Many people in the drift community will know the name Jack Shanahan, for those of you who dont he is a 15 year old drifter from Ireland. Over the past few years he has made a name for himself by competing against some of the best drifters in Europe. We decided to bring you a series of articles this week about Jack, starting with some background on how he got into drifting.
Racing has always been in the Shanahan blood with his parents being competitive racers for many years. Jack went to his first race meeting when he was only 2 weeks old and travelled the length and breath of Ireland and the UK with them racing. When Jack was just 4 years old his father taught him to drive a car with modified the pedals so he could reach them and a childs seat so he could see out of the windscreen. Those days of driving around a neighbours field soon turned to competitive hotrods, autograss and oval racing when he was 10.
Even though Jack was racing he loved to watch drifting and at Christmas 2011 his father gave in and bought the Nissan 180SX. Jacks icon, James Deane, lives nearby and was there to watch Jack and mentor him from the start. Over the Christmas period Jack had a few days of fun in the car and suprised everyone with great car control and ability for his age, at this point he was only 12.
His natural talent shone through and he started to attend more practice days like SuperDrift to gain more experiance. The ProDrift Championship was the next step but Jack was not able to compete until he turned 13. Once that day had passed Jack entered the penultimate round of the 2012 season where he suprised everyone including event promoter Graham McNamara. Graham was so impressed by this youngster that he arranged for Jack’s 180sx to run with a ProDrift livery for the rest of the year.
2013 would be a big year for Jack. The Irish Drift Championship replaced ProDrift and Jack competed for the full season finishing 1st in the Rookie Class and Semi-Pro Class, this would put him in the Professional class for the following year.
In April/May 2013 Niall Gunn from Drift Allstars approached Jack and invited him to compete at the first round of the Drift Allstars Championship in Poland. Jack went out there and proved he was a capable drifter against the best in Europe, qualifying 6th and finishing 5th, after being knocked out by the event winner.
Jack wanted to continue to compete in Europe so when the oppotunity came up he jumped at it. His drifting had caught the attention of Aerokit and Jack joined the Aerokit/Nexen team. It was this point where the Nissan 180SX stayed in Europe and the BM Nissan project began. This project initially started out as a practice car for Jack’s younger brother Conor who also races, but with the 180SX staying in Europe Jack took full ownership of this car for events in Ireland and have developed it into the car it is today.
Our next article will feature the 2014 season so keep an eye out for that soon! Thanks to Barbera Treacy for the photos, check out more of her work here – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Barberas-Photography-Babs-Pics/325377434236488