60 second interview with Jamie Stanton
We talk to Jamie Stanton, pro-drifter and gymkhana newbie, about his experience attending the Formula G Practice Day back in March.
John Birrell (JB): Hi Jamie! Introduce yourself.
Jamie Stanton: (JS): My name is Jamie Stanton, I’m 27, and I am an engineer/car builder from Bedfordshire. I’ve been drifting properly for 5 years, mainly competitively. I got into drifting after watching it, seeing people drift, and just bought a car and tried it out! The car is a 1996 BMW E36 Coupe, fully stripped and made lightweight with a multipoint cage and a 1JZ inline 6 fitted, making roughly 500hp.
JB: It was great to have you along to our Practice Day at Pod last Sunday to try your hand at gymkhana. First of all, did you have fun?!
JS: Yes! It was super welcoming, and extremely fun!
JB: Gymkhana is quite different to drifting, which you’ve done a fair bit of in the past! How did you find the transition to gymkhana? Did you have to adapt your driving style much?
JS: The transition wasn’t as hard as I expected, but getting a fast time consistently was hard. It was very hard adapting to gymkhana in a turbo charged car as well, as it was constantly wanting to bog down or spool and blow the tyres off. I was having to get creative with the ECU map…
JB: Are there any transferable skills that you picked up drifting and were able to apply in gymkhana?
JS: Yes, loads! It filled in some spaces — where drifting is an extremely aggressive sport when it comes to driving style, sometimes you can benefit from a more delicate technique, which gymkhana helped teach me.
JB: Did you make any adjustments to the car before coming? What tweaks will you be making for next time?
JS: I brought the car setup as it would be for drifting, and I run a very aggressive alignment. Next time I will be taking some positive camber out the rear, and making some small tweaks to the front to get more turn in grip.
JB: Drifting can be deadly for bumpers, driveshafts and tyres - how hard was gymkhana on the car?
JS: Gymkhana was alot easier on the car! Even with my heavy right foot I still only used 2 tyres. Although I did damage my front overfender getting a little too confident with a tractor tyre!
JB: In terms of cost to take part, how does it compare to drifting?
JS: It’s alot cheaper than drifting, I would guess that 4 rounds of FG costs the roughly the same as 1 drift competition weekend.
JB: Did you get as much seat time as you were expecting?
JS: Yes! More seat time than I was physically able to take advantage of.
JB: Was there anything about gymkhana you weren’t expecting? How was it racing against the clock rather than being judged? Did you struggle to learn the course with short notice then the mirror image of it?
JS: I found the course rather easy to learn, and weirdly I only went the wrong way once! The timing was nice because you could see what difference little changes made rather than having to judge it yourself. The start line tree is mega!
JB: Finally - will you be coming back for more?!
JS: 100% I will be back! With a few changes, or maybe even a different car… I’m hungry to come have a blast again!
JB: Thanks so much again Jamie! We can’t wait to see you giving the veterans a good battle at the next round!
