Retro Drift Challenge & Forces Drift Series at Santa Pod Raceway

Drifted was on hand to capture the clash of metal as Santa Pod Raceway hosts round one of the Retro Drift Challenge.

toyota jzx100

Finishing work at 16:30 to make the 3 hour journey down to Santa Pod and I arrived to the paddock area to find it full of life – people buzzing around helping to unload cars, fine tuning setups and setting up camp for the night etc.

After helping out a few stylishly late arrivals with unloading their cars and setting up their tents it was time to for me to bed down in my own five star Stu rated accommodation – a blow up mattress in the boot of the car!

A few hours sleep later and I was up nice an early to see the track being marked out. Unfortunately it wasn’t to the original plan, but in my opinion the changes were an improvement, it was much better – there were now some nice flowing “esses” with a long sweeping bend at the end.

Today is going to be a good day.

After breakfast provided by Paige and Kiwi (much appreciated!) it was soon 8am with loads of people arriving and unloading their cars. After a few conversations I find out some have travelled all the way from Sweden and Germany just to make this event. Wow! That is dedication.

Driver briefing started and all the drivers were explained the course of the day followed by a track walk.

Time to smoke tyres! With no clipping points yet set down for practice sessions, it gave the organisers a good chance to see where best to lay out the points.

After a quick break and all clipping points set out it was time to try and nail the lines required to get the best results.

As this was a joint drift with Retro Drift Challenge & Forces Drift Series we saw a true difference in cars – from Rusty Sliders mighty 1957 Ford 100e Perfect, to Ben Mears with his pink Mazda MX-5 turbo. Then we had Team JBR bringing 1000bhp with their S13’s – the first with RB25DET and the other a 1UZ V8 turbo.

With qualifying done, it was time for a short break – POD’s finest chips and a well earned coffee. Time for the top 32!

This is where you started to see the vast differences in cars – such as when you’re seeing a JZX100 Chaser battling against a Volvo 340 GL on leaf springs it certainly shows you don’t actually need hundreds of BHP (although it helps), just a lot of balls and no letting up to keep you pedalling the track!

Making our way through the battles it was whittled down to the final four with some amazing driving.

Who will take the podium finish?

Daryl Jones for team JBR taking home first place and also a win for Forces Drift Series!

Followed by Oliver Bolton in second place.

Frits Hendrickx took the third.

Martin Wonnocott just missing out on a podium finish taking fourth.

Hard charger award goes to Zanna young.

Massive shout out to all involved for making this happen and to all the Marshall’s for keeping the day flowing as smoothly as it did.

Who’s ready for Round 2 at Driftland on May 21st?

You can find out more about the Retro Drift Challenge and how to get involved right here. If you would like to learn more about the Forces Drift Series you can find their Facebook page here.