It’s amazing to think that King of Europe is already celebrating 10 years of existence, and it’s equally as amazing to think that the 10th anniversary season is already coming to an end, after finishing Round 6 in Tokol Airport this past weekend.
All the top drivers in the ProSeries were aware of the fact that the moment when the King will be crowned is not far, and that they’d have to do their best in order to further secure their positions on top of the rankings. Tokol Airport has been, for many years, an important venue for drifting in Eastern Europe, thanks to the generous surface available and the multiple layouts that
could be configured for competition.
With perfect atmospheric conditions at the venue, thousands of fans came in to see the qualifying on Saturday, and cheer for their favorite local drivers and even for the drivers coming from outside of Hungary. Norbert Kovacik seems to be doing better and better behind the wheel of the rather heavy BMW M6, as he managed to get 1st place in qualifying, just in front of Adam Kerenyi who came in second. For the second consecutive weekend, 3rd place in qualifying went to Adam Frank, who’s car was running with no mechanical issues whatsoever, a pretty rare sight for him this year. Back after missing out on Round 5, Amerigo Monteverde stormed the Tokol layout with his 600+ horsepower Supercharged M3 E46, and took 4th place in qualifying, just slightly
ahead of his team mate, Francesco Conti. With Calin Ciortan in 6th, Nikolett Szanto in 7th and Benjamin Boulbes in 8th, the Hungarian fans were happy to see two more local drivers inside Top10: Zsolt Grozinger, who is a veteran in King of Europe, and Zango Zoltan. Everyone knew the track was going to be pretty fast, so it did not come as a shock when Francesco Conti got the
highest entry speed of 140kph, making for an impressive initiation , similar to the one at Lydden Hill this year.
While Adam Frank has been struggling with technical issues all year long, everything worked out just fine for him at Round 6 in Tokol. But not the same thing can be said about all the other top drivers in the series. Adam Kerenyi suffered an engine failure right before the beginning of Top32. Nicolo Rosso damaged his engine in the qualifying session on Saturday, and things weren’t looking very good for him, while Francesco Conti’s E92 was running on 7 pistons instead of 8, with a high risk of compromising the engine in case of continous exploitation. Still, Francesco decided to take the risk, and he went out against Ramona Rusu in Top32. Even though he won the first battle 9-1, just after the finish line everyone realized that his racing weekend was over, with smoke coming out of his engine, and the car needing assistance to return to the paddock. Nicolo Rosso was also handicapped from the very beginning, and Steve Biagioni advanced directly to the Top8, seeing that Adam Kerenyi was unable to compete anymore. Some really impressive battles were fought along the way during Top32, but eventually 4 drivers would make it to the semifinals.
Adam Frank, for the second time this year in this position, after taking out 3 drivers, including Calin Ciortan. Zsolt Grozinger , after a very difficult mission of eliminating Benjamin Boulbes and Norbert Kovacik. Steve Biagioni, after a close Sudden Death call with Nikolett Szanto and Nagy Robert who took out Karolina Pilarczyk, Ramona Rusu and Amerigo Monteverde. By the end of the
day, Monster Energy Athlete Steve Biagioni would finish the race in 3rd place overall, further increasing his chances at the title this year, Zsolt Grozinger finished 2nd and Adam Frank of Team Cartu Drifting claimed his first ever King of Europe victory, after almost 2 years of driving for the Team, and a total of 5 years since his first race in the series.
Adam Kerenyi is still leading the overall rankings, but there are some slight changes behind him. Benjamin Boulbes has moved to 2nd place, pushing Conti back to 3rd. Steve Biagioni is 4th overall, with Adam Frank and Norbert Kovacik extremely close behind! In the Team Rankings, Drift Dream Team has extended their lead over Dotz Drift Team, to a total of 51 points in difference.
Benjamin Boulbes is an undisputed leader of the Motul Tech Challenge, while Steve Biagioni is in the same position in the MyWay ProSeries Rookies Cup. In the Federal Tyres ProSeries Cup Adam Kerenyi is leading the rankings, with Francesco Conti down in 2nd.
Round 7 and Round 8, which is the Final ProSeries Round of 2014, will be held in September, in Bordeaux, France and Valencia, Spain. As the race for the title goes on, it is still difficult to predict who will be on the podium by the end of the year, but be sure to stay tuned to all Official King of Europe channels for more details coming your way!