Aerokit at Drift All Stars LONDON 24th JUNE 2012

We arrived at Wimbledon Stadium after a manic week to have the car ready. Mapped 48 hrs before the event by Jez @ Horsham Developments, the car was making a steady 460bhp. The Event was changed from the O2 to Wimbledon Stadium which proved not so much of a problem in the end. The crowds were already forming and the arena looked lively with live stream TV all around in the stands. Pete seemed to be sporting a smile which was a nice change and that smile would stick on him all day........

The morning practice session went smoothly with Pete really impressing the onlooking Drift All Stars Judges and the early crowds, a few wall runs later and the crowds were hitting the roof! 

Aerokit's presence at London wasn't only the one car on the day, we also had Gavin Cummings in the Pure Performance Aerokit PS13, Dan O'Brien in the ''OMG how could you not notice it" Aerokit S14A and Martin Richards in the Pure Performance Aerokit Soarer. In the show and shine areas BDC driver Lawrence Taylor also brought his Aerokit S14! We also had the Aerokit Girls from NIGHTKIDS! This truly was building up to an awesome event.

So into qualifying for the day, Pete took 8th place in qualifying with Martin Richards in at 9th. Gavin Cummings would have to settle for 12th. Mechanical issues for Dan meant an early retirement from the event after an amazing 1st qualifying lap which would have seen him qualify near the top. The only downside was the Martin would have to drive against Pete. The weight of the soarer was clearly a disadvantage but Pete in the S14.5 would also have disadvantages in that this was only the 2nd time he head driven the car, and now it was at a completely different power setup. Both guys went all out and a slight twitch in the transition by Martin meant that Pete would go through to the next round. Meanwhile Gavin was up against the great Fin Juha Rintanen. The power that Juha was running (750bhp) was simply too much for Gavin and he bowed out after the top 16. 

With Pete through his next opponent would be either Australian Luke Fink or local Brit Nathan Chivers in the GDA S14A. We were at the lush interiors of the VIP bar as we saw Luke and Nathan head out for battle, Luke who had to borrow Stiggy Evan's corolla due to mechanical issues with his S15 pushed the corolla to its limits, maybe a little too hard,,, resulting in a collision that would end the day for both himself and Nathan. Pete was very disappointed, true to his nature he hates not being to battle into the next round and just receiving a bye. He even asked if it was possible to have somewhen else lend Luke or Nathan a car but due to both being knocked out at the same time it wasn't possible. So grudgingly Pete accepted a bye into the semi finals where he would be up against the 'great fin' Juha Rintanen. more to follow......