Kirsty Widdrigton–BDC Round 2 2018–Teesside Autodrome

After a disappointing trip to Ireland previously for IDC Round 2 we had BDC the following weekend, after having our prop failure we had desperately tried to source a replacement however it turned out that the prop shaft that came with the gearbox conversion was a “bitsa” model however luckily for us a very good friend Ali lent us his one piece prop shaft for this weekend so that we could attend the event and not only that but he carried out a 5 hour round trip to drop this off to us to enable us to compete whilst in the middle of moving house! (What an absolute hero!)

This is what is hard to explain about the Drifting community it really is a tight knit family that all pulls together, this coupled with amazing camaraderie makes this Motorsport a completely different beast to any other Motorsport out there!

I truly adore being incorporated with this fantastic Motorsport scene & Thank Each & Every one of you that helps us to keep our dream and passion alive to stay out there in Competition!

With Ali’s one piece 350z prop shaft fitted we loaded up and headed up to Teesside Autodrome in Middlesborough.

After a few laps of the track in our first allocated practice session I was struggling with the entry on the first corner and couldn’t quite put my finger on why, However pulling up to a stop off of all the pedals it became clear! Yes we had a brake binding on us again however this time it was the N/S/F Brake Caliper–David got busy along with a hand from Cookie (another driver not currently competing) to free off the caliperand lubricate so that we could get through the day (fingers crossed)

We just managed to get out in the second practice session to get one lap in prior to qualifying to check that it was not going to bind up again once hot and in motion but all appeared to be good, that being said I was not 100% happy with my line on entry and would have felt more comfortable with a few more laps under my belt but at least we could participate in the qualifying!

Qualifying time and to keep my nerves at bay (yes I do still get nervous!) I tend to walk around, chat to the other drivers and take a few pickies.

Then it was qualifying time…
Run 1 > Felt great inside the car however I knew I was slightly off of one clipping point at least & slight straighten out of clip 6 –my score came out for this run at 54.7

Run 2 > All to play for and I was upset with my score in the first run so decided to push harder for this lap which caused a few errors giving me a score of 45.

It was a nervous wait to see if my first run would at this event keep me in the competition for the Top 32 battles, Whilst trying to figure out why we were not working as a team Syril& I!

TOP 32:
We made it in PHEW in 29thposition! What a relief now time to push, we were paired up against no.4 Qualifier Matthew Walker in his BMW E30 who was peddling fast with fantastic lines around this track earlier.

1stRun myself following with good entry behind Matthew but into 1st hairpin picked up some understeer allowing Matt to pull a up some understeer allowing Matt to pull a gap, managed to close this up into the 2nd hairpin but coming out of the corner we hit the same issues with Syril fighting me to straighten up just before the finishing line.

2ndRun with us leading and I managed to pull a gap between myself and Matthew however yet again coming out of clipping point 6 we had another straighten where Syrildoesn’t seem to want to stay sideways annoyingly!

Due to my error with the understeer and also the straightens at Clip 6 even with the gap I managed to pull this was not enough to overturn Matthew taking the win.

After the event that day we were discussing Syrilwith a few people and one of them said “It seems like Syrilis constantly trying to fight you and straighten up” it was at that point the penny dropped with me! THAT WAS IT!

I watched back video footage of both in-car and externally and it was like a blow to the face but at least now we could rectify this issue & kick some backside at the next event!

He HAS been fighting me so not only have I been having to concentrate on the lines that the judges want you to run I am also trying my damned hardest to constantly keep Syril sideways!

We got on the phone first thing Monday morning to book Syril in to get him corner weighted and also to change the geometry set up to rectify this issue.