Yesterday 21st September 2008 at Lydden Hill racing circuit in the UK.
James Deane at the tender age of 16 years old. Drove his S14.5 with new engine and transmission configuration for the first time. After only 5 laps of practice it was clear that he was not phased by the completely different car setup.
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He was starting to really push hard by the end of practice and the car not setup full at this stage was competitive.
He set out for qualifying. His first 2 runs were tidy and precise but on the cautious side. Then on the 3rd run he nailed 4th up the hill and this earned him a very respectable 2nd place in qualifying.
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But there was a problem with the power steering. After 2 runs the fluid was boiling and losing all power assistance. This was going to be a problem. But Robbie form TDP along with Jame’s brother Kenneth and Des a friend came up with a quick fix to the problem. A pump and big barrel of water to cool the power steering reservoir while waiting at the line. This would give James the steering he needed for the close quarters twin battles.
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In the twin battles he was able to find out just how good the new cars setup was against another car. It was amazing compared to the old setup. Not all due to the power though. Quite an amount was down to the Full GTR rear end on the car. James was able to pull a huge gap from the hair pin past the judges and up the hill. In the top 8 battle James car up against Deane Karney. Before this event both James and Deane were always so well matched tin the twin drift that it was often down to many re runs to decide a winner. But unfortunately for Deane Karney the setup on James cars gave him the edge from the start.
James was in the top 4 and with that he had also won the Championship on points. Next battle for 2nd was against Dennis Healy. On the first run with James in front Dennis tried to hard to keep close to James and spun. Now with a guaranteed 2nd place at worst position James was over the moon.
The final was going to be epic. James and Phill. The battle of the 6 cylinders.
The first 2 runs were so close that they were both 5-5 At this stage Phill had to change tires. The next run was a 6-4 to James but we had a big problem we had run out of water for cooling the power steering and we were out of rubber also. We change the car back to the the less worn tire that we used in the top 16 and off they went. This time the advantage to Phill was clear as his car was able to pull up the hill away from James. A defeat to a noble adversity is not always a defeat in the eyes of the opponents. That how James see it any way.
Not a bad result considering that the car looked like this on Tuesday morning.
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Team TDP would like to thank all of the Deane family for the commitment that has allowed James to get this far so young.
We would also like to thank Mike (Senior), Mike (Junior) & Kenneth Deane for the hard work and help in converting the car form SR to RB26 with 6 Speed transmission and GTR full back end in only 4 days at the TDP workshop.
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JDM Allstars Driftcast – Vol.2 Ep.01 from Trackday Films on Vimeo.
