After a fantastic season of the MSUK Drift Pro Championship competing around the circuits of UK, Lwi was crowned Championship winner at the last round at Snetterton.
After 8 rounds on the iconic race circuits around the UK, Lwi took the win at 4 rounds and finished on the podium on all but 2.
Lwi results gave him a lead after the 7th round that couldn’t be beaten.
An amazing result for a young driver with a small family team behind him.
Our thanks must go to our partners who help make this happen.
Round 2 of the British Drift Championship at Three Sisters circuit in Wigan, 12 months to the day when Lwi made the podium for the first time in the ProAms and almost qualified top in the Pro class, so he was looking forward to a good result now competing in the Pro class for 2020.
Practice day was booked for the Thursday prior to the event but a minor scare saw main sponsor Allitalia stripping the gearbox out of the car on Wednesday evening after a noise developed in the transmission while moving the car ready to load on the trailer. After checking the clutch and flywheel, the gearbox was replaced for the spare to avoid any failures on race day. The BMW LSV8 was given a clean bill of health and loaded ready for a later start on practice day.
Practice day ran smoothly and gave Lwi a chance to get used to the new Accelera 651 sport Xtra 100 TW softer compound semi slicks supplied by partner for 2020 Tirestreets UK now mounted to some new 1 Form 18 inch rear wheels. We dialled in some different settings to gain some more grip and tried some different tyre pressures. Some new cooling fans fitted after the problem in previous round turned out to be much more efficient and kept the temperatures down by about 20 degrees to around 90c, even when driven hard which was a relief. The car ran faultlessly until it suddenly cut out while waiting in line at the start. After being towed back to the paddock it turned out to be the main kill switch, brand new this year, which had failed! After searching the paddock, Luke Barker’s team came to the rescue with a new one, all fitted and ready to go in under 30 mins. The rest of the day was uneventful, Lwi just cleaning up the qualifying line ready for race day
After chilling out watching the Pro2 class it was time to get the race face on for the Pro day on Saturday. Fuel up with Sunoco race fuel, new Accelera 651 rear tyres and morning practice, the weather was good with a damp start but forecast was dry so it was going to be fast and furious all day for sure.
Qualifying Runs:
First qualifying run and Lwi was on it from the start, a nice clean line hitting all the clips and gaining a score of 94,holding top spot for a while but finished finished 2nd
Qualifying Run 2:
Never happy with his run and always chasing that perfect score, Lwi was advised by judges he needed to put more flare in his style, so this run was more smoke, speed and pushed out to the clipping points. Something was amiss this time though and a lesser score of 92. Back to the drawing board to chase the perfect score. However, Lwi did finish the qualifying in 3rd position which is pretty amazing for his first year in Pro’s
Top 16 Battles:
Due to Lwi high qualifying score he advanced through to the top 16 and his fist battle was to be with one of the most experienced drivers on the grid Martin Wonnacott in his awesome high spec Toyota Chaser, this was going to be a good one. Lwi pushed hard and put his usual flawless lead run which may have caught Martin on the hop but he caught up quickly on the chase run. Turning around and Lwi made a few mistakes on the first few clips so the judges voted for a OMT (One More Time) to give a chance for a cleaner run from both drivers.
Top 16 Battle OMT:
Lwi pushed hard on this battle, it was close and entertaining until Martin was forced into a mistake on the last few clips, running off the track and allowing Lwi to take the win and advance into great 8
Great 8 Battle:
After battling Martin, the great 8 battle should be more even with young irish driver Dylan Kehoe who had advanced through from Pro2 with a very nice spec Nissan with similar power to Lwi. It was very close and tidy battle which Lwi took the win to advance through to Final 4
Final 4 Battle:
Well, this was going to be a mission, Lwi was now up against the experienced and fellow welshman Ollie Evans in a much higher spec Nissan who was determined to win the championship. Lwi pushed as hard as he could, it was close and fast with Ollie losing his bumper on transitions but Lwi just couldnt beat Evans and the lost the battle.
Third Place Playoff:
Lwi had one final chance to make the 3rd place podium and his opponent was the young driver Max Cotton, who had stormed the field of Pro2 to this position in the Pro class. The battle again was close with both Lwi and Max rubbing doors but the win went to Max, so Lwi just missed out on a podium place. Well done Max!
Lwi finished the weekend with a 4th place o/all finish and although disappointed in not getting another podium at Three Sisters it was a great result after some hard battles. Currently sitting in 5th place in the Pro championship, once again it it a great result for the first year in the Pro Class
Always looking for consistency like last year in Pro2, if Lwi can stay in top 5 for this season it will be a great achievement, but who knows what happens, with so few rounds of the championship, things can change quickly.
Huge thanks to everyone involved with the team from sponsors Accelera tyres, tirestreets UK, haltech, Sunoco fuels, Driven Oils, Learn2Drift, 1Form Wheels and bank of Nana and John, as well as all the Team Driftfam who all make this possible.
Always looking for support on this journey, please get in touch if you can help out in any way at support@lwiedwards.com
After a long break due to the Covid 19, the British Drift Championship managed to pull everything together and run a shortened championship for 2020. This started with the first round at the legendary purpose built drift track at Driftland in Scotland
After winning the 2019 Pro Am Championship (Now called Pro 2) in the UK and also finishing 6th in the 2019 Drift Games Nationals, Lwi was promoted to Pro level for both UK and Ireland for 2020
The trusty BMW E36 M3 has had a major upgrade while the new Pro drift car is being built from scratch. Out with the M3 Evo engine and transplanted by Allitalia Ltd with a modified LS2 engine with full Haltech custom ecu pushing approx 500 bhp to keep competitive.
The long trek to sunny Scotland started on a Thursday ready to spend a Friday practice day in the new upgraded BMW, and things didnt go to plan at the start, the weather was very warm and still, which caused the temps to rise in the engine bay, then a brand new cooling fan decided to fail, luckily Lwi always keeps a close eye on data, so the practice was aborted until the problem could be fixed. A search around the paddock found a new fan, although slightly smaller than original it kept the temps down.
Practice day was spent dialing in the grip level, running a mix of tyre brands to test before committing to one brand. Extreme tyres that Lwi was awarded as part of championship win and a newcomer on the block, Accelera. At the start of the day Lwi felt he had too much grip but by the end he was using more of the huge V8 grunt to push the grip level to the max on 17 inch rims, this was something that was going to become apparent on race day.
Sunday and Pro race day, Lwi had 2 hours practice honing his qualifying line, which was faultless as always, but it became apparent that he was struggling to hold proximity with the top driver due to loss of grip. With the help of the drift fam as quick change up to 18 inch rear wheels and some new Accelera tyres transformed the BMW allowing Lwi to push harder on chase runs.
Qualifying: Lwi has gained the reputation of being a line driver in both UK and Ireland and he hadn’t lost his skill in the down time since last season. First run and score of 91.5 was not enough for Lwi so he pushed the envelope for the second run and improved the score to 95 points holding top qualifying until Luke Barker and Mckeever knocked him off the top spot, can’t grumble too much. The grip level was improved with the 18 inch rims and new Accelera.
Top 16 Battle :
This was Lwi’s first battle in the Pro class this year and Oliver Silcock was a worthy opponent. Lwi laying down the perfect lead line once again allowing a good chase that the judges ask for but the chase run for Lwi was a little harder, still learning the grip he was judged as shallowing the track to gain proximity. Maybe should have been OMT to fight it out but it wasn’t to be. So Lwi lost the battle.
A successful weekend with a lot of positives, the LS conversion is reliable and the handling of the chassis remains unchanged with the extra power. We will now be running 18 inch rims with the bigger 265 Accelera tyres. Some extra cooling needs to be addressed although autumn will soon be here for remainder of rounds and sure the weather will be cooler.
Thank you to everyone who supports the Team from family and friends to sponsors and companies. If you would like to be part of this amazing journey please get in touch with us at support@lwiedwards.com
Round 6 of the British Drift Championship was to take place at Buxton Raceway, high up in the hills so everyone knew that this would be a challenge with unpredictable weather and a tight oval circuit, to make it even more interesting the races would be battled under floodlights late into the night.
This was the final round of the BDC and anyone in the top 4 could take the championship, it couldnt be any closer after some amazing battles all year, and Young Blood, Lwi Edwards had turned out to be the ‘fly in the ointment’ sitting in second position going into this last round. Fresh from his return from the Tullyroan Oval in Ireland, Lwi was confident of a good finish but needed luck to be on his side to take the win, and for once, things went in his favour. Non of us had thought of crunching the numbers to work out where he had to finish, Lwi always looks towards the top step and top qualifying, so we decided to let things pan out by the end of the night.
For the last time this season, the trusty BMW M3 was given a clean bill of health by main sponsor Allitalia Ltd, Wrexham and fitted with a few mods such as LED lighting to help when it came to the night battles at Buxton, some fresh race fuel from our recent 2019 supporter Sunoco UK and a mixed stock of tyres to test from Extreme, Westlake and Triace for the changing conditions. Still testing the brands to see which suit the power and Lwi’s driving style. The car was then loaded for the hard slog up the hills to Buxton Raceway on the Thursday night ready for the race day on Friday
Friday morning and torrential rain, horizontal at times, played havoc with practice. Lots of standing water on the circuit in places and for a short while it looked like the whole event could have been a washout. Lwi spent as much time available getting familiar with the circuit after only been here once before to test the BMW earlier in the year, but the grip level was mixed and this could potentially cause problems for all the drivers when competition started officially later in the day. This weekend the extended family had also ventured across to support Lwi at this last round but one special guy, Heath Bamford was missing from the gang after having a serious accident on a motorbike a few days before, a shout out from the judges was a nice gesture.
Qualifying 1 : With darkness starting to fall and the circuit starting to dry it was time for Young Blood, Lwi Edwards to get his game face on and start taking this seriously, all the drivers were given a sighting lap due to the mixed surfaces and Lwi used this to put an almost perfect run before the actual qualifying lap. The usual clinical line from Lwi put the first score of 84 to put him in 3rd position. Well happy with that one, nice and safe
Qualifying 2 : And the floodlights were now changing the atmosphere in the arena, once again, Lwi put a really strong precise run but the judges didnt think it was a top qualifier and he didnt move from his 3rd place finish. Still happy with the result and put him in good place ready for battles.
Top 32 Battle : And this is where lady luck started to take part and Lwi had a by run due to his opponent having problems with the car and unable to start. So one lap of the circuit and back to prepare for the next battle
Top 16 Battle : Lwi Edwards Vs Karl Farrar. All the battles from now on were going to be hard, Karl was very experienced and his 500hp Mazda had been flying all day around the oval. Lwi put his usual clinical lead on the qualifying line but Karl also ran a tidy line, however, it was judged that Lwi took the win by 1 point with even one judge calling one more time… it was so close and some great battle with Karl, Lwi would have been happy to take a one more time, to do it all over again, but through to the Great 8 he went.
Great 8 Battle: Lwi Edwards Vs Stu Jones, and lady luck number 2 was on his side again when unfortunately, Stu damaged his car going into the first bend and was unable to repair it in time to start the next battle giving Lwi the path into the Final 4. Things were now looking rather interesting with the championship but we tried not to get distracted by the points and Lwi just continued to take one step at a time.
Final 4 Battle: Lwi Edwards Vs Martin Cowley, the battle that could make or break the championship, Martin was on form all day and you could tell that he was hungry for the win. Lwi struggled to keep proximity on the chase and this was going to go in Martin’s favour but to confirm this, Lwi actually span on the final roundabout finish!! Put down to combination of loss of brakes and grip coming into the bend after having to work so hard to keep up with Martin. Lwi took the defeat and Martin had to work hard for the well deserved win.
Final Battle Playoff: Lwi Edwards Vs Fitzgerald. The final battle for Lwi to take third position and this was another case of ‘giant killer’ mode. Lwi now needed to finish 3rd to have chance to take the championship and Fitzgerald had all the gear and experience to take Lwi down but Lwi switched up a gear to run a perfect line as always and it looked good for Lwi to take the win, however, we would have to wait until the final podium celebrations to find out
The final podium celebrations and results announced! Lwi takes 3rd place finish on the day which was incredible against the odds, but the crucially takes the championship win overall by 1 point … 1 point lead after 6 rounds of the championship in his first ever year of competition .. what a result!!! And still only 17yrs Old!
Huge thanks has to go to everyone who has supported us this year and also to the British Drift Championship team who gave Lwi the chance to qualify at the start of the season and give him the platform to compete, no-one could have predicted the outcome of the championship with Lwi being the underdog all year and now the next challenge is to take a win in the Pro class in 2020, I am sure this will be more difficult and we will be looking for a select amount of companies or individuals who would like to get involved with the team in this new chapter.
Below are selection of videos and images from Buxton 2019
At the start of this season we couldn’t have predicted the position that Young Blood, Lwi Edwards has found himself in going into the last round of the British Drift Championship at Buxton Raceway. Currently sitting in 2nd Position of the ProAm championship after being knocked off the top step by Josh King but still only 5 points behind and he has extended his lead over Martin Cowley who is now in 3rd after knocking him out in a head to head battle at the last round at 3 Sisters.
This goes to show what a young new driver can achieve with consistent results all season, only one podium finish, but always qualifying high and reaching the Great 8 in every round. Lwi has been in stealth mode gathering crucial points which have carried him to the top of the championship, and it hasnt been easy, Lwi has had to work hard with his relatively low powered M3 engined BMW against a field of higher powered cars. It was planned at the start of the year to keep the spec of the car realistic for his first ever season in the ProAm class so Lwi could prove his talent behind the wheel against the odds and he has exceeded all expectations. The Pro class is calling for 2020 and a completely new Pro Spec car build is on its way.
Round 6 will take place at Buxton Raceway, an oval circuit up in the hills, which Lwi has driven only once. However, fresh from his return from the epic Tullyroan Oval in Ireland, he has had some experience of battling in an oval with walls that can ‘bite’. Only 12 months ago when Lwi was still 16yrs old, he finished on the podium at the very last Iconic King of the Ring at Arena Essex, another tight oval circuit. This circuit layout looks challenging and technical and the BDC Team will be putting on a great show for the last event of the season. The weather at this time of year could be unpredictable and Lwi will be avoiding any hard impacts to the walls. It is a tall order for Lwi to win the championship, the top 5 are so close in the points table that it could go to any one of them, but he has now proved that he is a contender for the championship.
Friday 11th October is the main day for ProAm class running under floodlights and the winner will be decided at around 10pm. The event Continues on with Pro class on Saturday and a Battle Royal on Sunday for all comers.
Hidden away in Northern Ireland is the most immaculate Oval circuit named Tullyroan Oval and once in a while, Kevin Quinn organises the most amazing event called Tullyroan Oval Driftnights. Pulling together some of the best known names in the drift world from around Ireland, Europe and occasionally, the world. All under floodlights with Big prizes at stake
We had been given the heads up by a fellow drifter and, after speaking to the organisers, gained an entry for Lwi into this invitation only event, an amazing chance for him to pitch his driving ability against some top class drivers.
The car was checked over again after last round of BDC in Allitalia workshop, some fresh fuel stocked up from new partner Sonoco UK and last minute ferry booking again with Irish Ferries and we, once again headed off to our happy place across the water for the hop from Wrexham to Northern Ireland.
Friday started with practice through the day and the chance to twin with names like David Egan. The weather was mixed with heavy showers and the track was patchy in places so made it quite challenging to run qualifying lines.
Qualifying: As darkness fell and the rain came down hard, the qualifying runs began. Lwi, as always putting his clinical line driving to score an 82 point run to put him just out of the top 10 in 11th place, with only names like Shanahan’s , Quinn , Larner, and McKeever and Drift Games Extreme drivers above him, another great result in the conditions
Saturday: And the weather was mixed again, heavy showers and dry spells and after a short practice during the early afternoon start it was time to run a Superlap which gave the running order for battles.
Top 32 Battle: Now the battles were going to get serious and Lwi had been seeded against another hugely talented young driver, Harry Kerr, in pretty identical spec M3 BMW’s. The first run and both drivers made few mistakes and put pretty well identical runs in lead and chase, so much so, it was judged to go OMT (One More Time), a good call and both drivers agreed on the decision with another chance to battle.
Top 32 Battle OMT : And another chance to battle Harry Kerr for a place in Top 16, it was close again but Lwi put a better run by a small margin and won! So Lwi was through to the Top 16. The next opponent was going to be interesting…
Top 16 Battle : And this couldn’t get any better, something Young Blood, Lwi Edwards had been praying for all year, the chance to battle arguably one of the best drifters in the world and recent Red Bull athlete, Conor Shanahan. It was a tall order to ever beat Conor but Lwi put up an amazing fight, held proximity and ran his perfect lead line. Conor’s smooth style is very similar to Lwi which gave him confidence to make a dive on his door but Lwi was certainly out car-ed and he was happy to take the defeat. The opportunity to be able to run with Conor was invaluable and has been a great experience for Lwi to prove he can battle with the best even with a inferior car. This sets him in good stead for 2020 when the next step up car is built.
An amazing weekend with some world class drivers, thank you to Kevin Quinn for the Invite, all our partners who help us out including Allitalia Wrexham, Irish Ferries, Sonoco UK fuels, L2D. We are always looking to work with new names, if you would like to get involved with this journey, get in touch ready for 2020. Its going to get exciting!