The Irish Drift Championship returned to the Mondello Park, the home of Irish Motorsport, for its season opener.
A familiar track layout with a challenging new line would create a difficult event for the drivers but an exciting event for the fans.
The cars would launch down the straight before initiating over the crest at clip 1.
Dropping down into the first corner and running out to a rear clip, this would be a challenge as the car would naturally try to continue downhill and off track.
Many drivers would get this wrong and end up in the wall, others would create a huge cloud of mud and dust as they pinned the throttle to get back across the track to clip 3.
The left handed hairpin contained clip 3 on the outside at the entry and clip 4 on the outside at the exit, this pushed the drivers to maintain a wide line, often running the rear wheel on the edge of the track.
Clip 5 was positioned on the inside of the track just before the finish line, the layout was well thought out, creating every opportunity for the chase car to close up on the lead car.
Unfortunately Saturday was very wet for the Semi-Pro class, this made the track even more difficult.
With nearly 100 drivers trying to qualify the pressure would be on to perform well, only 32 spaces in the battles would mean that more than half of this class would be heading home early.
At the end of the day it would be Niall Whelan in fouth, Darren Coates in third, Kevin Quinn in second and Anthony Galvin taking the top step of the podium.
The rain cleared for Sunday, a dry track and clear sky would give the Pro class a perfect day for drifting. The paddock had a car show accompanying todays action, the quality and variety of cars was impressive.
Morning practice gave the drivers a couple of runs to dial-in their cars before two qualifying runs.
Once qualifying began, the drivers were pushing hard to get a top 8 result. The Irish Drift Championship have changed the rules this year, the top 8 go straight through to the top 16, 9th through 24th will battle with the winner of each battle taking the remaining places.
The Sudden Death battles created tension as some drivers that were expected to get a top 8 spot would have to battle their way into the top 16, this included Luke Fink and Jack Shanahan.
This format puts more emphasis on qualifying and pushes the drivers of the Irish Drift Championship to another level.
After qualifying two lucky competition winners had their chance to have a passenger ride around the track, one with 2013 Queen of Europe Champion, Danielle Murphy, one with the 2010 Drift Allstars Champion Luke Fink.
The Top 16 drivers were then presented to the crowd and interviewed by David Egan ahead of their battles, roars from the crowd and stamping their feet in the grandstands got the drivers revved up and ready.
The top 8 battles would bring the two remaining international drivers together, Llouis Lopez and Luke Fink. An Irish driver has won every Irish Drift Championship event for the last 10 years, this streak looked set to continue.
Luke Fink would get through to the Top 4 after a OMT, the sound of these two V8 swapped S-bodies echoing around the circuit and they fought hard. He would go on to battle Nigel Colfer in the top 4, eventually spinning out on his lead run.
His day would end with Tomas Keily beating him to take third place on the podium.
James Deane was the star of the day, his consistent driving earning him a place in the final against Nigel Colfer. After a great battle James would stand on the top step of the podium, starting the season the same way he ended last season.
The Irish Drift Championship heads to Cork for Round 2 on the 6th/7th of June, for more information visit http://www.irishdriftchampionship.com.
