Throwback: BDC Donington Park 2011

I’m sorting through some old hard drives at the moment, trying to find some interesting things to write about whilst we’re all quarantined.

Today I came across some pictures from BDC at Donington Park in 2011.

I remember this day well. It was the first ever BDC event I went to, and I think it was the first long distance train journey I ever did too.

It’s a lot easier to drive to Donongton, but the station you have to get off at for Donington, sits right in the shadow of the Castle Donington power station. It’s cool to be able to get so close to the big cooling towers!

Anyway, I’ve got quite a few pics from the pits. None from on track unfortunately, but it still might be fun to go through the pics and see some old faces and cars.

We’ll go through some Essex based drivers first.

Mark Lappage was the voice of King of the Ring at Arena Essex. He also competed in BDC up until 2017. This was his pink and silver S13. I actually really like the colour scheme!

Steve ‘Baggsy’ Biagioni used to drive the Japspeed Subaru which famously got stolen and driven around the M25.

Is that car still about? If so, we need to see it brought back to competition!

Baggsy has gone on to do lots of cool things. I’d like to see him on the Formula Drift grid in the next couple of years!

The full Japspeed crew. Shane Lynch was driving the Stobart liveried S15, but who was in the other car? Was it Paul Smith at this point or Danny Eyles?

Sid Crowfoot. I think I’ve met the guy for about 10 seconds at Rayleigh RC. He had a Trabant estate for a while, which I thought was awesome. I’d love to get a Soviet era car one day.

He was competing in the Nissan Laurel, which had a pretty unusual iron cross and skulls livery.

Belinda Challis was another Arena Essex regular and has her own line of clothes under the DriftHer brand.

Here’s her R32 Skyline in it’s original Castrol livery.

Julie Robinson’s R32 4 door. I may be wrong, but I believe she still competes with this car.

Simon Perry had a really cool R33. I think he’s gone on to compete in an R35 GTR.

Paul Cheshire’s V35 Skyline. This must have been the first iteration of the car, as in later years the body styling would get much more aggressive.

Mark Luney campaigned in this Mk4 Supra for a number of years. If memory serves, this was the first car in British professional drifting to exceed 1000hp.

Gary Hughes’ R34 Skyline. This had one of the rally style name stickers in the rear window, like;

DRIVER: P. SOLBERG
CO-DRIVER: P. MILLS

His read:

DRIVER: G. HUGHES
CO-DRIVER: V. SCARED

To 16 year old me, that was the best thing ever.

Ashley Willis’ Mk4 Supra. This went on to sport a Rockstar Energy livery that looked really good.

Danni Murphy’s Green Monster. That’s such a good colour.

Christian Lewis’ R33 Skyline. He’s another driver that’s gone on to do really well at BDC. I think at the time I just liked the turbozilla throwing the hand grenades.

Matt House’s LS RX7.

Phil Morrison with the Driftworks S15 sporting an Awesomefest decal.

I think this may have been Sam Holt’s car?

Adam Day rings a bell?

I’m not sure who these ones belonged to I’m afraid. Would any of you be able to fill in the gaps?

We’ve saved the best for last 😉 Declan Munnelly’s Mk2 Escort. This was a great little car!

Thanks for reading! I hope you’re all staying safe and that killed the quarantine boredom for a few minutes. If you fancy it, feel free to follow me on the following social media platforms:

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By Richard Francis