Drift Masters – Round 2, Mondello Park, Ireland
After the start of the season in sunshiny Spain, the time has come for the second round of European Drift Masters. The best drifters in Europe came to Ireland’s Mondello Park to compete on 15 and 16 June. The track, which is several dozen kilometres from Dublin, has hosted Drift Masters many a time, and local drivers know it very well. It is considered the capital of Irish drifting.
It is now almost traditional for the practice and qualifying to take place in the rain typical of the British Isles. This did not stop the drivers from delivering master-level thrills and shows. The qualifying session went to Irish James Deane, a seven-time European master and one of the finest drivers in the world. Poland’s Jakub Przygoński came in second in qualifying, followed by the current vice-champion of Europe, Lauri Heinonen. Another Pole, Paweł Korpuliński was nineteenth with 85.5 points, which goes to show how fierce the competition was and how minimal the differences between the drivers were.
The second day was blessed with much better weather. The track was dry, which certainly improved the show. The qualifying scores were so close that TOP 32 standings were truly worthy of finals, including such face-offs as Piotr Więcek vs Benediktas Cirba and Jack Shanahan vs Adam Zalewski.
On the first stage of the second day, Paweł Korpuliński competed with the winner of the first round of Drift Masters and the GC leader at that time, Kevin Pesur from Estonia. The Estonian made some mistakes in a fierce duel and had to accept defeat. Paweł’s next opponent in TOP 16 was Lauri Heinonen, who came in second in the first round of the cycle. After two exciting runs full of fender-hugging and detailed verification of the runs and arguments, the judges announced Paweł Korpuliński the winner with passage to the quarter-finals.
Another highly talented opponent of Paweł’s was Irish Duane Mckeever in TOP 8. After an even-matched duel and outstanding runs, Mckeever defeated Korpuliński. At the end of the day, Korpuliński was eighth, which is a great result. Duane Mckeever secured second place for the round behind James Dean, who won both the qualifying session and the round. Third place was Norway’s Orjan Nielsen’s.
The drivers leave Ireland with high spirits because it is less than three weeks to the next round of Drift Masters. It’s time to pack some warm clothes and head far north to Finland.
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