After Sweden acquired its personal spherical in 2022, Finland lastly made it onto the Drift Masters European Championship calendar for 2023. Huvivaltio PowerPark – the nation’s largest theme park – performed host to the offered out occasion final weekend, and it was an actual rollercoaster journey in additional methods than one.

Earlier than I delve into DMEC 2023’s third spherical, let’s recap on what occurred at Spherical 2. Piotr Więcek might have simply gained the primary spherical, however the Pole had a tricky time in Sweden, dipping out within the High 32. In the meantime, Juha Rintanen raced to the highest step of the rostrum.

I actually don’t know why Drift Masters took so lengthy to schedule a spherical at this venue. Huvivaltio PowerPark is house to the Mika Salo Circuit, an out of doors kart monitor designed by the F1 driver it’s named after. Whereas the backdrop is superb, the monitor format itself is tight and technical, and it caught quite a lot of drivers out over the weekend.

The wildcard Finnish drivers in attendance began robust with excessive qualifying scores, every consequence from the judges accompanied by a roar from the followers. The help for the locals was so stable that I’d evaluate it to an necessary soccer match.

However as soon as the Finnish wildcards handed and drivers from different nations took to the beginning line, the chants didn’t cease. It was nice to see and listen to the followers help for everybody. 

If the course wasn’t powerful sufficient, a torrential downpour throughout qualifying – which truly stopped play for some time – made it even harder.

Off the again of a spherical win at Formulation Drift Japan – on debut no much less – WRC world champion Kalle Rovanperä was on the lookout for an enormous lead to his homeland, however it didn’t go to plan. Kalle got here in very popular and hit the wall laborious in his first qualifying cross, dislocating a rear wheel. The workforce acquired the automobile repaired, however Kalle’s second qualifier was on a really moist monitor and he ended up putting thirty second.

As Kalle talked about in an interview, it’s okay to make a mistake on a rally stage the place you have got 300 turns and have a possibility to make up for misplaced time, however it’s very totally different on a brief drift course, the place you solely have 4 or 5 corners to impress the judges.

The thirty second spot consequence noticed him go up in opposition to the #1 qualifier within the first spherical of battles – Kalle’s Pink Bull teammate and buddy Conor Shanahan.

Kalle went robust, leaving nothing between his Supra and the Irishman’s 86 as he chased Jack down. A small shortcut within the lead was seen by the judges nonetheless, and an OMT battle was awarded. The second time round, Kalle was somewhat too courageous and hit Conor on the initiation. Regardless of that, the Irishman did proceed the run, so his win was deserved.

A lot drama, and this was simply the primary battle pairing!

Juha Rintanen, Lauri Heinonen, Mika Keski-Korpi and wildcard driver Jarkko Jylhä in probably the most lovely Toyota Chaser JZX100 ever seen in a European drift championship occasion, all beat their High 32 opponents to be greeted by greater than 8,000 followers through the High 16 parade.

Yet another Finnish driver, Ville Kaukonen, snuck into the parade, however he was there for a really totally different motive – to ask a woman to marry him. She stated sure! One other first for Drift Masters.

As I discussed earlier, Piotr Więcek didn’t have an important Spherical 2, and Spherical 3 didn’t go significantly better with mechanical points thwarting his progress. I’m positive he’s itching to get into his soon-be-finished new Supra.

Piotr misplaced to Diogo Correia, who made all of it the best way to the third step of the rostrum. It was a primary for him, and any Portuguese driver within the Drift Masters European Championship.

The 2 strongest Finnish drivers misplaced to the Shanahan brothers, Jack and Conor, within the High 8, bringing a little bit of disappointment to the fired-up crowd.

After a drama-filled day, the Shanahans met within the closing. I can’t imagine that Jack is just 23 years outdated, however extra in order that I photographed him drifting in a world competitors an entire 10 years in the past now!

Conor gained the tandem and the occasion, however the household went house with two new trophies and a weekend to recollect. The Pink Bull driver is at present sitting first within the DMEC 2023 driver standings, whereas Jack holds third spot.

With Spherical 3 within the books, the Drift Masters European Championship enters into the second half of its 2023 season with the Riga, Latvia spherical – a fan favourite – occurring in simply a few weeks. Given what we’ve simply seen, who is aware of what is going to occur there.

Vladimir Ljadov
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