JDM Allstars Wembley-Chapman Fights Back
Published : 04/08/2009 18:48:43
What a weekend! Even 10 days after this historic event we are still gob smacked at the standard of driving that was witnessed at Wembley. Wembley street drift has definitely earned its place as the premier drift event in Europe. With 60 of Europe’s best drifters pre-entered for the event, and over 10 different nationalities represented, this drift weekend was set to go down in history. Right from the word go on Friday morning, Team Falken was in full strength with Lars Verbaeken making his first appearance in the UK along with his team mates, JDM stalwarts Lennard Wanders and current championship leader Remmo Niezen. The all-star Dutch team were backed up by the likes of Paul Vlasblom, Olaf Commijs along with several other of their compatriots. Ireland was well represented with the ever aggressive Martin Ffrench in his face-lifted Dragon Performance RX7, now in bright pink. Team WKD, who are currently possibly the best performing drift team in Europe with team leader Nigel Colfer back after his attempt at Wembley in 2008 with Johnny Power backing him up and newcomer Alan Sinnot in his immaculately prepared AE86 SR20. These were just a few of the drivers who made the trip over from the Emerald Isle. Friday’s media day offered lots of media attention to local news teams and radio stations with London’s most important motorsport event crashing into Wembley. Passenger rides, interviews with the press and quick demonstrations on drifting was the order of the day. Saturday would proceed as a driver search/un-seeded qualifying. With such a depth of talent in attendance, there were bound to be a few surprises in store. With over 40 un-seeded drivers fighting for the coveted last 16 spots in the top 32, lots of drivers were pulling out all the stops to get that perfect run. The plan was to whittle the 40+ un-seeded drivers down to 16. These 16 unseeded drivers would then compete on Sunday against the 16 seeded drivers (the current top 16 drivers in the 2009 JDM points table), creating an all-star top 32. However, three Seeded drivers failed to make it to the event, so there were 19 spots available in the Top 32. With so many talented drivers, the top 16 format would be ditched in favor of a top 32 battle scenario. JDM All-stars, always striving to make changes to the series, went with this decision, offering an amazing top 32 battle situation. Notable results in the un-seeded qualifying were Pete Barber in first place, Lars Verbaeken in the Falken Tires E30 qualifying second, closely followed by Shane Lynch in the Stobart/Japspeed-S15. Fourth place went to Christy carpenter in the top fuel imports RB26 Powered S15. There were also several unexpected drives from the likes of Brad McQueen in fifth and Sid Crowfoot in ninth, both exceeding everyone’s expectations in relatively low-spec machines. Un-Seeded Qualifying Top 20 1) Pete Barber 97pts 2) Lars Verbraeken 95pts 3) Shane Lynch 93pts 4) Christy Carpenter 92pts 5) Brad McQueen 92pts 6) Jan Balaz 88pts 7) Johnny Power 88pts 8) Mark Luney 86pts 9) Sid Crowfoot 85pts 10) Phil Morrison 85pts 11) Robbie Bolger 84pts 12) Danny Eyles 84pts 13) Bruno Esperanca 84pts 14) Duanne McKeever 83pts 15) Alan Sinnott 82pts 16) Deane Kearney 82pts 17) Lennard Wanders 81pts 18) Nigel Colfer 80pts 19) Alexis Drew 76pts 20) Steven Biagioni 71pts Sunday dawned and all drivers were on maximum attack. Everyone was refreshed and re-fueled, ready to put on a show. Who would be the king of wembley for 2009? Last year’s winner, Eric o Sullivan, was missing due to his new JDM Garage AE86 not being finished in time for the event, so the crown of the King was there to be taken. Also new for Wembley, to mix things up, was the Super Lap. This would be held on Sunday morning with the top 32 drivers getting to do one judged qualifying run, no warm up, no practice, just one hit or miss attempt at qualifying for the Top 32 battles, Should they go maximum attack or take it easy and make a conservative lap assuring a reasonable battle slot. The Superlap Battle was introduced by Prodrift in Ireland this year, and with Wembley breaking new ground in every respect within the UK, this event was chosen as the place to unveil it to UK audiences. It’s a great crowd pleaser and really shows the limits of performance the drivers are striving for on track. In the Super Lap itself, it was an all Dutch front Row, with Lars Verbraeken taking his E30 V8 Falken Tires BMW to the top again closely followed by Olaf Commijs in the DBM R34 and in third was Remmo. Lots of top names had spins in the Super Battle, which would really shake up the field in the Top 32, with Dan Chapman, Martin Ffrench, Johnny Power, Kiyoshi Kawabata and Phil Morrison all getting zero point runs. For drivers scoring equal points in the Super Lap, Top 32 positions were decided by position in the championship for Seeded drivers, followed by Pre-Qualifying scores for un-Seeded drivers Super Lap Battle Top 32 1) Lars Verbraeken 98pts 17) Jan Balaz 85pts 2) Olaf Commijs 96pts 18) Danny Eyles 83pts 3) Remmo Niezen 95pts 19) Lennard Wanders 82pts 4) Pete Barber 93pts 20) Matt Chiappa 78pts 5) Ben Broke-Smith 92pts 21) Mark Luney 76pts 6) Frank Van Heeren 91pts 22) Declan Hicks 75pts 7) Deane Kearney 90pts 23) Bruno Esperanca 72pts 8) Sid Crowfoot 89pts 24) Dan Chapman 0pts 9) Alan Sinnott 89pts 25) Anthony Scott 0pts 10) Paul Vlasblom 88pts 26) Kiyoshi Kawabata 0pts 11) Berend Van Berkel 87pts 27) Martin Ffrench 0pts 12) Brad McQueen 87pts 28) Jon Bartholemew 0pts 13) Duanne McKeever 87pts 29) Shane Lynch 0pts 14) Robbie Bolger 86pts 30) Johnny Power 0pts 15) Nigel Colfer 86pts 31) Phil Morrison 0pts 16) Christy Carpenter 85pts 32) Alexis Drew 0pts With the Super Lap decided, the Top 32 Battles Commenced Top 32 Battles Lars Verbraeken vs Alexis Drew Lars wins 6-4, 7-3 Christy Carpenter vs Jan Balaz Christy wins 6-4, 7-3 Sid Crowfoot vs Anthony Scott Anthony wins 10-0, 4-6 Alan Sinnott vs Dan Chapman Dan wins 5-5, 7-3 Pete Barber vs Shane Lynch Pete wins 5-5, 5-5, 9-1, 3-7 Duanne McKeever vs Matt Chiappa Matt wins 10-0, 10-0 Ben Broke-Smith vs Jon Bartholemew Ben wins 6-4, 5-5 Brad McQueen vs Mark Luney Mark wins 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 7-3 Olaf Commijs vs Phil Morrison Phil wins 10-0, 6-4 Nigel Colfer vs Danny Eyles Nigel wins 6-4, 10-0 Deane Kearney vs Kiyoshi Kawabata Deane wins 6-4, 5-5 Paul Vlasblom vs Bruno Esperanca Paul wins 10-0, 6-4 Remmo Niezen vs Johnny Power Remmo wins 7-3, 7-3 Robbie Bolger vs Lennard Wanders Lennard wins 6-4, 6-4 Frank Van Heeren vs Martin Ffrench Martin wins 5-5, 5-5, 6-4, 10-0 Berend Van Berkel vs Declan Hicks Declan wins 4-6, 7-3 Top 16 Battles Lars Verbaeken vs Christy Carpenter Anthony Scott vs Dan Chapman Scotty led on the first run, pushing a nice outside line, Dan tucked to the inside and block-passed Scotty, giving Scotty the advantage, Scotty then made a sequence of errors in the last two corners taking the score back to even. Dan led the second run and was fast and smooth, Scotty understeered briefly while following giving Dan the heavy advantage. Dan wins 5-5, 7-3 Pete Barber vs Matt Chiappa Pete led the first run with a brilliant display of driving, Matt made no mistakes but could not keep up with the fast FD, Pete took the advantage, Matt led the second run with good line but was slow and Pete stuck to him like glue with neither making any real errors. Pete wins 7-3, 6-4 Ben Broke-Smith vs Mark Luney Bon led the first run with huge angle and smoke, Mark followed suit and kept with him matching him every step. Mark led the next run and repeated his previous performance, pushing more speed and pulling a gap by at least a car length to Bon by the final corner. Mark wins 5-5, 6-4 Phil Morrison vs Nigel Colfer Phil led the first run pulling huge smoke through the first two turns and took and easy win after Colfer spun. Colfer led the second run with good line and angle but Phil managed to close in massively, sitting on Colfers door through the second corner. Phil wins10-0, 7-3 Deane Kearney vs Paul Vlasblom Deane led the first run with Paul chasing hard, both were good with no easy-to-see differences and no clear advantage. Paul led the next run and was still pushing, Deane tried to close in but overcooked it and span. Paul wins 5-5, 10-0 Remmo Niezen vs Lennard Wanders Remmo led first, pushing hard and looking awesome as ever through the whole track, Wanders was fast but lost angle at the wall while trying to close in. Wanders led the second run but took a defensive line past the wall and so handed the advantage to Remmo, Remmo kept with Wanders through the whole track. Remmo wins 6-4, 6-4 Martin Ffrench vs Declan Hicks Ffenchy led first and was absolutely on it, Dec tried hard but couldn’t match Ffrenchy’s pace and lost a large amount of ground, the same went for the second run with Ffrenchy sticking to Declan like glue. Ffrenchy wins 7-3, 6-4 Great 8 Battles Christy Carpenter vs Dan Chapman Christy led first and was smooth and fast with good angle, but Dan was super aggressive, pushing up to Christy’s door handle through the second section of the track and taking a heavy advantage. Dan led the second run and was charging hard, Christy pushed hard aswell but could only close slightly on Dan and couldn’t make that decisive move inside. Dan wins 7-3, 6-4 Pete Barber vs Mark Luney Pete led first with Mark chasing hard but Mark went offline and lost ground slightly giving Pete the advantage. Runs two saw Pete trying to capitalise on his advantage but he couldn’t match Mark’s pace and lost ground. Sudden Death. Luney led the first run of Sudden Death and ran well, but understeered over the jump at turn three giving the advantage to Pete, Pete led the final run and was good but Mark closed in and matched Pete perfectly. Pete wins 6-4, 4-6, 7-3, 6-4 Phil Morrison vs Paul Vlasblom Phil led the first run and Paul was clearly trying to dominate but he ran wide at turn 2 apex trying to catch up, giving Phil the advantage, Paul led the second run and Phil was being super aggressive once again but Phil span trying to go inside on the final turn. Paul wins 4-6, 10-0 Remmo Niezen vs Martin Ffrench Remmo led first with Ffrenchy trying hard, but spins in both runs sent Ffrenchy sailing out of the competition. Remmo wins 10-0, 10-0 Semi-final Battles Dan Chapman vs Pete Barber Chapman led first with Peter trying his best, but a spin gave Dan the biggest advantage possible, Pete led second and was fast and smooth, Dan played it safe and kept a car length back, only closing at the final turn. Dan wins 10-0, 5-5 Paul Vlasblom vs Remmo Niezen Paul led the first run in this clash of the titans and was fast and smooth, Remmo pushed hard but ran a metre or so wide through the apex of the big right hander as he tried to close in, he stayed close but couldn’t reduce the gap, all-square and all to play for. Remmo led the second run and was doing everything he could to pull a gap but Paul stayed close and managed to close in through turns 3 and 4, getting right on Remmo’s door through the apex of 4. Paul wins 5-5, 6-4 Final Battle Dan Chapman vs Paul Vlasblom Dan led the first run pushing harder than ever and squeezing every ounce of pace and angle from his car, Paul stuck to him and matched him everywhere but wasn’t able to close the gap. Paul led the second run, with both drivers manoeuvring flawlessly but Dan couldn’t close in, so it was sudden death. Dan led again and drove a flawless line, skimming the wall and pushing massive speed, Paul tried to close in but pushed wide in turn 3, giving Dan the advantage. Paul led the final run with Dan sticking to him the whole way through the course but unable to close in. Dan takes the Round 3 Wembley Street Drift victory 5-5, 5-5, 6-4, 5-5 As we move into the final leg of the series everything is still up for grabs.Dan Chapman can still take the JDM Allstars Triple Crown Series by taking victory atRound 4,with all drivers able to drop there worst score. It is all still up for.Remmo Niezen will be hard to beat at Silverstone circuit as he dominated there in 2008. Between the top 3 drivers ,all have at least two podium results with Remmo having three podiums.Is Mr Consistent unbeatable??.Make sure you are there witnessing the finale to JDM Allstars 2009.For tickets please log on to www.traxshows.co.uk This is the biggest tuning show of the year with 15-20,000 people attending ,so make sure you are there cheering on the main event of TRAX -JDM Allstars the show of the year
Big thanks goes to the Whole JDM team
Al @Trackday Films
Ross@ www.doristars.com
Daniel@ danielbridlephotography
Ciaran @Vernst Media
Calvin Chu @Cold Trackdays
Video
The JDM Allstars Drift Cast from Trackday Films on Vimeo.
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