Publicity photo
With full grandstands and exciting battles, the “Drift Masters” European Championship stage “Drift King of Riga 2023” was held on the Biķernieki circuit on the last weekend of July. Irishman Jack Shanehan won the intense final tandem, second place went to Latvian pilot Nikolas Bertāns, while his compatriot Juha Rintanen pleased the large number of Finnish fans with the third place.
The “Drift Masters” European Championship visited Riga for the seventh year, this time also providing a grandiose show. The fourth stage of the season brought together the strongest drifters from both Europe and the Baltics, with a total of 56 participants from more than 20 countries. Among them was the Irishman James Dean, who is considered the strongest drift pilot in the world, as well as the Japanese drift legend Naoki Nakamura. Latvia was represented in the “Drift King of Riga 2023” competition this time by five pilots – Nikolas Bertāns, Edgars Kroģeris, Reinis Ozoliņš, Kristians Burkovs and Jānis Bērziņš.
Photo: Olafs Ezertēvs, Maximum attack Photo
Throughout Friday, training sessions took place in the special “Drift Masters” configuration of the Biķernieki track, allowing drivers to properly prepare for Saturday’s qualification. Although there were both dry and wet conditions during practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, the important qualifying sessions on Saturday evening were held on a dry track. Unsuccessful qualification turned out for the Latvian pilots, because out of five drivers, only Bertāns qualified for the TOP32 final races, showing the 32nd result. This meant that in Sunday’s finals, he was immediately confronted by Pyotr Vieceks, the winner of the qualification and last year’s champion, in the first tandem round. The leader of the general standings, Irishman Conor Shanehan, finished second in the qualification, while the third result went to Estonian Kevin Pesur.
Sunday morning’s training runs were conducted on a completely dry track, however, just before the final races, rain fell on the Biķernieki track, making the track very slippery. On the one hand, the wet track robbed both drivers and spectators of speed and smoke, on the other hand, these conditions brought not a single surprise and drama. The first surprise followed already in the first TOP32 tandem, when the Latvian hope Bertāns beat the Pole Vieceks, who made a big mistake in the challenging conditions and paid dearly for it, withdrawing already in the TOP32 round.
Photo: Olafs Ezertēvs, Maximum attack Photo
Also in the further battles there were many skids, spins and collisions with each other, providing a lot of drama for the drivers and the spectators of the shows. While the two Estonian pilots – Olivers Randalu and Kevin Pesurs – experienced losses in the TOP32 round and the Lithuanian favorite Benediktas Čirba withdrew from the TOP16, the Latvian talent Bertāns continued brilliantly and entered the top eight. There, he was confronted by the already mentioned James Dean, with whom Bertan has raced both together in the team and had many beautiful battles. Although until now Dean had decided all the previous battles in his favor, this time Bertans showed a more convincing performance, thus defeating the most titled drifter in the world for the first time and entering the semi-finals.
There, the Latvian pilot should have raced against the Irishman Duane McIver, however, the Irishman experienced a technical defect in the TOP8 fight against the Finnish Lauri Heinonen after a collision caused by Heinonen, and consequently withdrew from the competition. This put Bertan automatically through to the final, where he faced another Irishman, Jack Shanehan, who had beaten many strong drivers on the way to the final, including his brother Conor Shanehan and the highly ranked Juha Rintanen. It should be noted that the track was already completely dry for the decisive races, which allowed everyone present to enjoy the speed and the smell of smoke.
Photo: Olafs Ezertēvs, Maximum attack Photo
In the first race of the final, Bertans was unable to keep up with Shanehan at the start and thus was next to the Irishman only in the second and third turns of the track. In the second part of the track, Bertans showed an impressive following drive, however, the distance lost in the first part became a decisive factor. Shanechen was on Bertan’s side from the very first turn, keeping a minimum distance until the very finish. Jack Shanehan was thus able to celebrate his first win of the season while also taking the honors of the overall leader. Bertāns could also be happy, because on the way to the second place he beat two of the world’s best drifters, so this is definitely one of the greatest achievements of the young Latvian drifter in his career so far. The third step of the podium was taken by Rintanen, making the large number of Finnish spectators cheer loudly.
2023-08-01 21:55:11
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