Budapest 6th of May 2014
For 10 years King of Europe has made its way throughout the European continent, appealing to millions of drift fans in dozens of countries, and even further extending to a global level thanks to the wide reach of the TV Channels that broadcast the series events each year. For 10 years King of Europe has continued to improve, to grow and to attract Europe’s finest drivers and most enthusiastic fans and future fans.
King of Europe has been fortunate enough to benefit from the amazing support coming from global renown companies, support which is stronger than ever for 2014: Monster Energy Drink, Federal Tires, Motul Lubricants, KW Suspensions, Dotz Tuning Wheels, Power Maxed Racing, Steel Seal Headgasket Fix, Recaro Automotive, Remus Innovation and MyWay Drift School.
Austria made its appearance in the King of Europe calendar for the first time back in 2013, and it was selected as the first round of the series. The PS Racing Center in Greinbach was the host of the event, and what a great event it was! Due to the high success it recorded at the time, it was decided that 2014 would start off in the same place. Drivers started pulling in as early as friday morning, and they were assuming positions in the large paddock of the PS Racing Center. A total of 10 pre-registered drivers wouldn’t eventually make it to the race, due to last moment mechanical failures, but still, the paddock was pretty crowded as it was.
A total of about 40 drivers made their way to Greinbach, coming from countries like: Hungary, Italy, France, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Germany, Romania, Israel, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, and Switzerland. While many of the leagues top drivers from the 2013 season were of course present at the race, there were also many new faces around, and as it would later prove, people that would be making a difference by the end of the race. After he attended two races as a driver back in 2013, and one as a judge, Monster Energy Athlete Steve Baggsy Biagioni came to Greinbach to compete in his SR powered Nissan RPS13. Baggsy will be teaming up with Dmitriy Illyuk for 2014, creating the Monster Energy Drift Team. Dmitriy Illyuk was of course present at the event, with a new SR-VET engine fitted to his car, pushing about 480 horsepower to the wheels. After many years behind the wheel of his M3 E46, Norbert Kovacik has decided it’s time for a change, and so he showed up with his BMW M6, a car which has been ocasionally drifting in since 2012, when it was still featuring an automatic transmissions. For 2014 the car has been fitted with a manual transmission, it has undergone a serious weight loss, and it seems that it might soon receive an extra power boost, by the form of a supercharger. A new competition car for Rene Alexander as well, who made the switch to an impressive BMW M3 E92, fitted, quite unexpectedly, with a Toyota Supra 2JZ-GTE engine, developing more than 600 horsepower. Sticking to slovak drifters, Roman Kolesar hasn’t done much to his M3 E46 in the off-season, but rumours have it that he will soon be switching to a V10 engine, and that it will not be N/A. Alexander Grinchuk also travelled in from Ukraine, in his Turbocharged Nissan 350Z. Alex noted that it was his long time plan to compete in King of Europe, and he was extremely happy to finally make it to the race in Austria. There was a large italian squad attending the event, with Salvatore Pignanelli, Luca Lodi, Diego Nalluci, Cristian Martelli, Davide Busi, Emanuele Vacca, Massimo Checchin, Stefano Alessandri and Cannarozzo joining Francesco Conti, Amerigo Monteverde and Nicolo Rosso. Among the squad that came from Germany was also the very promising Patrick Ritzmann in his 2JZ powered BMW E46 GTR. Christian Lewis and Matt Campling also drove in from the UK, in their two Nissans, a RB powered R33 and a JZ powered RPS13. While Rupert Schachinger brought his Turbocharged Mazda RX8, the other local Austrian hero, Alois Pamper came with a highly upgraded BMW E36, now featuring a wide bodykit, and a supercharger capable of taking the horsepower output to about 630. 2009 and 2012 Champion Adam Kerenyi, came in his trusty BMW E36, which was rated last year at more than 600 horsepower, but rumours have it that the car will probably be upgraded to about 1000 horsepower later on in the year. Adding to the hungarian line-up were Nikolett Szanto in her Supercharged LS powered BMW E46 and Arpad Enekes in another LS powered drift car, his carbon-fiber Ford Mustang, which might just be turbocharged by the end of the year for extra added power. French drifter Benjamin Boulbes, who is also the 2013 European Vice-champion has brought forth the same E36 he’s been campaigning for a couple of years now, but now with an extremely impressive LSX engine under the hood, which means more than 600 horsepower at hand. Long time King of Europe drivers Adam Frank and Calin Ciortan were both back with the same cars, now featuring some upgrades in comparisson to the previous season. Last but not least, Karolina Pilarczyk was the second female driver at the event, with her pink Silvette in which she became Queen of Europe ViceChampion in 2013.
After scrutineering on Friday, it was time for Practice and Qualifying on Saturday. While the weather forecast indicated everything to be just fine, the reality at the race track was quite different. Heavy rain fell on the small city of Greinbach, and drivers were struggling, especially in the high-speed first section of the track. Thus, the decision was made that , for the first time in King of Europe history, the qualifying session would be cancelled, only to have it start over again early Sunday morning, hopefully in better track and atmospheric conditions. And indeed, things were much better on Sunday, and the track was looking almost as it did in 2013.
Qualifying went extremelly well and extremely fast by all standards, even with the quite high number of drivers attending the race. The use of telemetry was once again extremely useful, as the top drivers were very close to each-other in terms of results. Running on Federal Tires, Adam Kerenyi showed an impressive display of skill and commitment out on the track, as he took the number 1 spot in qualifying, with a total of 90,83 points. Francesco Conti, running a very similar setup as he did in 2013, came in 2nd, with a total of 89,91 points. Benjamin Boulbes was 3rd, and it already seems like these three will once again be fighting for the podium in 2014. Amerigo Monteverde, who is also Francesco’s team-mate, finished the qualifying session in 4th place, one of his best qualifying results so far. Another italian in 5th, Salvatore Pignanelli, who had given up his old Impreza in favor of a BMW E36. Alexander Grinchuk was 6th after qualifying, with Steve Biagioni right on his tails, in 7th. German driver Patrick Ritzmann had a very good run himself, which put him in 8th place, right above Calin Ciortan and Adam Frank. Norbert Kovacik seemed to be a bit slower in the big M6, and so he had to settle for 11th place overall, rigth in front of local austrian hero Alois Pamper. Unexpected result from Dmitriy Illyuk and Nicolo Rosso, who can usually be seen inside Top10 during qualifying, but now they were down in 13th and 20th place respectively. Both Karolina Pilarczyk and Nikolett Szanto made it to Top32, with Karolina finishing qualifying in 21st place, leaving Nikolett down in 25th. Dissapointing performance by Roman Kolesar in the qualifying session, seemingly because of additional engine issues, leaving him in 29th. Stefano Alessandri was the last driver to make it to Top32, a fairly good result judging by the fact that he’s been out of competitive drifting for more than 1 year now.
As the telemetry system gives the drivers detailed insights about their driving, the following info can be observed by reading the Telemetry Sheets: Francesco Conti had the Best Attack Speed of the qualifying session, with an entry speed of 110kph going into corner one. Adam Kerenyi was not far behind, with a recorded 109kph, while Calin Ciortan was clocked at 108kph. Conti also had the Best Average Angle in qualifying, 35 degrees, higher than the 34 degrees recorded by Adam Kerenyi, Calin Ciortan and Amerigo Monteverde. It came almost natural that the driver that won the Angle Attack Challenge in 2013 also recorded the Best Attack Angle in qualifying. Nicolo Rosso, now driving a slightly upgraded machine had gotten 36 degrees of angle. Adam Kerenyi won the Best Average Speed (95kph) and Best Show rankings while Benjamin Boulbes took the highest score for Best Line.
After the qualifying session was over, it was time for tandem practice. Shortly after, Top32 was in action, much to the satisfaction of the thousands of people that showed up to see the event with their own eyes. As from 2014, the judging pannel is made up of Franck Blanchard, who has accumulated a large experience over the almost 10 years of attending the King of Europe events and of judging in the Queen of Europe and Street Legal Leagues; Stathis Papargiropoulos, a highly skilled drifter, drift event organiser and long time fan favourite in his home country of Greece, and last but not least, Julian Smith from Ireland, who also has a vast experience in both judging and competing at drift event over the past decade.
The first battle of the weekend was fought between Stefano Alessandri from Italy and Adam Kerenyi from Hungary. Running on Federal Tires, and with more than 600 horsepower on tap , on a pretty much lightweight machine, and with considerably more sideways experience, Adam Kerenyi definitely had a big advantage from the very beginning. 9-1 in the first run for Adam, and there was nothing left for Alessandri to do, thus leaving him out of the race early in the game. Surprising performance from italian driver Martelli, who quickly took out Arpad Enekes, even though Arpad was probably running double the power under the hood of the Mustang. Nikolett Szanto, struggling with a faulty transmission, couldn’t do much against Ritzmanns agressive driving, and the german driver was through to the Top16. Swiss driver Florian Zimmerman, driving the same Supercharged V8 powered Audi he’s been driving in 2013 as well, went up the AMG powered Nissan S14 driven by Calin Ciortan. The romanian only needed 2 runs to win this battle, and he was also moving on to Top16. Amerigo Monteverde and Roman Kolesar, both running similar cars, supercharged BMW M3s E46, fought the most balanced tandem in Top32, and the only one to require an One More Time to be decided. After a total of 4 runs, Roman Kolesar won by just 1 point of difference, pushing the italian out of the game at a very early stage. A very entertaining battle of Top32 was also that between Nicolo Rosso and Dmitriy Illyuk. Both drivers gave it their best, and it was fascinating to see them push their SR machines to the limit. After 2 runs, Dmitriy was deemed to be the winner, leaving Nicolo dissapointed not to make it further up the ladder, but happy to have had such an amazing battle with one of Europe’s finest. While Pignanelli took out Busi in just 2 runs, Karolina Pilarczyk automatically advanced to Top16, as Alois Pamper suffered a car malfunction, leaving his austrian fans extremely dissapointed. Benjamin Boulbes and Diego Nalluci went on to easy victories in their battle against Luca Lodi and Oliver Appel, while Kovacik also got a bye to Top16. Grinchuk and Schachinger fought in a battle of two pretty rare drift cars, a Turbocharged 350Z and a Turbocharged RX8. Grinchuk won both battles, and he was on to Top16. Baggsy quickly moved past the RB powered RPS13 of Sascha Groell, and so did Conti in his final battle of the Top32. Italian driver Massimo Checchin was left out of the race, after being defeated by Adam Frank , 8-2, 5-5. Last but not least, Christian Lewis would have a quick end of the weekend, after loosing to Manuel Vacca by just 1 point of difference.
On to Top16, it looked like Adam Kerenyi was going all out. Even though he had an unfortunate experience in Greinbach 2013, where he crashed in corner 1, he was pushing his car to the limit, and so there was nothing left for Martelli to do in this first battle of Top16. One of the most disputed battles of the weekend was that between Patrick Ritzmann and Calin Ciortan. Patrick, a new comer to King of Europe, but definitely a highly experience driver, pitched his 700 horsepower BMW M3 E46 against Calin’s 500 horsepower Nissan S14. Their were tied 5-5 after the first two runs, and the crowd was going wild. High speeds, crazy smoke trails and door-to-door action, made the audience and judges to ask for an One More Time, which was still not going to be enough to determine a winner. Eventually, it all ended up in Sudden Death, where Ritzmann made a crucial mistake, opening Calins path to Top8. Monster Energy athlete Dmitriy Illyuk got a somewhat easy win against Roman Kolesar, as the slovak driven BMW suffered a mechanical failure, putting him out of the race after just one run. Karolina Pilarczyk would loose to Salvatore Pignanelli , 7-3 in both runs. Steady but sure, Benjamin Boulbes also opened his way to Top8, after defeating a very ambitious Diego Nalucci. Two difficult battles up next. In a battle of the energy drinks, Alexander Grinchuk lost against Norbert Kovacik after a total of 4 runs. Steve Biagioni and Adam Frank. Two very different cars, with two very different drivers, but with both posessing a huge will to win, and to put on a fabulous show for the audience. Of course, two runs were not enough to establish the winner, so One More Time was called for. Both cars featuring Anti-lag, with Baggsy using his SR powered Nissan RPS13 and with Adam driving the JZ powered BMW E46, the sound at the start line as they revved up their engine was something to be considered earth shaking. Just a few meters after the start line, disaster struck for the Team Cartu Drifting driver, as his engine wouldn’t rev higher than 4.000 RPM. 10-0 for Baggsy, and Adam was back to the pits to have the car checked within the 5 minutes allowed by the rules. Nothing much could be done, as it looked like the problem came from the ECU, but still he decided to give it a try. The same thing happened again, and Baggsy was moving on to Top8. But probably one of the most shocking results of the weekend was just about to follow, as Francesco Conti went up against his fellow italian driver Manuel Vacca. 7-3 for Conti in the first run, and it looked like he was going to face Baggsy in the Top8. But that didn’t happen. Because Conti made a totally unexpected mistake, which saw him receiving 0 points from the judges, thus taking him out of the race earlier than ever before.
Advancing to Top8, of course the situation was becoming more and more complicated. Long time arch-rivals, Adam Kerenyi and Calin Ciortan were up against each other again, and Kerenyi was definitely looking to avenge his loss in Slovakiaring 2013. After two runs, Calin was out of the race, and Adam was on to the Top4. Pignanelli was looking quite ambitious, and even though he got a 5-5 in the first run against Dmitriy Illyuk, the Ukrainian champion quickly turned the situation to his favor, by winning 7-3. Kovaciks weekend would come to an end in Top8, after loosing against Boulbi, who looked like he had already gotten used to his LSX engine. In the last battle of the Top8, Baggsy took out Manuel Vacca, and the fans were left thinking of how a battle between Baggsy and Conti would have gone.
Advancing to the semifinals, 3 Monster Energy Drivers were still fighting to win the race, and the first battle would see Adam Kerenyi take on Dmitriy Illyuk. Both very ambitious and highly skilled drivers, with two really well built cars. The battle went on to an One More Time, where Kerenyi got a 7-3 in the first run, leaving Dmitriy hoping for the 4th run of the battle. But Dmitriy suffered the same fate as he did in 2013, with his engine getting totaled. In the other semifinal, Baggsy won both runs against Benjamin Boulbes, and it looked like it was going to be an all out Monster Energy battle. While Boulbi took 3rd , as Dmitriy was unable to compete any longer, Kerenyi continued along the line of his qualifying session, and won both runs against Baggsy in the final, once again putting him on top of the game, and creating new hope for a third european title.
The Dotz Speed Attack Challenge has been won by Francesco Conti, judging by his highest speed recorded in the qualifying session. The Federal Tyres ProSeries Cup has of course been won by Adam Kerenyi, with Norbert Kovacik in 2nd and Francesco Conti in 3rd. Adam Kerenyi also won the Motul Tech Challenge. Steve Biagioni won the MyWay ProSeries Rookie Cup, and together with Dmitriy Illyuk he also won the Round 1 Team Challenge.
Round 2, scheduled to take place in Italy is just a couple of days away, and it will be interesting to see how the overall rankings will be changed by the end of the weekend.
More info and photos from round 1 can be seen on the official King of Europe Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/koedrift
Stay tuned for the Official King of Europe Event Videos and TV Show, which will be broadcasted through all of our partner channels, covering more than 72 million people worldwide.
Also, be sure to follow all of our official Series partners:
MonsterEnergy: http://www.monsterenergy.com
Federal Tyres: http://www.federalcorporation.com/en/
Dotz Tuning Wheels: http://www.dotzmag.com
Motul Lubricants: http://www.motul.com
KW Suspensions: http://www.kw-suspensions.eu
Power Maxed: http://www.powermaxedracing.com/
Steel Seal: http://www.steelseal.co.uk
Recaro Automotive : https://www.recaro-automotive.com/
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