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On 21st March 2020, I attended the final Rockingham Drift Days dry day. A sad day to say the least, the end of Rockingham Drift days, for the final time.
It was an amazing day, I even managed to get in some driving before my exhaust fell off and set my engine bay on fire. My car will make it back out for S-Chassis fest this year (provided it goes ahead).
I'm going to start off, not with a long paragraph about the event, but about the car pictured right above. This is my friend Barney's MX5, in all it's 115bhp of fury.
He has spent more money on suspension than I can fathom for a little Mazda. Destroy or Die arms, hubs, knuckles, tie rods, brake lines, etc. and has the body kit, and style to boot. This little screamer went well all day until around 3:30PM where Barney stuffed it into a concrete block, bending the front right corner of the car in about 4". Turning his nice shiny Destroy or Die lower arm into a banana, and causing the wheel to touch the inner wheel arch.
After a few swift hits with a hammer, some turns of eccentric bolts, removal of a spacer, and a big old yank with a Range Rover the car was drift stitched back together so Barney could make his long drive back home to Brighton.
This, if anything, encapsulates the sheer drive of people in the UK drifting community. A small team of strangers assembled to bend this little MX5 back into shape, banding together and sharing ideas, tools and ratchet straps all to get Barney home.
It's sad to say, but the shell is now dead, it got Barney home one last time, but thankfully will live on in a fresh chassis.
The rest of the day was business as usual, lots of cool cars, doing cool driving. There's not much else for me to say.
A massive thank you to the tyre guys who worked tirelessly (no pun intended) through their lunch break to get the absolute mountain of tyres we had burned changed and ready to go! Some of the more stupid of us (me) had to break out the brake cleaner and blow torch to get our tyres on, but the day seemed to be going well. I'll let the photos do the talking here.
As I've already said numerous times, the day went very smoothly. Despite a handful of small engine bay fires, and a smattering of tyres not fitting, the day remained un-hindered.
A fitting end to one of the UK's most loved drifting venues, and although a while since we lost the Infield and Meihan layouts back in 2019, the venue went out kicking and screaming. Giving the last few days an astounding show of friendship, teamwork, sick driving and most importantly fun.
This really is a testament to the work Andy Arnott of L2D and his team do. Hanging onto one of the greatest tracks in the UK by a shoestring right until we were all forced into isolation.
Thank you Andy, thank you Rockingham, Thank you Jonathan, for all making March 21st 2020 a day to remember.
*Photography Taken by Jonathan Davis please contact him for any further event photos.
Some images are snapshots taken from video, hence quality drop