Irish Drift Championship Round 1 - a new era

Last Sunday was the first round of the 2017 Irish Drift Championship, held, like most IDC events, at Mondello Park in Co. Kildare. I was there, at least for some of it, since it’s a three hour journey to get there for me, but I saw most/some of the important stuff.

The headline news from the day before, which is when the Pro-Am (known as Semi-Pro in previous years) drivers compete, was that 13 year old Conor Shanahan, Jack Shanahan’s younger brother, and the guy you might remember from the Grand Tour when he absolutely destroyed Richard Hammond, had won. Second place was John Shine, third place went to 15 year old Ryan Caldwell, and fourth to Chris Burnett.

Why am I telling you this, you ask? Well, it’s simple. The top four in each event get to compete in the Pro category the next day.

I missed qualifying on Sunday, since I couldn’t really be bothered to leave my house before 10:00, but from what I heard, it was pretty interesting. Reigning champion Duane McKeever failed to qualify, but there was no problem for the aforementioned Jack Shanahan - with a score of 98.00, he topped qualifying.

In the 14 years that the Irish Drift Championship has been run, nobody from outside the island of Ireland has ever won. Considering that at each event the organisers bring someone in to try and finally do it, that is no small feat. Drivers in the past have included Forrest Wang, Daigo Saito, Luke Fink and Piotr Wieçek, but for this event, Australian Mitch Larner was brought in. Along with him, he brought a V8, which he stuffed in a Westlake Tires S13 about a week before the event started.

He instantly acclimatised to the circuit, landing himself a top 8 qualifying spot and therefore a guaranteed place in the top 16.

Three of the Pro-Am top 4, Conor Shanahan, Ryan Caldwell and Chris Burnett, also made it through to the top 24.

A few cars from Pro-Am that hadn’t made it into the entry list for Sunday were still sitting about in the paddock, such as this incredible E30 sandwiched between two vans in the back corner. A look at the results afterwards told me it was only one spot off making it into the main event.

The top 24 took no prisoners, with Mike Fitz and Adrian Walsh (in a V8 AE86, no less), Brendan Stone and Richard Bradley all being dropped.

Drift Games

For the 2017 season, the IDC decided to bring in a little mini event called Drift Games. Fans could choose from 360 entry, backwards entry, drift parking and other similarly crazy and awesome stunts, and then some of the drivers would compete to see who could do it best.

However, since this was right before the top 16, it was only Pro-Am drivers that decided to have a go, although there were still an awful lot of hopeful, perhaps a little stupid, competitors. The stunt chosen was 360 entry and, as you can imagine, it was pretty hilarious.

This little Starlet was easily the best at the 360, since it’s wheelbase was like a foot shorter than anything else there, but on both attempts the driver then spun in the actual drift bit afterwards, much to everyone’s disappointment.

There was an orange what-looked-like-a S14 that pulled off a flawless 360 and was doing pretty well in the drift as well, but it initiated too early, went over the inside grass, and then spun on the exit.

Then there was the purple S14.

Whoever was driving it had the bright idea of doing a 720, just for the hell of it. What was even more surprising was that he actually pulled it off. And then he did a 1080. He pulled it off as well. I have never seen anything like it.

Apart from those three, and possibly Alan O’Neill with his slightly clunky go at it during which he nearly stopped, everyone else was a bit rubbish. Only one person ended up in the gravel, which was a surprise, but plenty couldn’t even do the 360. Either they just did a 180, or as in the case of one person, drove halfway into the corner before actually doing anything. And then he did it again. Let’s just say he wasn’t very successful.

Top 16

Then, finally, it was time for the top 16.

Just like the top 24, there were once again many high profile drivers who went out at this stage. Nigel Colfer, Steve ‘Baggsy’ Biagioni, Shane O’Sullivan were all taken out, as well as a certain man from Australia. Yup, Mitch Larner was put out. He led on his first run, and came away from that with a pretty good advantage, but then he ruined it on his chase run by going very nearly completely off the track.

The top 8 was where things got really interesting. Anthony Galvin, who last year had been a bit of a nobody, made it through. So to, incredibly, did Conor Shanahan. Of course Jack got through as well - he was miles ahead of anyone else on every single run. And then there was Gary Dunne, who I had never heard of and everyone pretty much ignored. I don’t know where he came from, but he got there.

Who was put out? Ryan Caldwell, after messy runs in both the top 16 and top 8, as well as Tomás Kiely, Peden Nielsen and Paul Conlan.

Top 4

The top 4 saw the two Shanahan brothers going head to head and, although Conor was good, he was no match for his brother, in angle or speed. But hey, he did better than I could have done at 13. And very likely better than you could have done at 13.

Anthony Galvin took on Gary Dunne, and won. I would say a bit more about that battle but I can’t remember anything about it so I can’t.

Conor Shanahan managed to defeat Gary Dunne in the battle for the final podium spot, and in the process gained his IDC Pro licence. But all eyes were on Jack Shanahan and Anthony Galvin. Even before Galvin’s mistake, Shanahan had the advantage, so it was really no surprise that the win went to Jack Shanahan.

Thanks for reading my admittedly pretty amateur coverage of the Irish Drift Championship Round 1 :) tickets have been sold out for round two, but I am definitely planning to be at rounds 3 and 5, which will also be held at Mondello Park. So look forward to that, or don’t, whatever.

Oh yeah, and one more thing: #blogpost :)