British Drift Championship : Round 4 : NEC : Report

Round 4 of the British Drift Championship, High Roller, was to take place on a purpose built track at the NEC in Birmingham. Solid concrete barriers lined the technical layout which would favour the high horsepower cars, unless it rained, which it did, torrentially!

Arriving at the venue on the Friday ready for practice, the Allitalia crew set up their usual camp ready for a half day of practice for Lwi in the M3. Weather was dry and a limited amount of time for the field of drivers meant a rush to get some runs in and familiarise with the new layout. Lwi did his usual and just dialled in the line he needed , inputted the information into his computer type brain and signed off for the day.

Saturday turned out to be a different story, greeted with torrential rain that didnt let up for a lot of the day, this was going to upset the whole field of drivers and also level the playing field for lower horsepower cars, but still didnt make it easy for Lwi. Some extra practice in the morning helped get used to the rain, but it was going to be a lottery for everyone with standing water and slippy painted lines, some uncharacteristic zero scores were ahead.

Qualifying: and Lwi was determined to qualify well now he was 2nd in championship within reach of the top step so kept his cool to run a steady and safe first run, choosing to run the Triace soft tyres to search for grip in the wet surface. His score of 58 was lowest to date but enough for the conditions to keep him in top 10 for a while. The second run was a disaster, something rare for Lwi to ever do, a certain part of the track caught a lot of drivers out, and Lwi included, he span! This meant that his score of 58 was to stand and the long wait to see what position it left him in. Luckily for Lwi, and with lots of zero’s happening, he qualified a reasonable 17th place. The worst position ever but safe to fight in battles.

Top 32 Battle: A David and Goliath battle to be had, Lwi Vs Andy Frost. Lwi in with approx 340hp and Andy with around 700 hp, but the track was still wet and this would help Lwi get the power down. Lwi to chase on first run and he kept it safe and steady in the wet and slippy conditions. His lead run again was steady and accurate, running a nice lead line as always, this was in the bag for Lwi, and his confidence was growing on the day.

Top 16 Battle: and Lwi was facing a newcomer Damien Choppen in his E46 with 1JZ engine fitted. The track had started to dry slightly and this was to become a bit of an issue for Lwi running the sticky Triace tyres, with the mixed surface changes, gripping in areas made for a challenging drive. Lwi lead line was nice and tidy, the chase was on point and advantage to Lwi, so through to great 8.

Great 8 : This was to be an epic battle with William Hanna in his Skyline, almost twice the hp and a track that was drying out quickly. Lwi made some small errors on his lead run due to the grip level changing and not having the horsepower to compensate, but also ran a perfect line on the walls, then Hanna also made few mistakes. So it went to one more time, the best decision the judges could make. By now, the Triaces were grippy and did cause Lwi to shallow slightly on his chase run, but kept proximity and did a few demon dives on the lead car to please the judges. His lead run was an epic start, somehow left Hanna standing off the line but carried too much speed into the same corner that caught him out on qualifying and Lwi span! .. Again… Hanna took the deserved win.

So Lwi didnt make the final 4 again but an amazing result again for the 17yr old youngster in a relatively low powered car on his first ever year of competition

But consulation for the weekend was winning the ‘Hard Charger’ Award for the day knowing that he is now LEADING THE PRO-AM CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!!

Check out the video below from the weekend

Video of the weekend from our media partner Sideways Media.net

Countdown to Round 4 British Drift Championship : High Roller, NEC Birmingham

Lwi Edwards : British Drift Championship 2019 : Round 4

Back to the UK for the next round of the British Drift Championship for Young Blood, Lwi Edwards. Round 4 takes place at the NEC Birmingham on purpose built track similar to the previous round of Drift Games in Ireland.

Currently sitting in second place overall in the Pro-Am class of the BDC2019, he is looking to build on this with consistent runs while avoiding the notorious concrete walls that will be lining the circuit.

Half way through the season of the British Championship and Lwi is only 5 points behind the leader. As a team, we didnt expect to be anywhere near this but Lwi’s natural talent is shining through at an incredible speed . So we are all geared up now for a push to move up a level into the Pro class for 2020. Although the M3 is capable of competing in Pro class with some modifcations, a new car Pro spec car is due to be factored into the workload this year in anticipation of him gaining his Pro License in 2019

We are looking for individuals and companies who would like to get involved with the progress of Lwi Edwards, a golden opportunity to support a young driver who, at 17yrs old, is turning out to be a giant killer.

In the meantime, the M3 has just been prepared and checked by Allitalia Wrexham ready for the NEC and Lwi is fresh from a weekend of practice in Instructing with Learn2Drift at Rockingham and Birmingham Wheels to keep his skills honed.

If you would lie to be part of this journey please drop us a line at support@lwiedwards.com or howard@italianspecialist.com

Drift Games Nationals Round 3, Eikon Centre, Lisburn N.Ireland – Report

Lwi Edwards Drift Games National Championships Round 3 Eikon Centre

After two rounds of the British Drift Championship completed with great results with Lwi sitting in 2nd position overall, it was time for Lwi to make the long trip across the water back to Ireland for the next round of the Drift Games National Championships. This round was to be in the Eikon Centre in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, a custom built circuit set up with one of the biggest car shows in Ireland. This was only a one day event with minimal practice for the whole field. Lwi was 13th in the DGN Championship when he arrived at the event. With only 4 rounds of the Championship, and a field of very talented drivers, he is looking to finish in top 10 at the end of the season. With the car checked and loaded up at the Allitalia base in North Wales, we headed off across the water with Irish Ferries once again, who always offer us an amazing discount on ferry crossing.

Lwi Edwards : Drift Games 2019 Round 3 : Eikon Centre

After limited morning practice for the 70+ field of drivers on the tight, technical circuit it was then time for qualification runs, the weather was warm and dry and competition was fierce. Just the wrong time for the normally extremely reliable BMW M3 to decide to leak brake fluid into the driver footwell. After a frantic time for the team trying to get to the bottom of the problem we found that it could not be repaired in time so decided to run with the leak and keep the fluid localised in the car while just refilling the reservoir in between runs. It was important to not let any fluid escape the confines of the car and contaminate the drift track, so we decided to make this the priority and cross fingers that the clutch would hold out during competition.

Lwi Edwards DGN Round 3 Qualifying Run

Qualification Runs, Lwi’s first run was smooth and precise as always, hitting all clips and running a nice line which gave him a score of 84. Under normal competition, this would be the top score, but in DGN, he was place in 5th place. Not content with this result, Lwi pulled out all the stops to put a near perfect line for his second run, with the judges applauding him and commenting that he had actually blackened the white marker line with his perfect positioning of the rear wheels. He finished with an amazing result of 94 points putting him in 1st position, only to be knocked off the top spot by the Championship leader and very talented Luke Barker at the very end of qualifying, so 2nd position finish was an amazing result again and best to date. Once again, the level of driving in Ireland is very high with 74 being the lowest score in top 32!

On to the battles and after topping up the clutch fluid and mopping out the fluid from the driver footwell, with some extra brake fluid given to us by first battle opponent Paddy O’Kane (just love this sport) it was time to start.

Lwi Edwards Vs Paddy O’Kane : Top 32 Battle

Top 32 Battle and Lwi was pitched against Paddy O’Kane (who kindly donated some brake fluid to help keep Lwi in the competition) with Lwi laying down his usual clinical qualifying line, his opponent held good proximity but had a few moments where he went off line and lost momentum. On the chase run, Lwi was more consistent and closer in places, so Lwi took the win.

Top 16 Battle was cut short after opponent Lee McFadden had a terminal driveshaft failure during the run and couldnt repair it, so Lwi had the ByRun to go through to the great 8. It was a shame as he was looking forward to the battle, but a bonus all the same.

Lwi Edwards Vs Cathal McLaughlin : Great 8 Battle

Great 8 Battle was against a top class driver Cathal McLaughlin, it was going to be a hard battle and Lwi put in his usual clinical lead run, with Cathal hard on his door for the full run. With Cathal leading, Lwi had a slight struggle to keep up with the considerably higher horsepower of his Nissan but help good proximity. However, after the judges took a considerable amount of time to make their decision, the win went to Cathal. It was a close call but justified and Cathal went on to win the event, so obviously the best driver of the day

Another fantastic result for Young Blood, Lwi Edwards, qualifying in 2nd and battling to the Great 8. This has taken him up the championship table and he now sits in 8th position in the Drift Games National Championships with one more round to go in August 24th at Punchestown

Lwi Edwards : Compilation of In-Car videos from Drift Games Round 3

We would like to thank everyone for the support this season that help make this happen, if you would like to get involved or support a young driver competing in two top championships please email us on support@lwiedwards.com for options, we would love to hear from you.