Round 5 of the 2016 Irish Drift Championship returned to Mondello Park, the home of Irish Motorsport. The final event of the season is always highly anticipated but this year was no different with the championship still undecided.
Adding to the event was the large number of visiting drivers for this round, several of the British Drift Championship drivers had made it across now that their championship had ended for the season. They wouldn’t be the only visitors with well-known DJ Dany Neville making the trip over from Dubai and Naoki Nakamura coming over from Japan to drive the Low Brain Drifters Odvia.
The Semi-Pro class took to the track on Saturday morning for their practice session with a wet track awaiting them.
It got worse as they started the qualifying session where William Rose would show his skilful driving taking the top spot again.
In the afternoons battles David Garvey would have a good run against UK competitor, Ben Manual. David would continue through to the next stage of the battles after a few mistakes from Ben resulting in some contact between the two cars.
William Rose was continuing his good form as he knocked Stuart Gilmour out of competition, Stuart just couldn’t shake William on his lead run giving William the advantage and putting him through to the Great 8.
A battle of the youngsters happened in the Top 16 where Conor Shanahan and Lee Scott would line up against each other. Conor stuck to Lee’s door throughout his chase run putting on the pressure and forcing a mistake from Lee handing him the win.
The first semi final battle would be between Kieran Kasey and Mark McBurney, contact between the cars on the first run would see Kieran Kasey heading back to the pits with damage and unable to complete the battle putting Mark McBurney through to the final.
William Rose and Conor Shanahan lined up next for the remaining place in the final, a close battle followed but a straighten from William Rose on his lead run handed the advantage to Conor. They swapped over and this time around both drivers made errors but it was decided that Conor had done enough to go through to the final.
Kieran Kasey made it back out to the startline to line up against William Rose for third place, this was a really close battle with both drivers making mistakes on their lead runs. The judges chose in favour of William Rose.
The final battle saw Mark McBurney lead in Conor Shanahan, a great run saw him keep a small gap to Conor all the way through the run. They swapped over and Mark kept it pinned to Conor’s door earning himself the win.
Sunday and the Pro class took to the track with the weather in their favour.
During the qualifying session Jack Shanahan would retire with a mechanical issue ending his championship hopes.
Duane Mckeever used his second qualifying lap to celebrate his championship win by smoking out Mondello Park, his run scored a massive 98.4 points with a mid corner drift speed of 107KPH.
The clouds opened as the battles started making it difficult for the drivers to know how much grip there would be as they entered at high speed. Tomas Kiely would win his first battle of the day against Adrian Walsh after he straightened on his chase run.
Tomas wouldn’t make it much further through the battles as the champion, Duane Mckeever, would be his next battler. Tomas made a mistake causing contact between the two and handing the win to Duane.
Duane Mckeever then lined up against Nigel Colfer, he would earn his place in the final after an aggressive chase run that saw him diving onto Nigel’s door several times around the track.
The remaining place in the final would be fought over by Shane O’Sullivan and Richard Bradley, Shane span whilst chasing handing a huge advantage away after their first run. It was too much to overcome as they swapped over putting Richard through to the final.
Shane O’Sullivan would return to the start line to take on Nigel Colfer for third place. Nigel had the better runs as he kept good proximity on his chase run whilst maintaining a small gap as he led around the track. The judges would reward him with third place on the podium.
The final battle saw newly crowned champion, Duane McKeever line up against Richard Bradley. Duane led first with Richard pushing him around the track, diving up to his door at every opportunity. They swapped and Duane chased as hard as he could putting the pressure on Richard who would make contact with the wall and putting an end to his run and handing the win to Duane.
