I’ve rated IDC as one of the best championships in the world for the last couple of seasons due to the way it is run and the level of driving, so was good to be back at Mondello Circuit for round 1 of the 2018 season.
To mix things up this weekend, and get a more diverse crowd, alongside the drifting there would be cars and drivers from different classes of the Irish Rallycross Championship. This meant there would be no Pro practice on Saturday pushing them to get as much practice as possible on Friday. I don’t know how much this was a factor, and how much was due to it being the first round, but the Pro driving on Friday was intense and set the tone for the whole weekend.
One thing definitely due to this being round 1 was teething trouble with cars . Shane O Sullivan was a victim to this with an unknown issue stopping his getting any seat time on Friday. It turned out to be an issue with the throttle body and the car was back in the pits on Saturday afternoon ready for Sunday.
One of the things that has always impressed me at IDC is the level of driving and car builds in the Pro-AM class and the weekend didn’t disappoint.
The paddock is dominated by JDM and BMWs but there are one or two surprises like 16 year old Jordan Boyce‘s awesome Ford Sierra
Get the first corner wrong at Mondello and you’ll be doing an impressive dirt drop
Mondello isn’t exactly known for the good weather but the Saturday was glorious and the crowd enjoyed some awesome driving in the sunshine
Neil Dunne took third spot leaving Lee Scott and Dean Crozier to fight it out for first place.
Lee took the top spot and championship points
Arriving on Sunday morning there was a noticeable change in the weather to something more familiar of Mondello.
Mondello can be brutal on the body kit but a cordless drive and zipties can be used to fix a multiple of things
Before the traditional top 16 drivers parade, David Egan took his new toy for a spin. The 700 bhp RTR Mustang looks and sounds awesome and appears to keep all 4 tyres on the tarmac. To hear a bit more about the car, and a lot of other random stuff on Irish drifting I recommend listening to the Drift Games podcasts
Jack Shanahan appeared to be taking a little while to get back to his winning form after making some changes to the car and missed out on a top 8 place in qualifying putting him into the top 24 battles.
He progressed through to the great 8 coming up against Duane McKeever.
We’ve already watched McKeever out drive everyone at BDC round 1, taking first place with only second gear working in the car, and he continued where he left off.
Baggsy was up against Mitch Larner in the top 16 and it was an awesome battle going to a OMT. The judges were left to decide using the smallest errors and Larner went on to the last 8. As more drivers come over to Ireland and get more seat time at Mondello I don’t think it’s going to be long before that Irish unbeaten streak is broken.
After the issues on Friday Shane O Sullivan put a 87 point second qualifying run putting him into the top 8 in 5th place and ended up going up against Chris Burnett who had also been driving well all day.
Shane knocked out Chris with an aggressive chase run and went on to battle Paul McCarthy which went to a OMT. McCarthy was first to chase in the OMT battle and give the crowd the door on door action they come to Mondello to see almost pushing Sully around the circuit. Shane also knocked his bumper lose on the first corner and that appeared to affect his run causing a couple of small errors. A good chase from Sully couldn’t match the speed and proximity of McCarthy
In another battle which went to a OMT both Mitch Larner and Alan Hynes drove aggressively pushing each to and past their limits. Larner’s experience helped him to the top 4 but Hynes is a driver to watch this season.
This round surpassed everyone’s expectations for the level of driving so the final was always going to be something special, Conor Shanahan and Duane McKeever didn’t let the fans down. Flat out, door on door and Conor putting in an awesome chase run with only 3 tyres on the rim. Duane took the win continuing his unbeaten run in all competitions in 2018.
IDC at Mondello is always something special but this round blew everyone away, the entire weekend delivering some of the best drifting I’ve seen. One of the things Dave Egan has supassed in is sorting out a world-class live stream, and it is a fantastic way to watch the events for anyone unable to be there in person, but if you haven’t attended a round at Mondello I really suggest you do all you can…sell body parts or family members if you have to…and make the trip. With a grandstand full of Irish fans and world-class drifting it’s a weekend you won’t forget.
Speaking of the live feed you can rewatch it at IDC Nation now
Round 2 is the weekend of the 26th & 27th of May at Dún Laoghaire Harbour, Dublin.