Baggsy kicked off his 2021 drift season at round 1 of UKDC last weekend at Three Sisters Circuit, Wigan. Below is the full scoop, the official Baggsy press release.
Let’s talk about the first ever UK Drift Championship event. Located at the Three Sisters Circuit in Wigan on the 17th & 18th of April 2021.
You may all know the outcome for the SB team and Steve ‘Baggsy’ Biagioni, securing third place on the podium.. but you may not know the full story.
Let’s start on the Wednesday, car set up day and a visit to our good friend and Pro drifter Martin Richards for a full alignment.
After a year in America for demos and then a year in storage at SB HQ, we wanted to make sure everything was perfect for the #S13V8 to compete in the UK at pro level.
A few changes we had already made to the S13, consisted of relocating the radiator and fans to the rear of the car, upgrading to a Radium fuel system, a full rebuild of the engine and uprated big Wilwood brakes.
By the end of the day we had the alignment & suspension dialled.
Thursday. Dyno day. What power could our LS engine make? It all seemed to be going smoothly the whole day, until on one of the last pulls.. he engine dropped a valve.
The decision we had to make straight away was to either call it, send the car back to the workshop and miss out on the first event of the year. Or, to go through the night from Coventry to get the car back to the workshop in Southend, replace the heads, check it hadn’t done any more damage and find somewhere to test the car before the event.
So, the team headed straight back to the workshop loaded up with Monster Energy, ready to work through the night!
The whole team pulled an all-night shift to get the car fixed and back together, working 16+ hours to be ready for the event.
The guys at Birmingham Wheels were also very helpful and let us use their circuit to test the car before finally getting to Three Sisters on the Friday night.
Saturday was a well needed setup & chill day with the Pro 2’s on track, with sunny skies and warm weather we decided to get a few photos of the car on track after the event was done for the day.
Its pro day! Practice going well and many tyres smoked, Baggsy feeling comfortable with the car on track, running a high scoring lead line all morning.
Qualifying under way with a 79.3 on Baggsys first run, securing 6th place for the battles and going against Scott Cartledge in Top 32.
Scott unfortunately shutting it down with a car issue on his chase run which gave Baggsy the win and advancing into the Top 16.
Next battle saw Baggsy against Martin Wonnacott in a borrowed car for the weekend, Baggsy pulling a gap from Martin in his lead run gaining an advantage, and with a savage chase run, Baggsy wins gaining a place in the Top 8.
Lwi Edwards was Baggsy’s next driver in his crosshairs. Lwi pulling a few car lengths leading up to the first corner, but that didn’t phase Baggsy! The S13’s pace is no match for the BMW as Baggsy was on his door all the way around the last corner. A faultless lead line gave Baggsy the win on the second half of this battle.
The Final 4, this was the toughest battle of all for us. Going against Duane Mckeever, an Irish and British Drift Champion!
With the sheer pace of Duane's high horse powered Nissan S13, he pulled away towards finish line gaining an advantage in his lead run. Which in turn put us in the 3rd/4th place playoff against Kevin Quinn.
This battle wasn’t a simple win or lose.
Baggsy to chase first against Kevin, door on door action until the last few turns, Quinn runs wide and Baggsy follows! Both cars de-bead a tyre and fail to complete the run, giving Baggsy an advantage and rewarding a competition time out.
But, with the clock ticking by, and the track curfew closing in, there was only enough time to to run one more battle which inevitably was the final, Baggsy was then given the win and the third place winner overall.
The lead up to the first round of the UK Drift Championship tested the team and pushed us to our limits, but once again everyone pulled together and worked to get it done.
All the hard work paid off! Bringing home the third place trophy & we can't be happier!
Baggsy - "It's been a tough week for the team, working insanely long hours to get the S13 running perfectly, and i really can't thank them enough for all their positivity!" www.baggsyboy.com www.sbmotorsport.com
Steve Baggsy Biagioni #Baggsy