Published: 29/07/2009
Outside Wembley Stadium was the location, and it was the perfect setting for some "Street Drift" action, and this event had attracted some top names, including Paul Vlassbom, Remmo Niezen and all the way from Australia was Robbie Bolger. The line-up also included 13-year-old Dwain McKeever, who was sure to turn a few heads.

Mark had to qualify, as he has not competed in the JDM Championship this year, but comfortably went through to the Top 32, qualifying 8th, with a score of 86pts.

A new addition to JDM Allstars was the introduction of the Super Lap. This meant that all drivers had to complete one lap, with no warm-up, to see who they were to be paired with in the Top 32. Drivers were scored out of 100, and Mark managed to get 76pts, and was placed against Brad McQueen.

The first run saw Mark make a slight mistake, giving Brad the advantage and a score of 6-4. In the second run, Mark managed to claw back the difference by driving superbly, though his opponent did put up a brave fight. Mark took the run 6-4, which meant both drivers had to run two more laps.

Their first run saw both drivers narrowly missing the clipping point of the wall, with McQueen slightly closer, and as a result took the first run 6-4. However, in the second run, with both drivers pushing harder, McQueen made a fatal error and pushed the back of his car into the wall, resulting in the loss of his rear bumper. This mistake gave Mark the advantage with a score of 7-3, and he progressed through to the Top 16.

This time, Mark was up against former EDC competitor Ben Broke-Smith. These two have been driving against each other for years, and this was quite evident in the first run, as both had a perfect lap and scored 5-5. Mark led the next run and repeated his previous performance, pushing more speed and pulling a gap by at least a car length to Bon by the final corner. Mark took the run 6-4 and was through to the Top 8.

Mark faced a current EDC driver, this time in the guise of Pete Barber. Pete led first run, with Mark chasing hard but Mark went offline and lost ground slightly giving Pete the advantage. Pete scored 6-4. Runs two saw Pete trying to capitalise on his advantage but he couldn’t match Mark’s pace and lost ground. Mark was awarded 6-4, which forced two more laps.

Mark led the first run of Sudden Death and ran well, but understeered over the jump at turn three giving the advantage to Pete, Pete led the final run and was good but Mark closed in and matched Pete perfectly. Due to Marks earlier mistake, Pete won the battle with scores of 7-3 and 6-4.

Mark managed to finish the event in 6th place, which was a fantastic achievement considering the calibre of driving on display.