Irishman Conor Shanahan and Polish driver Piotr Wiecek both mastered the fast, difficult Bikernieki track in Latvia last weekend to triumph at Rounds 3 and 4 of the 2021 Drift Masters European Championship.
Here is all you need to know:
– The weekend started with 55 pilots from 19 countries out to impress following two race victories for Wiecek at Rounds 1 and 2 around the challenging PS Racing Center track in Greinbach, Austria.
– The rain on Friday afternoon made the drifting for the final races even more difficult and, out of seven Latvians, only Ivo Cīrulis qualified in the TOP 32 while Irishman James Deane excelled.
– Fortunately on Saturday the rain did not come on the decisive final races, which meant fast and eventful circuit battles after an amazing air show above the track was performed by The Flying Bulls.
– The Polish pilots shone on Saturday as they claimed three of the four semi-final places with Wiecek and Mikolaj Zakrzewski up against each other first – title leader Wiecek winning convincingly.
– In the second semi-final, there was an exciting fight between Pole Adam Zalewski and Shanahan with the Irishman victorious and Zalewski recovering to beat Zakrzewski for the third-place finish.
– During the final, the two drivers were able to follow each other very closely, however, in their next lap Wiecek made a small but significant mistake allowing Shanahan to secure his first 2021 race win.
– In Sunday qualification, the best performance was again by Deane while two Latvian drivers were able to enter the TOP 32 this time in the form of Jānis Jurka and Edmunds Bērziņ.
– The first Round 4 semi-final saw Deane agonisingly lose power a few metres before the finish when leading, which meant that Lithuanian Benediktas Cirba progressed through to the final race.
– Wiecek eased past Shanahan in the second semi-final, then Cirba made one crucial error in the final to hand the Pole his third win out of four 2021 rounds and a healthy 120-point title lead over Shanahan.
– The 2021 title finale will be across September 4-5 as the Georgian government will shut down the centre of capital city Tbilisi and turn the public streets into a thrilling track for one weekend only.