the qualifying line and managed to gain a gap on Stephen thus meaning that we progressed through to the Great 8!

In the battle with Stephen Fitzgerald, we both made corrections on the lead & chase runs with them both being sketchy runs (conditions not helping this now been fully wet ) it was so close that the judges could not make a decision on this battle so they opted for a OMT (One More Time)
Back to the line we went and a few deep breaths later to collect myself together and we were ready to go!
Having a deep hunger within me & really wanting to win this battle & progress through to the Great 8 I tried to gain closer proximity to Stephen than on my previous run and as he has more power we had to hot foot Syril to keep up with Stephen even in the wet but I was happy with the run at the time, back to the line & time for me to lead with Stephen chasing.
Throughout the run I kept to the qualifying line and managed to gain a gap on Stephen thus meaning that we progressed through to the Great 8!

THE GREAT 8:
With confidence high we went into the battle with Lee Scott knowing that we could challenge him even with him being No.1 qualifier today…
He lead on the first run & I stuck to him like glue not wanting to give him an inch to run a mile with, around the first corner Lee ran wide off line and as stipulated in drivers briefing we are now to follow the leads drivers run & effectively use them as a mobile clipping point thus as Lee dropped wheels on clip 2 we also had to in following his line – We crossed the finish line with very close proximity & I was super happy with my chase run.
Time to swap around – again deep breaths & telling myself to put in a clean, crisp lead run & we could have this one in the bag so I did exactly that running within the track lines & out to all clipping points across the line & awaiting the judges decision…. And waiting… and waiting, after a certain time as a driver you just know that they cannot decided and so it will be a OMT – this is exactly what happened with myself & Lee which I was surprised at with Lee putting 2 wheels off on track into the 1st corner, anyhow the battle was slightly delayed as his car was running hot so Lee had to do a cool down lap around the track whilst we sat on the line waiting for his return.

Battle 2 started and again keeping cool, calm & collected with deep breaths I chased Lee trying to keep the close proximity and following his lines – again I was happy with my chase run – we swapped places & Lee was also chasing hard.
We sat in the boxes waiting for the results & the news came through that sadly we had not progressed through to the Top 4 battles – Yes I was totally gutted I cannot lie as I could see the podium in my sights but this has only fuelled my hunger more now.
Previously we were only planning on competing at 1-2 rounds of the BDC this season however now I find myself wanting & needing to get to as many rounds as possible to prove that we can competitively compete & also get onto that podium along with showing the haters that there is a place in Motorsports for women!