DRIFT-Lucas oil drift team: Lydden Hill report

 

British Drift Championship_2014_R1

The weekend of the 19th and 20th April saw the beginning of another season for the Lucas Oil UK Drift Team, now in its 5th year competing in the British Drift Championship. The team has seen a few changes in the build up to the 2014 opener at Lydden Hill Race Circuit.
 

The most notable change to the team is the new 2014 Lucas Oil / Nankang Tyre backed Supra, which was debuted at Autosport in January. With the fuel ETS GC4 the new car produces 1111.9 hp and is up to 200kgs lighter than its predecessor. Other changes this year include welcoming new sponsors to the team, with the likes of Nankang Tyres UK, Link ECU, ETS Racing Fuels and HEL Performance joining us, giving driver Mark Luney every confidence that the car could deliver in the increasingly competitive Super Pro Class.
 

Saturday morning started off wet, very wet in fact and luckily the new team had thought of this scenario, getting the new car onto its wet weather setup the night before.

Mark proceeded with caution on his first few runs, getting used to the new car setup. Speed was increased with every following run until, in his own words, he was “going as fast in the wet as he had in the dry the previous season”.


As the day progressed, the track began to dry out and heading into the second practice session the team reverted back to its trusted dry setup from previous seasons. Mark and the Supra instantly gelled on the new setup, setting some huge entry speeds and producing the plumes of tyre smoke associated with the Lucas Oil Supra. This session also allowed Mark to try some changes to his lines before qualifying.

With only 16 spaces up for grabs and 27 competitors in the class it was always going to be a tough group to qualify from, but like before, Mark’s experience under pressure would help.

Luney’s first run is always a safe run, with plenty of speed and angle, making contact with all the clipping points, ensuring a clean and tidy pass which would hopefully make a good impression on the new judges for 2014.

The second and third runs, however, were as always faster, smokier and more impressive. Something didn’t sound quite right though and from the side-lines the team could hear that the engine seemed to be suffering from some sort of issue, like it was constantly on Antilag, but after discussions with Mark he radioed back that everything seemed fine within the car.

After his impressive showing in qualifying, Mark took fourth place. With a huge Top 16 battle looming, against the equally impressive Phil Morrison and the Driftworks V8 AE86 in the morning, it was imperative that the car be at the top of its game.
 

Unfortunately, this battle was never to be as the issues with the engine were more serious than first thought. The teams form TDP.ie and Dynatune had carried out data logging throughout the event and the findings were worrying. After closer examination, the team found that the engine had lost compression on cylinder 4. This was an unfortunate turn of events and something that couldn’t be rectified track side before the following morning’s battles. The hard decision to withdraw the car form competition was made with a heavy heart.

In the days after the event, the team have already set to work and found the root cause of the problem which led to them to retiring early. A Valve Seat had become dislodged within the head and produced unrepairable damage to the 2013 engine, taken from the old SATS Lucas Oil Supra.

The team at SATS Motorsport are now building a fresh new engine for 2014, with Titan Motorsports, Ferrea Valves, TDP.ie and HKS all being involved in the build process ,to make the car even faster and reliable for the remainder of the 2014 Championship season.

The next few outings in May, before Round 2 of the British Drift Championship, include trips to the Japfest show, at Castle Coombe in the UK, as well as 3 events in Ireland, where we will be doing live demos and promoting all of our sponsors and partners to the massive audiences attending each of them.