Drift Outlaws Round 3 is now over and completes the 2015 series. Held at Birmingham Wheels circuit both Mike Walton and Lee Barker attending in the Walton Motorsport cars. As Qualifying was set to take place under night conditions a little extra fun was fitted to the S13
Practice
Saturday Practice started off with Mike and Lee getting to grips with the unforgiving oval track, Lee was lapping near perfect qualifying lines from early in the session showing many other drivers how well the big R34 could move around the Birmingham Wheels oval track. Unfortunately disaster struck and Mike span causing the Rockstar Supra driven by Ashley Willis to contact with the front right corner of the S13. The accident pushed the inner wing of the S13 in damaging the radiator, intercooler, fan and boost pipe setup. But Mike prepared as ever had a complete setup ready to bolt on. With some gentle massaging of metal and fibreglass the car was good to go for a final practice before qualifying. The practice run highlighted a boost leak from a tiny split in a silicone joiner which was replaced with a borrowed piece from Justin Clarke of Sannsi Automotive. Unfortunately Ashley’s Supra had broken arms causing him to sit out until replacement arms could be sourced on Sunday
Qualifying
Lee headed out in the Skyline and managed to keep ontop of his super consistent practice sessions and put in near perfect qualifying run scoring 92 points in front of Dan Brown from Low Milage Drifters. Mike with the battle scarred S13 still not running 100% put in his best efforts but Lady Luck was not on his side and he clipped the rear end on the unforgiving concrete backed Armco causing the front to hit and scraped the whole side of the car down the barrier breaking 2 wheels in process.
Sunday Practice
Back at the track bright and earlier on Sunday morning we set to work getting the S13 back together which consisted of 2 new wheels, an oil cooler, some panel adjustment and most of the Zip ties we could find to reattach the now very used looking body panels and Mike was back out for a final quick practice. Meanwhile Lee had been putting in near perfect laps one after another showing his consistency.
Finals
As top qualifier, Lee had a pass through the first round into the top 16, whereas Mike had to go head to head with the R34 Skyline of Jordan Patton. Mike pushed the 13 but with little practice it was no match for Jordan and his day was over.
Lee went up against Joe Ball in much lower powered S13 and with his near perfect runs came out ontop, this put Lee into the top 8 where he was pitched against Round 2 winner Oliver Evans and after a delay whilst the Judged deliberated came out victorious. Semi finals and this time Lee was battling Joe Dunlop in the green S14, again Lee put in two great runs and was into the final against Drifting Veteran Brad “lightning” McQueen in the Drift Street Imports S14, Two very close runs and a short deliberation from the judges and Round 3s winner had been chosen as our very own Lee Barker. The top qualifying position plus the round win also allowed Lee to finish the Drift Outlaws Championship in second place losing out to Brad McQueen by only a single point in the overall standings
Walton Motorsport would like to thank all our Sponsors Wrapit London, Nispro Performance, Bourne End Garage Services for Tyres, CES Hire Ltd the other drivers/teams that offered help and spare parts. Especially Kinzuru Kits and CWS Welding (via Adam Charville) And a big shout out to pit crew member Dave Oxlade for working tirelessly keeping the S13 running.
