Avid Driver: Racing

This family run Ferrari 458 GT3 team, with driver Shaun Balfe, will race for the podium in the first race of the GT Cup Championship at Donington Park Race Track

After winning the Pirelli Ferrari Open and the "Best Team Car Preparation" Trophy last year, Balfe Motorsports are aiming high and are prepare to fight with anyone who wants to win. Shaun Balfe will be a solo driver at the wheel of the 458.

"I am particularly impressed by the calibre and numbers in the 2014 GT Cup this season, it potentially offers some great GT racing against like-minded individuals; with some good teams in the paddock, it won't be easy to get on the podium" - said Shaun Balfe when asked about his outlook of the Gt Cup championship.

Balfe Motorsports are very familiar with GT Racing, having made it all the way up to FIA GT1 in 2006 with David Balfe, Shauns father as team manager in their Saleen. They were one of the very few privateer teams on the grid in 2006. Shaun's last partner was Joel Barbosa who was his team mate at the 2006 FIA GT Hungaroring Race.

Since 2011 when he won the Radical UK Cup in an SR8 Shaun has missed full season attacks and this year he is back for a full on assault. Shaun's last GT Cup event was in 2013 when he ran in a customer 458 Challenge and in the wet qualified on front row next to the BMW GT3.

Judging by the sheer amount of participants the 2014 GT Cup can be one of the biggest championships in UK Motorsport. The organizers have been busy all winter and as a result all of the full season entries were sold out in February. In the first races there are going to be 36 drivers with twenty different models of cars.

David Bearman's Ginetta

Returning to defend his crown is 2013 GTA group and overall champion Jeff Wyatt but this year he faces some stiff competition. Ian Payne partners David Bearman and Ben Tompkins are back in their Ginetta and are ready to win. The Lotus Evora of Adrian Lester and Andrew Bentley has received a blessing from the factory.

The first place in the GTB class has always been heavily contested and this time no fewer than 9 Porsche GT3 Cup cars have entered. New-comer Will Plant will be accompanied by British GT driver Oliver Bryant in one of two in2Racing.The SIN R1 of Rosen Daskalov returns for a full season after its World debut at Silverstone last year.

Jim Geddie with his Mclaren MP4-12C GT3

The GTO class is home to the fastest, loudest and most beautiful cars in the GT Cup. 2013 Champion Kevin Riley with his monstrous Mosler is looking to repeat last year but he faces stiff competition from Tim Hood with his TVR Sagaris and Richard Chamberlain in his magnificent Porsche 935. The biggest contestant this year, though, is 2013 Dutch Supercar Champion Jim Geddie with his amazing Mclaren MP4-12C GT3. The stage is set and the 2014 GT Cup season is about to begin so get ready for an action packed summer.

I was travelling to Birmingham with a friend to check out a car he wanted to buy. The car in question was a BMW 535i and it was for sale for 900£. The low price was what caught our attention but could also mean that the car was hiding something. You can begin to see where the problem stood - the car was looking too good for the money. I immediately suspected something was wrong and had a look at the cars' previous MOTs. According to the document the last time the BMW was there it had 129000 miles on the clock. The speedo of the car however showed 159000 miles. That is a 30000 mile difference. I said to myself that maybe the previous owner had to drive urgently to Hong Kong and back. Three times. In one year. The surprises didn't end there: on the MOT before that the car was recoded at 87000 miles. The seller couldn't come up with a good explanation for these milage differences so we decided not to buy the BMW. On our way back to the train station we heard the unmistakable sound of loud exhausts,big turbos and dying tires - there was definitely somebody drifting close-by. The problem was that we couldn't locate where the drifting was happening. the sounds we soon found it - Birmingham Wheels. A whole complex dedicated to messing about in a car.

Interactive Map of Birmingham Wheels

When we got there we were surprised by the sheer amount of cars that were there. I counted more than 50 drift cars. Skid Risk were holding a Drift Practise Day and the place was crawling with cars and spectators. It's a shame that only 15 cars survived till the end of the day. There was an overwhelming presence of BMW-s because of the fact that an e36 325i without Tax and MOT can be bought for as low as 300£.

This BMW was one of the two best drifters of the day. He was using the estates' heavy backside to initiate mind blowing drifts.

That ring sticking out where the left headlight used to be on this 328 is an air filter mounted directly onto a big turbo that gave the car all the power it needed to make some spectacular smoke. Oh, and what a sound did it make. It is impossible to describe with words so click HERE for a video from the day.

As soon as the drifters saw me taking photos they began pushing their cars more and more. Soon enough there was an improvised competition in who could get as close to the wall as possible with the back of the car while drifting. This chap with his red-blue BMW e36 took the cake for me with this beautiful drift millimeters from the wall.

As the "Kiss the Wall" competition was getting heated the inevitable happened and this BMWe36 head-butted the wall rather than kissing it. The car couldn't exit the track on it's own so the newest way of crashed car transportation was invented. It consisted of one BMW pulling the crashed BMW and another BMW that was pushing at the back. It looked like wounded soldiers rescuing their comrade after his legs had been blown off.

A very popular drift car modification is to remove the front or the rear bumper, or both. This is done because as you are learning to drift you are going to crash your car. Period. And to avoid buying new bumpers every time they touched the wall, drifters arrive with all their body panels and remove them before going out on the track and then zip-tie them back on for the drive home. Removing the hood is another more "ghetto" drift modification that prevents the engine from overheating by letting the hot air escape much faster. It is also one less body panel to bend if they crash.

This little stock Mazda was the only Japanese survivor at the end of the day. It's lack of power was compensated, by it's owners' aggressive driving which at times was so aggressive he ended up spinning out after most of his attempts to slide the Mx-5. It looked like the driver was still new to tail sliding and tire slaying but his enthusiasm was worth a praise.

Some drifters had taken the removing of body panels quite far. This one had removed even the boot and the rear window.

I am very pleased that we found this drift track and will be coming back soon for more drift action.

FOR MORE PHOTOS (70+) CLICK HERE!

My equipment finally arrived and i`m very pleased with the quality of the photos and video. I`m still getting used to using the camera, so the result could`ve been better if I knew all the tricks of this camera. The turnout at SDS Drift Field was a bit, how to put it, monotonous: BMW, BMW, BMW, BMW, Audi, BMW,BMW,Nissan. That is actually the exact number of cars that ran on the field.

At a short drive from Sofia stands Kondofrey airfield which has been converted to a drag racing track. It's closeness to the capital makes it the perfect place for competitive drag racing in the country .The main runway is really long and the asphalt is smooth an provides loads of grip (few 4WD cars survived a full power start).
I went shooting the first day of this two day event. The turnout wasn't bad but I expected a lot more cars to show up. Many of the cars that I knew from Bojurishte were nowhere to be seen, but the fresh competitors had a lot to show.
For me the star of the day was a VW Golf III that ran very low 11s consistently with full interior and body kit. Other notable cars were the two Audis from team Drag Power, a Subaru Impreza Cosworth and a Lada from Pernik that had a rather sexy intercooler placement.

The heat was unbearable but the organizers from UPG had it all figured out: tents! big ones, with enough room for everyone. Also the catering was delicious and really cheap for an event like this.