The climax of the 2009 Need for Speed European Drift Championship came to a dramatic conclusion as the event rolled into Snetterton, Norfolk, a high speed course that could catch out the unwary. At the beginning of the day Driftworks driver Phil Morrison was in pole position to take the 2009 title, but by the end of it Mark Luney in the SVA Imports 350Z battled his way to an event win, which, thanks to his knocking out of Morrison on the way too handed the Irishman the title. But he had to work hard for it and summon up all of his courage to attack Snetterton at full throttle.
Two pairs of drivers had earlier had to do battle to take the vacant spaces in the final eight. Kieron Cameron was first up against Steve Will in his turbocharged BMW M3, a car now running around 600bhp. In practice Will had looked good, the new power helping his rear tyres smoke like a lab monkey under pressure. Cameron’s first run proved the difference though, leading Will and making a huge gap. Coupled with an even second run, Will’s day ended here. The other pairing was David Monaghan against James Russell, an all Skyline encounter. Monaghan had been experiencing a few problems with his car in practice and in the first run he suffered some big understeer into the fast right-hander at the top of the course. Russell kept going though, pulling a huge gap and the 8-2 advantage he gained from this was too much for Monaghan to overturn.
It was the final eight where the drama started to really flow though. Russell was quickly out again up against the V8 power of Alan McCord whose supercharged engine was freshly tuned for this final event. McCord led into the first run and through Corum he looked good, but coming out the other side he went onto the grass, kept driving straight and ducked into the pits. Clearly frustrated by his supercharger belt failing McCord had no option but to retire and hand Russell a passage through.
Next up was the big one. Current Championship leader Morrison had been drawn against the only driver who could usurp him, Mark Luney, in what could be a Championship decider. It started well for Luney too, realising he was up against a driver who rarely makes mistakes he had to give it his all in his chasing run. At full pelt Luney came out of the first corner catching up to Morrison, then stayed on him for the remainder to squeeze a narrow 6-4 victory. Morrrison had to dig deep in his chasing run and he was almost at the earth’s core judging by how close on Luney’s rear bumper he was. It looked like he may squeak a win but pushing too hard entering the tight Russell Bends, Morrison spectacularly over-cooked it and span out. Now Luney’s Championship destiny was in his own hands and all Morrison could do was sit and watch how the day would pan out.
Elsewhere Pete Barber’s RX-7 took on Cameron and in the first run they both straightened at points so the judges scored it even. Cameron then led Barber and was pushed hard, so hard in fact that he span out and handed Barber a passage through. Andrew Cooper suffered a similar fate to Cameron in his tussle with Paul Conlan. Not only did a wayward boost pipe kill his power and scupper his first run but in the second his battle to catch Conlan led him to lose control out of Corum and take a foray across the grass. Conlan would now face Barber and Luney would have to get past Russell to have any chance of taking the title.
In his first run with Russell it looked like Luney may have thrown it all away. Russell put in a faultless leading run while Luney behind was judged to have straightened a little scoring the tie 6-4 in Russell’s favour. Luney needed to pull out something special and it looked like he had the bit between his teeth, a full power run giving him a big distance over Russell, who also straightened a little. It was tight but Luney was through to the final thanks to the judges scoring 7-3 in his favour.
Meanwhile Barber and the 2JZ-engined S15 of Conlan did battle for the other place in the final. Barber was clearly having problems gauging the amount of grip his RX-7 had which meant in his leading run it looked like he understeered dramatically, Conlan’s car stayed nicely sideways throughout though which helped him take 7 out of the 10 available points. Conlan just needed to play his leading run safe to go through, but Barber wasn’t giving up. Despite struggling with the apparent understeer again Barber upped his game and got himself right on Conlan’s rear for the second section of the course. It was good but only enough for a drawn run, sending Conlan to his first final of the season.
Before that though was the third place play-off between Barber and Russell. Chasing in the first run Barber again straightened early on but pulled it back and threw some steep angles to scrape a draw. Leading in his next run both cars again showed the crowds some huge degrees of drift, but the gap Barber had pulled edged it for the RX-7 driver 6-4. Barber was on the podium in 3rd place and that incidentally was enough to leapfrog him into 3rd spot in the Championship.
But it was the final people wanted to see and for a watching Morrison it must have been hell. Luney narrowly won the first run against Conlan from the front, but in the second he made a mistake early on that allowed Conlan to pull a gap. Luney managed to catch up, sitting in his opponent’s tyre smoke as they crossed the finish line, but Conlan’s picture perfect run gave him the 6-4 advantage to take it to One More Time. For the second time in the final Luney took the lead as they entered the course and made sure it was error free. Taking a narrow 6-4 advantage into the last run, once more it looked like Luney may be losing it as a small mistake made him straighten slightly. Conlan though was looking good ahead, but when it came to the transition through Russell Bends he mis-judged the left-hander and pushed wide. Luney saw his chance, drifting through on the inside and passing the unfortunate Conlan. Crossing the finish line in a plume of smoke both finalists had to assemble before the awaiting crowds before they learned of their fate. Yet there could only ever be one winner and EDC judge Maz announced that Luney had scored a 7-3 win, handing him an event victory and spectacularly giving him the 2009 title.
It was an immensely tight finish to a season full of some of the highest possible displays of sideways speed and style drift fans could hope to see. Morrison admitted he was gutted by the result but philosophically said “that’s racing!” as he picked up his 2nd place trophy. He can certainly hold his head up high, having entertained crowds throughout and scored the most wins, but Luney just never gave up the ghost and his special breed of total commitment and unquestionable consistency made him a popular Champion. Throughout the field, right up to this final event, drivers have shown a high quality of driving and the improvements in some were always going to help create a tight final event. With this sort of talent about, Luney may have to make sure he enjoys his title for the next year as you can bet plenty of drivers will be gunning for it in 2010…and while Luney won’t give it up easily you can bet it’ll be an even closer battle than in 2009, if indeed that’s even possible!
ROUND 6 RESULTS1. Mark Luney (Nissan 350Z)… 100pts
2. Paul Conlan (Nissan S15 2JZ)… 75pts
3. Pete Barber (Mazda RX7)… 60pts
4. James Russell (Nissan R32)… 50pts
5. Kieron Cameron (Nissan S13)… 40pts
6. Phil Morrison (Nissan S15)… 35pts
7. Andrew Cooper (Nissan S14A)… 70pts
8. Alan McCord (Nissan S15 V8)… 25pts
9. David Monaghan (Nissan R32)… 15pts
10. Steve Will (BMW M3)… 15pts
