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Drifting Away! R
Corporal Ryan Cooper is an Instructor at the Aerial Erector School at Digby and an ‘It’s a DRIFTlife’ Semi-Professional Driver in the British Drift Championship. Known as Coops by most, he’s married to Emma with 2 young children – Oscar and Lucinda – and also has a Dalmatian called Tallulah.
yan has been a petrol head since he can remember and as a youngster would salvage lawn mowers or
old motorbikes out of skips and strip them down, repair them and modify them. This led to some crazy exhaust systems on rusty lawnmowers. After completing his GCSE’s at North Hykeham School, he started an apprenticeship as a technician at a Nissan main dealer. But joining the RAF was always an ambition; his father had served for a number of years in the RAF and Ryan decided at a young age that signing up would be something that he would love to do. After completing his apprenticeship it felt like the ideal time to join, he had all the skills needed for his hobby and a trade in which to return to in later life if he left the RAF.
After completing Basic and Trade Training as an Aerial Erector and being posted to RAF Leeming and then on to complete numerous tasks around Europe, Ryan found himself on his first tour of Afghanistan installing 10KM of fibre optics, followed swiftly by a tour in the Falkland Islands. However, cars and all things with an engine remained a big part of his life and he was heavily involved with the RAF Leeming Kart
club and motor club as well as repairing friends’ cars in his spare time.
Ryan was then posted on to 1 Sqn TCW as part of 90SU; this is where his interest in drifting grew. After going to watch a round of the British Drift Championship he knew instantly this was something for him. His own Nissan 350z was worth too much money to learn to drift in, and so he decided to sell it and buy something he could build into a ‘drift monster’. After spending some time searching for the exact car he wanted, the Nissan Skyline R33 GTST in white was the vehicle of choice.
Within hours of owning the car Ryan was pulling the engine out to make way for the modifications. What started out as a modest build to get on to the track quickly turned into a huge rebuild. Once complete, he began to attend various practice days, soon at a standard where he could start entering small competitions. After a year of competitive drifting at a local level he decided to attend a licensing day for the British Drift Championship at Teesside Autodrome. At a licensing day you are judged to see if you meet the standard required to compete in the championship. Although the track was flooded with water and it rained constantly, he managed to impress the judges and was offered his BDC License.
Looking forward to his first year in the BDC, within a week of the licensing day he was informed that he would again be deploying to Afghanistan from the end of March until the middle of August. This meant he would miss the entire season! However, whilst on tour in Afghanistan he began talking to BDC Super Pro driver Christian Lewis over the internet about all things ‘drifting’ and, after returning safely to the UK, this led to an invitation to join Christian’s ‘It’s a DRIFTlife’ Team. Overjoyed, Ryan attempted to hide his excitement but swiftly accepted the offer! The first job was to take his R33 GTST to ‘It’s a
16 Envoy Autumn 2014
DRIFTlife’ workshop for the team to prepare it for the 2014 season. The car was stripped to a bare shell in a couple of evenings and then sent away for a full weld in cage before a full re-spray in team colours, Tiffany Blue.
The RAF Sports Lottery Board was contacted and generously offered to pay for his entry fees for the season. This helped greatly as competitive drifting is like most motorsports – it costs a fortune. The assistance given to him by all the team sponsors is greatly appreciated and allows him to compete at National level.
His first outing with the Team came at Lydden Hill in Kent. The team’s support crew and families helped load the race bus with all the tools and equipment and loaded the cars onto the trailers ready for a convoy down to the circuit. This is where the excitement really began to build, with everyone rushing around full of excitement for the weekend of action ahead.
Ryan’s family are his world and being able to include the people he loves with what he loves doing is great. They all get excited, and each round is like a small family holiday. Being so well supported from both the side line and in the pits ensuring he keeps well fed and hydrated and assisted in the preparation needed before each event.
Each event is 2 days. The first day is practise and qualifying and the second day the
www.raf-ff.org.uk
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