Drift at Spa Francorchamps - KingofEurope final round - 16/

[ZaX]

King of Europe 16th/17th September 2006 - Spa Francorchamps


One of the last events this season for me, main dish...let's see


To all my previous events I was going by car (600km trips), but Spa is 1250km from my home, so it was unacceptable to go there by car,way to far. I had to rent a truck,but prices was crazy expencive and on the last day, when I was ready to go to Belgium by car if needed, used car dealership hops in with the truck for fair price, but I had to drive it by myself.


On Friday I loaded car on the truck and started the journey at around 15h. The trip was horribile, rain was falling most of the way, for first 150km took me 3hours. Thing started to go better when I reached Austria. Then around midnight we hit the traffic jam before Salzburg, 8km cue and 1 hour of waiting. My father was going with me and we drive in shifts entire night. We arrived to Spa at 8h in the morning after driving the entire night. I was dead tired and I still had to unload the car from the truck and take all the tires, tools/things out of the car...


After the scrutineering and checking the car, filling out the paper works we entered the pits. First thing there in the boxes that caught my eyes was this white wide body S15.


On Saturday's first 2 hour training I was pulling some good drifts. I first tried 17" tires in the back, but it was too much grip, so I went to 16" for more longer slides.


Second 2 hour training run was good and I was feeling confident. I had lots of runs, tried different setups and combinations. In the end after cutting the one 16" tire I went back to 17" tires in the rear to have more grip for tomorrow twin drift.



After the trainings I went to a walk around the track to check out the other side - drag event. I'm not in to that cars, but I must admit some of them look impressive.






Around 20h I went back to pits where I'm about to spend the night in my comfortable passenger seat. Dad was sleeping in the truck. Since I was so tired I didn't mind sleeping in the car.
I woke up around 7 in the morning, first in the pits. I cleaned the car so I decided to take some photos at one of most famous F1 tracks.





Other cars, sleeping in the pits..



Sunday trainings were going fine, I was trying different entry lines and techniques, from faint, handbrake to shift lock.
For qualifications we had 3 runs. I decided to play safe on first run and do 2nd gear approach at 80kmph, feint the car and power in to the corner. First run was good and secured entry to the top 8 so I decided to go more aggressive in 2nd run. 2nd gear on limiter at 100kmph, handbrake and drift. It was even better, so more space to go even better in final qualification run. I did the entry in 3rd gear with 130kmph, brake + faint and then shift lock in to the second. Long slide, way before the judging point and it was perfect. Top 8 was here

After the qualification draw was made, Paul was first with 9,4 points, I was second with 9.13 and all others were quite behind.
This is where the real fun starts with twin battles. Mike asked if every one did it before and I was the only one that never twin drifted, ever. I'm sure I was bit red in the face after that. I was really excited, my battle was last and when it should finally happen, my opponent with BMW M3 E30 (3.2 liter EVO engine) could not start the car!!! I really wanted to do my first battle with him because he was first - weakest opponent. After 10 minutes he finally managed to start the car and we were off.





I won easily both battles, as a leader and chase so ice was broken I headed to the top 4.

Next battle was against BMW M5. I won as a chaser, but as a leader I understeered and we had to do it "one more time".


I won the second run with better driving and I was in to the finals against Paul Vlasblom - Drift king.

As a chaser I was managing to keep up with Paul, but as a leader Paul easily passed me from the inside showing great driving and experience. Paul wins, hands down.









After that Paul and I did some demo drifting for the crowds.



Top 3 cars


and top 3 drivers joined with kangaroo??


I would like to thank Paul Vlasblom (and his brother Ruud) one more time for having a great time. Paul, as the first D1Gp driver I met in person teached me a lot.


So, machine and the driver


My dad, camerman and support


Immediately after the ceremony we started to pack our thing and load the car on the truck. Here you can see Mux driving the Nissan


Since the car is low loading takes some time, but with little help from my friends it's easy.



This is the picture of my friends who cheered me and helped me. Thank you all and hope to meet you again!

I'm now richer with one big new experience and happy with result.

Special thanks to:
Auto-Mrkonjic, used car dealership
http://www.auto-mrkonjic.com/

Maxi tuning, media sponsor
http://www.auto-motor-i-sport.com/default.aspx?id=115

Links:
http://www.aeu86.org/viewtopic.php?t=3236
http://www.streetracingmania.com/english/drift.html
http://www.driftking.nl/images/kingofeur...index.html
http://www.go-drift.com/

Best regards

ZaX