This Year I have had the pleasure of working with British Drift Championship (BDC) team, Team Redmist. I had this amazing opportunity after going to BDC round 1 and doing some pit and track shots, I got talking to the team leader, Stu, after round 1 and sorted out going to do some photos and short test video for them before Japfest.

BDC Round 1 – Lydden Hill

This was my first ever round of professional drifting and I went as public with no media access so didn’t know what to expect, and what I got was a nice surprise. Open pits with all the drivers and pit crews friendly and talkative with all cars laid out for nice pit shots. So I went round looking at the cars and looking “behind the scenes” sort of thing before all the track action started. Once it began I found out how different it was than shooting my local drifting practice days (Skid Risk) and how much quicker it was and so came the beginning of quicker panning.

For Team Redmist unfortunatly it wasnt a very successful weekend with some bad weather and none of the team being able to qualify for the top 16 battles.

After round 1 and talking to Stu met up with him and we spoke about some arrangements for the year and I shot a short video and a few pictures then we decided to make Japfest my first full trial with the Team.

Japfest

Well Japfest was very hectic, getting in slightly late due to massive queues. Once was in I was introduced to all the other members of the team, Dean & Mark, and spoke about the shots they wanted as photographing out on track was very limited due to Castle Combe’s restrictions on that day and Top Gear Filming an episode.
After Japfest, I was officially welcomed to be part of the team and media with Chris who has recently left the team to go to university. I was asked to cover all rounds of BDC and some Extreme Torque events throughout the year.

Extreme Torque Sunderland

A manic weekend is about how to sum up how the run up to Extreme Sunderland went, this was because I was already attending and shooting Modified Nationals (The Nationals) at Peterborough that weekend and Extreme was on the Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday. I was unable to make it for the Sunday session but drove straight up to Sunderland from Peterborough Sunday afternoon after the show had finished and got up there ready to start shooting the Monday session.
It was unlike any event I had done before as the track was made of just cones and water barriers with a lot more open space and freedom for us to move around and get different shots and with Monster truck action in the intervals.
The results were pretty good for the team with 2 of the 3 drivers qualifying for the top 32 Battles.

BDC Round 2 – Knockhill

This was my first BDC round as fully accredited media and after a long journey over the border to Scotland (thanks to Selina and Adam) we got the pits set up and ready for a weekend of action and rain. Well the rain came down, and got heavier and heavier and heavier and was relentless during practice & qualifying which didn’t help the drivers or media alike.
The Sunday was a lot better weather wise with it making the track unpredictable again for the drivers due to them practicing on a very wet track, but even so this just proved why they are professional drifters.

Unfortunately there was only 2 of the 3 team members at this event but Dean managed to qualify for Top 16 Battles.

BDC Round 3 – Teeside

Being my first time at Teeside I was looking forward to photographing on track due to it having far less big barriers in the way unlike some tracks yet being extremely safe for both media, drivers and spectators.

Unfortunately due to more events clashing I was only able to cover the Saturdays practice and qualifying and again the weather was a hindrance with more rain. And again Stu was also unable to attend due to him representing the team at Extreme Torque show at Manchester (see the next write up). Both Dean and Mark did well in qualifying with them both getting inside the top 32 and both finishing with BDC points.

Extreme Torque Manchester

While Dean and Mark were at Teeside BDC round Stu had gone to Manchester to represent Team Redmist in another Extreme Torque show, and even though I didn’t go I made the video for this event thanks to Stu using our Drift Ghost Cameras to full use. This is the first full event coverage video production that I did for the team with only using the footage that was captured on the Drift Ghost cameras.
In the event Stu did extremely well with some really good twinning and trains including some wall taps. This event was the same as Sunderland aswell as in the intervals Monster Trucks were on track and as seen in the video Stu had the Idea of camering one up only for it to get run over, but it miraculously still works perfectly. Stu qualified High in the top 16 ready for the battles and then after some really tight battles managed to bag 3rd place.

BDC Round 4 – Lydden Hill

Round 4 saw us returning to Lydden Hill, only to find there was a massive twist in the tail……. Lydden Hill was being run Backwards for the first time. This was a very late call as Lydden Hill only got permission to do this just over 24hrs before the event was meant to take place, so the race was on to get the circuit ready for race weekend.
The circuit being run backwards mean that all drivers were on the same level with none of them having any experience of the entry speeds needed and how much speed would need to be scrubbed from the clipping points up to the hairpin. During practice people were getting to grips with the track and at the end they were pushing it to its limits and this was shown during qualifying when there were 2 impressive crashes and a few good wall taps. One of those wall taps was unfortunately Mark but luckily it only caused cosmetic damage.
Although the damage was only cosmetic on Mark’s car he only managed to qualify 20th so just missed out on the top 16 battles because of the time lost from the crash. Dean however managed to qualify 16th so managed to get into the battles, but unfortunately was knocked out in the first battle so finished 16th.

BDC Round 5/6 – Anglesey Circuit

Anglesey Circuit saw all 3 of the team members back together for the first time since BDC Round 1, which in itself made this event special for us. The weekend started on a high with all going well through the first part of practice but it some came clear that there was going to be a lot of messy cars as people were dirt dropping from the start of practice. As practice continued Mark and Stu got some really good runs in but finding it from the clips down the straight really hard to get properly as they were either going too fast and had to straighten or not enough and not making the hairpin. But as it got later into Dean’s Pro practice disaster stuck when his gearbox imploded.
After Dean’s gearbox failure he had a few hours to get the car apart and back together ready for qualifying , bring on Charlie. Charlie is the teams helping hand/ grease monkey and all round mechanic help, this LEGEND managed to get Dean’s gearbox out in just over 30mins. Then because of massive camaraderie from the BDC teams Kirsty (Team Falken) managed to find a box that Matt Denham (Drift Elite) had brought spare and agreed to lend it to Dean. So off Charlie went fitting the new box and he managed to get it all back up and running with plenty of time to spare.
During qualifying the whole team didn’t manage to get any good runs with small issues on each run which was unfortunate as it put Dean out as he qualified just outside the top 32 in Pro Class. Stu managed to qualify 30th and Mark scrapped in with 6 points (for entry speed) to secure 32nd place in Semi-pro. When the qualifying results were announced it showed how challenging the course was as most of the drivers failed to score a really good run.
Sunday Battles were very short for the team with both, Stu and Mark, getting knocked out in their first battles as they were against the top qualifiers. Even though the final round wasn’t successful Anglesey was a nice place to end the ’14 Season of BDC and it was a good end for the team all being together.

CARnival

CARnival is a new weekend car show that was being held at Rockingham Speedway and drift taxi’s were being run alongside some track action and a static car show. Team Redmist got an invite to participate in the Drift Taxi’s, which meant they would do runs on a circuit with passengers from the public. This was a good opportunity for the team to have some fun but with Mark being able to make it this just left Stu and Dean. But none the less the event was really good, this was due to having a nice big play area for the guys to drift with a few “drift trains” happening and consistent fun battles between the teams and drivers.
As some more fun the drifters were also allowed 30 minutes drift time on the main track of Rockingham speedway which was a new experience for all the drivers and was a really good treat for most of its not something that is allowed often.

Extreme Stunt Show – Monster Spectacular

The Season Finale for the team was Extreme Stunt Show’s Monster Spectacular at The Provident Stadium, Bradford. This was an Evening Event leading up to a firework display, it included everything from BMX’s to Monster Trucks and everything in between with Team Redmist getting a 12mintute show space to put a routine in.
At the end of the teams routine Two Brother Stunt Team were going to come out and perform some stunts but Stu got talking to them and they decided to join in the end of Team Redmist’s routine with then going around the cars and the cars going around them.
Before the event started we didn’t know what to expect but with a crowd 6000+ strong the atmosphere began to rise with anticipation and what a show it was. The crowd were amazing, I would say the best we have had all year, every moment possible they were getting involved cheering everyone on.

Special thanks to the whole team, Stu, Mark, Dean & Charlie for welcoming me into the family. And a massive thanks to everyone over at all the events i’ve attended as I have met some awesome new people, Rob and Marcus (everythingdrift.com), Kevin (smokin’ images), Jo (project touge) & many many more.