This past weekend Thomas Fitzgibbon entered his first drift competition in Portlaoise.
The competition was broke into 3 categories of Novice, Semi pro and Pro class drivers.
This journey all began months ago when Thomas purchased his 180sx with few mods but more then drift ready.
Here is how it looked upon purchase.
IMO a fairly nice example but deffo one that could be even nicer with a few euro and more importantly man hours spent.
But asthetics was the last thing on this mans mind, all he wanted was to drive it as it should be drove... HARD!
So drift days came and went and before long Tom was getting the hang of things.
Here he is in Mondello on 1 of those Saturdays out.
And the inevitable bumper losage! ( if thats even a word :) )
So after plenty of track time competition was finally upon us. The crew assembled at Damien Mulvey Motors on the Saturday morning at half 6 to load up and head off. The crew consisited of Tom, Damien, Ethan, Johnny and I.
We arrived at the track in plenty of time so a quick lick of wax ensured that at least the car looked minty fresh. After a long week of doing bits and pieces to the car it took on a new look and seeing as she was now clean i took the opportunity to take a few snaps before the inevitable dirt/ damage!
New wheels, Universal arches and a rocket bunny rear spoiler along with the customary cable ties to hold the bumper together and its now a very cool looking 180!
Anyways... Practise soon started and after many laps of NEARLY nailing it after a little advice from Damien soon Tom went round run after run without making a mistake and looking very impressive.
Late in the evening before the last practise session Tom developed an issue which seemed for all the world to be the fuel pump so a few phone calls later we had a fuel pump arriving the next morning.
So.. We tidied up our gear went back to the hotel for a swim and then hit the town. Unfortunately this part of the event will not be spoke of incase any law inforcement officers happen to stumble across this blog Lols.
Nothing short of an EPIC night :)
Sunday morning arrived and to be totally honest i had no interest in being at that track... The customary yet dreaded Sunday morning of a drift event hangover was in full swing :(
Damien and Tom got the fuel pump in and more uh ohs.... Still wasnt working. After plenty of head scratching Damien found the problem which was electrical and Tom was off for some more drifting...
Here he is during a practise run.
Absolutely clouded in tire smoke :) :P
This particular track is just a big slab basically used to hold containers and trucks 'NOT' specifically designed for a drift day. It has drains running straight through the middle of it which make it quiet bumpy... Tom hit 1 of these bumps wrong and it resulted in this...
Lower arm bent and split and day over?????
NAAAAAA... Lump hammer and a stranger with a welder and Tom was back out for qualifying.
Now here is where iv to admit myself and Ethan went to the pub. Big footy match on and beverage was required :)
Whilst we wer away Tom qualified for the top 16 which he won tanx to 2 smooth runs.
In his top 8 battle the weld gave up and the arm bent again causing Tom to loose the run and end the weekend.
Hats off to the man he drove very well and we'r all on for another weekend away with team Tom and Fat Fingers Fitzgibbon soon!
To end heres a few pics robbed from DriftIreland of the weekend!
Peace out....
Shout out to Paddy Macken at Goodluggage for the photos!
No comments:
Post a Comment