British Drift Championship-Round 3-Teeside-Report

BDC2019 Round 3 Masterclass – Teeside Autodrome – Lwi Edwards

With a short break from the Drift Games National championship in Ireland, our next round for Young Blood, Lwi Edwards was round 3 of the British Drift Championship which was visiting Teeside for the second time due to problems securing a new venue. However, the circuit was to be run in the traditional direction, with very fast entry into banked circuit, this was a bit of a concern for us due slight shortage of horsepower that the BMW M3 evo suffers from against a field of 450+ hp cars. Currently lying in 5th position in the championship, it is becoming obvious that he has the ability to get impressive results in his first year of competition.

With the van loaded, it was time to hit the road early from the Allitalia World HQ in Wrexham to make the most of practice on Friday and arrive to a mixed bag of typical summer weather, heavy rain showers. Initially spending the morning on a wet setup with the grippy Triace tyres, towards the afternoon, the skies cleared and the track dried and decided to revert back to the Irish control tyre, a road based Westlake tyre which Lwi prefers. One of the last runs of the day, Lwi managed to do a chase run with Pro driver Martin Wonnacott and even the power difference is probably double, still held a reasonable proximity during the chase… admittedly, Martin’s tyres were shot and he lost grip, but it was a chance to run with one of the top drivers in championship without being embarrassed .

Lwi Edwards chasing Martin Wonnacott in practice runs

Qualifying, and due to Lwi Edwards sitting high up in the championship, he was one of the last to set out on his qualifying run. Once again showing that, with his technical smooth style, he can get the most from his relatively low powered M3 engine by putting it exactly where the judges ask, hitting all the clipping points and not dragging the handbrake. Lwi is quickly gaining the new name of ‘Mr Technical’ from the Judges who appreciate his style of driving. Another impressive score of 83.67 was enough to give him 4th position overall at the end of the session. On to the Battles

Top 32, due to his opponent Matt Fountain having car problems, Lwi was given a byrun, and automatically through to the Top 16. Its was a shame as Lwi had battles Matt the last time at Teeside and he was looking forward to a rematch.

Top 16, and Lwi was to battle a driver who has been on point all year, Lee ‘Colgate’ Lawrence in his S14. Lwi to lead and put in his usual perfect qualifying line, Lee had a bit of a moment while following and lost his drift. The chase run, Lwi lost a little proximity due to getting mixed up in the smoke from Lee, but held his line. Advantage went to Lwi and he was through to the Great 8.

Top 16 battles Teeside- Lwi Edwards Vs Lee Colgate Lawrence

Great 8 – Another great battle to come with hugely experienced driver with 10 years behind him, Karl Farrar in his V8 powered RX8, this was going to be a hard fight. Lwi to lead out with a perfect line as always apart from a tiny error on last clip . On his chase, the proximity was slight problem and this was judged as one of the main reasons to favour Karl. It was mentioned again the Lwi was not outclassed, but out ‘carred’, something that will need to be addressed sooner than we expected. So advantage Karl and Lwi failed to make final 4 again!

Great 8 Battles Teeside – Lwi Edwards Vs Karl Farrar

A fantastic result once again for Young Blood, Lwi Edwards, to almost make it into the final 4, consistently in every round, which has now placed him in 2nd position overall on the British Drift Championship leaderboard, and only 5 points behind the top spot. Amazing for a 17yr old on his first attempt of a UK championship and only 15 months in a drift car. The future is going to get interesting with more support and sponsors needed to help his career grow .. more horsepower is needed !

BDC 2019 standings – Lwi Edwards 2nd after round 3 Teeside

Our next round of the British Drift Championship will be at the NEC Birmingham 27th July. Inbetween this we will be sailing back to Ireland for the next round of Drift Games Nationals on 7th July in Northern Ireland where Lwi is currently in 13th position overall.

British Drift Championship : Round 2 : Driftland : Report

Lwi Edwards : BDC2019 Rnd2 : Driftland : credit MS Photography

Round 2 of the British drift Championship found us making the long trip over the border to Driftland in Lochgelly, Scotland. With young blood, Lwi Edwards sitting in 5th place overall in the Pro-Am championship, we knew it would be a challenging weekend at the purpose built drift circuit that suits high horsepower cars

Friday practice was spent familiarising himself with a circuit that Lwi had not visted before. With the team trying different settings on the BMW E36 M3, he settled in pretty quickly and dialled in the qualifying line before session finished. Feeling comfortable with the setup, he decided to finish on a high after nailing an almost prefect qualifying run.

Qualifying : 84 points and 3rd Position

BDC2019 Driftland : Lwi Edwards : Qualifying

Saturday started with open practice for the morning, with the sun shining and a dry track, Lwi spent his time just cleaning up his qualifying lines before the main qualifying sessions started. The weather became overcast as sessions started and the rush to get a run in before it started to rain was on. His first run was clean and tidy, scoring a very impressive 84 points, putting him in 2nd place. Then the weather started to change and light rain started to make things interesting. After making the decision to ‘send it’ on second run, Lwi got caught out with the slippy track on entry to first clip and slipped off line, this was immediately a zero score, so luckily his 84 point run was enough to finish in 3rd place overall.

Into BattlesThe heavens opened

BDC2019 Driftland : Top 32 Battle : Lwi Edwards Vs Charles Funnell

Top 32 : And the heavens opened, we hoped this could give Lwi a small advantage and level the playing field and we were right, so decided to change to narrower Triace tyres on the rear and Uniroyal rainsports on front for more grip in the torrential rain. First battle was with Charles Funnell in his nicely built AE86. Lwi had a great jump on him in lead position and lay down his usual perfect line even in the rain, unfortunately for Charles he couldnt get the grip needed to catch Lwi. The chase run for Lwi was same, with Charles struggling with conditions and Lwi comfortably keeping close proximity throughout. First win to Lwi and though to top 16

BDC2019 Driftland : Top 16 Battle : Stu Jones Vs Lwi Edwards

Top 16 : And Lwi was pitched against Stu Jones in his Nissan, another high powered car in hands of experienced driver. The Lead run and once again, Lwi was not phased by the very wet and slippy conditions to pull a clean lead line while the chase car struggled for grip and Lwi managed to pull a gap which he held until the finish. The chase run and Lwi held a good proximity to the lead car, keeping a safe distance as the lead car made a few small errors. All in Lwi’s favour and he moved through to the Great 8.

BDC2019 Driftland : Great 8 Battle : Lwi Edwards vs Martyn Cowley

Great 8 : A place Lwi has been before and this battle was going to be hard, with Matryn Cowley in his Nissan, another very talented driver who is renowned to be aggressive on the chase runs and is currently leading the championship. The Lead run, and Lwi made a small mistake into clip 2, just dropping a wheel over the circuit into the huge puddle that had developed, but the chase driver also made a large error in the middle of circuit which had now developed a mixed surface of grip, catching a few drivers by surprise. The chase run, for Lwi was hard work, Martyn’s car had the grip and the power but Lwi managed to keep close proximity but in the same area of the circuit that Martyn had problems Lwi had to back off to avoid hitting the lead car, this caused him to transition too early and he ran wide off track on that clip. After composing himself, he held a good chase position for the rest of the run.

So it was all up to the judges to make their decision, which seemed to take for ever, both drivers had made errors on the difficult mixed surface and opinions were mixed, the majority wanted one more time, but judges couldnt agree and the win went to Martyn Cowley. A controversial decision as both drivers would have been happy to run OMT to battle it out. So Lwi was out and Martyn Cowley made though to Final 4 and on to finish on the podium

Another amazing result for Lwi in his first competitive season at a circuit he had never even visited before, never mind driven, the weather did help with lack of horsepower in battles, but he also qualified 3rd in the dry against some big horsepower cars. The podium is getting closer every time and Lwi is currently sitting in a nice position on the championship table in 5th overall.

Credit must go to Learn2Drift, the leading UK drift school that started the whole drift mission 18 months ago, now officially an instructor for the school, with their help and guidance, it has enabled Lwi to experience drifting on both wet and dry surfaces in different vehicles. The opportunity to gain extra seat time inbetween competition is invaluable and is recommended to both beginners and experienced drifters. http://www.learn2drift.com

2019 BDC Round 1 Teeside – Raising the bar in UK

Lwi Edwards BDC2019 Teeside

Due to the success with Drift Games in Ireland, Lwi was given a bonus opportunity to be able to enter the first round of the British Drift Championship to try and qualify for a place to compete in the 2019 BDC season. A golden opportunity to pitch his driving abilities against some of the best drivers in the UK.

Friday was spent practising the very technical circuit layout, organisers had decided to run the traditional Teeside layout in reverse to spice things up a little and level the playing field. This suited Lwi and the less experienced drivers as it was new to everyone. The car was set up and tyre choices selected by main sponsor Allitalia Ltd with just 1 broken driveshaft changed in record time to keep the M3 Powered BMW out on the track for a long as possible

Saturday was the main event for the Pro-Am and after a morning practice it was straight into qualifying mode. For Lwi, the pressure was on to qualify in the top 32 to gain his BDC Pro-Am status but he didnt let his nerves get the better of him and nailed his first run to put him in top ten, then drove a nice tidy line on second run to a final qualifying score of 73 which placed him in 8th place overall at the end of the session. A pretty incredible result for the young 17yr old in his first competitive season. This result secured his BDC Pro-Am license to compete in the UK but the real competition was just about to begin…

Let The Battles Commence

Top 32 battle started with Matt Fountain in a Soarer, Lwi putting in the usual clinical lead run which seemed to unphase the experienced chase car, and he made a few mistake, running off line and also finishing with a small ‘love tap’ around final bend. The chase run for Lwi saw him being left behind slightly due to the power difference but Lwi managed to make up some proximity and also followed a qualifying line to take the win.

The top 32 Battle to take Lwi into Top 16, Lwi Edwards Vs Matt Fountain

Top 16 battle was against William Hanna in another high powered Nissan Skyline, but this didnt phase Lwi with his technical approach to driving, again the lack of horsepower was compensated by car control , putting the BMW where it needed to be to take the win and move into Great 8!

Great 8, where things really start to get tough,and only one step away from the final battle and chance to go through to next day with Pro class! Unreal that Lwi should be at this level on his first ever attempt of BDC

Great 8 battle for Lwi . Lwi Edwards Vs Josh King

So, the Great 8 battle saw Lwi and Josh King. Both in BMW E36 but one was turbocharged and had twice the horsepower as the other… unfortunately, Lwi was in the M3 engined one, so was about 300 hp short. However, this again didnt phase Lwi, once again he drove a near perfect lead run, following qualifying line, and let the chase car make the mistakes, but he just couldnt make up any proximity on his chase run against the superior power of the lead car, so the battle was lost. Josh King went on to win the ProAm on the day

Expectations officially exceeded

Lwi went into this competition just to qualify in top 32 to gain his BDC ProAm license but once again, as in Drift Games license day, he has shown his incredible talent to both qualify in top ten and take a relatively under powered car up to top 8. He was officially the youngest driver in the lowest power car to get into top 8 on the day, a pretty decent result.

Alltalia support Lwi Edwards

Next event will see us back in Ireland for round 2 of Drift Games Natonals 4/5 May