Having kicked off the 2024 Drift Masters season last month in sunny Spain, the championship made a return to action this weekend in Mondello Park for Round 2, and when the dust had settled here in Ireland, it would be Irish wildcard driver, James Deane who would be the one heading home happiest as he rounded out a perfect weekend overall, taking top spot on today’s podium, having topped Qualifying and won the Qualifying Showdown yesterday on day one.
No stranger at all to Mondello Park, it’s nearly no surprise at this stage that Deane would sit atop the podium today, however it’s pretty safe to say he wouldn’t have an easy road getting there, as we saw perhaps our most competitive Top 32 Battles ever here in Mondello Park today.
In today’s final battle Deane would overcome fellow Irishman Duane McKeever, who looked incredibly strong all weekend long, only for Duane to suffer a gearbox malfunction during today’s final, thus robbing us of an incredible spectacle for our finale.
In the lead-up to that battle, Deane would also have already taken down an incredible array of amazing drivers in Sweden’s Pontus Hartman in Top 32, Hungary’s Kevin Piskolty during the Top 16, Irishman Jack Shanahan in Top 8 and then Finnish legend Juha Rintanen in Top 4 to secure a place in today’s final against McKeever.
However perhaps heading home happiest this weekend, having achieve his first ever Drift Masters podium was none other than Norwegian driver Orjan Nilsen. Nilsen is one driver who has been looking incredibly strong for many years now, and today he finally saw the fruits of his labour taking the win against Finnish driver Juha Rintanen in today’s Round 2 play-off battle.
So that’s it – Two rounds down, four to go and it’s now Finnish driver and last year’s second place finisher overall, Lauri Heinonen who moves into first place in the 2024 championship fight. However with plenty of drivers very hot on his heels, there is still so much to fight for in this year’s title fight and we can’t wait to see what happens next at Round 3 in Finland.
Before we get to Power Park though, here is our Top 5 Championship Standings after 2 Rounds of the 2024 Drift Masters season:
Lauri Heinonen (FIN) - 136 pts.
Duane McKeever (IRL) - 123 pts.
Kevin Pesur (EST) - 116 pts.
Orjan Nilsen (NOR) - 114 pts.
James Deane (IRL) - 112 pts.
