Preview>> 2009 Ireland & Uk Drifting Championships

It would seem that for every year that passes that the Irish & UK drifting scene always surpasses itself. Since the first pair of tires were burnt in anger back in 2001, the scene here has expanded into something beyond what any of us could of imagined. Although we may not have factory backed teams like in the USA, it would appear that it is only a matter of time before we are on a similar playing field with our American cousins. For 2009, Prodrift have teamed up with UK series BDC to bring us the first ever inter-Ireland-UK drifting championship. Featuring rounds at such recognised circuits as Donington Park, Croft, Lyddenn Hill, Mondello Park and a custom built street course at Punchestown.

Along with this, the European Drifting Championship will be hosting rounds at Oulton Park, Knockhill, Silverstone, Santa Pod and Snetterton. EDC in 2008 brought Team Orange members Kumakubo and Tanaka to the European scene with them competing at several rounds… we'll see what surprises they have in store for 2009! Regardless of your affiliations with any series, 2009 promises to be a huge season in European drifting. There may be a recession and no area of any motorsport is safe, so it's up to everyone to work together in 2009 to make this the best year yet.

Now we will look at some drivers who will be competing in Prodrift and EDC in 2009 …

2008 saw 16 year old James Deane, take both Irish and Prodrift Championships along with the privilege of competing at the RBWDC as the youngest competitor. James is keeping a tight lid on his 2009 plans, but he will be one to keep an eye on in 2009.

Alongside him at the RBWDC was JDM Allstars champion Eric O'Sullivan. Eric will be appearing back in the S2000 powered AE86 for 2009 but will also be competing a full season of Formula D in a RWD STI Impreza.

 

Martin Ffrench will be campaigning in both Prodrift and JDM Allstars this year in two SXE10 Altezza's. The Irish based car will be SR20 powered whilst the UK based car will be powered by a Dragon Performance 13B Rotary. Ffrench will also be joining the WKD Imports team for 2009.

Joining Ffrench on the WKD Imports team will be Irish drifting legend, John Power, better known as Johnny P to his fans, his super aggressive style of driving is not to be missed.

Another highly anticipated car is the new Steve 'Stiggy' Evans drift Lexus. Speedhunters will be presenting a full feature on this car very soon.

Formula D regular Darren McNamara will be behind the wheel of one of his 86's for the 2009 season.

Second place finisher in the 2008 Irish Prodrift Series, Dean Kearney will be returning in his familiar Nissan Onevia along with his freshly rebuilt BN Sports PS13, former Koguchi D1GP car.

Dennis Healy who picked up his first win in 2008, will be returning in his SR20 powered AE86 coupe.

Christy Carpenter will be driving an RB powered BN Sports S15 for 2009. His 2008 car above has found it's way to Team Japspeed in the UK.

Reigning EDC Champion Ben Broke Smith will be dropping his well abused JZX81 in favour of the Driftworks R32 Skyline to contest the 2009 EDC series.

Speaking of Driftworks, Phil Morrison will be campaigning 2009 in his world famous 2JZ powered S15. For 2009, Phil has gone to the darkside with a new black paint scheme to reflect the 666bhp the car is now putting down.

Boyzone band member Shane Lynch will be driving one of two Japspeed S15 Silvia's for 2009, powered by the well proven RB25.

Finally, Skyline Parts driver Anthony Scott has dropped the R34 Skyline in favour of a Rocket Bunny 6666 kitted PS13, running an RB26.

Alongside EDC and Prodrift  will be the JDM Allstars series. The JDM Allstars events market themselves as an extreme sports style event, featuring drifting, FMX, skateboarding and BMXing. The drifting event attracts the best drivers from Prodrift, EDC, BDC and even some more from mainland Europe. The event is strictly invite only, ensuring the highest level of drifting available. For 2009, I will be covering Prodrift Series and JDM Allstars exclusively for Speedhunters, I hope your looking forward to it as much as I am !

But this is only a small sample of the talent emerging on both islands, with much, much more on the way. For more reading and event dates, checkout the following

Prodrift Series

EDC

BDC

JDM Allstars

Driftworks

- Paddy McGrath

ADVERTISEMENT

Comments



Comments are closed.

57 comments

by Oldest
by Best by Newest by Oldest
1

Paddy McGrath steals my heart with his photos.

That rolling shot of Deane is GNARGOYLE.

2

Love all the '86ers. How cool is that to be a drifter named James Deane (even with the extra "e"). ha ha

3

so wats new!!!!

4

please give us a desktop with the white s15!!! Great preview...

5

I believe Anthony Scott's rocket bunny Sil80 is a R.I.P.S RB30 powered??

6

Yeah, but I think he had some problem with the bottom end? he may have gone to a 26 bottom end to simplify.. but I cant recall.



That car's going to be insane, anyway. :)

7

Paddy, your photos just made my day!



Seems like it's going to be an interesting championship too.



And O'Sully is going to do Formula D ?!?! AWESOME!!! Not so sure about the STi though... ^__^

8

Should be a great season in both this and Time Attack. Can't wait for the Knockhill round. Expect a full picture report on the forums from me.

9

Your right Ben about the RB30, no idea why I typed 26 ! should be sorted in a moment !

10

Yess, I subscribe: White S15 for desktop!

11

"Punchestown" - thats awesome! Only in Ireland hehe

Looks like Drifting is doin well there - some really nice rides.

12

please desktops of James Deane's S15 and Dean Kearney's S13!!!

13

sweet coverge.

14

Wallpapers of the white S15 +1, and also wallpapers of any of them, i dont care! Just wallpapers please!

15

Some of those shots are REAL cool! Wallpaper? ^^

17

Hi

The rocket bunny 6666 Sil80 we have built will be fully finished in a couple of days, just in time for the Newcastle round of JDMallstars.

We built a rips RB30 but were misinformed as to the spec of the block and it ate itself on the dyno, so we have built a fresh overbored RB30 block supplied by garage-D, useing internals supplied by Spool of NewZealand.

The engine made 535bhp, 540 ft lb of torque on the dyno, held back to those figures because of restrictive turbo exhaust houseing and restrictive (quiet) exhaust. Very happy with the figures and minimal turbo lag.

The car runs a PPG straight cut dog box and GTR drive train.

Looking forward to what promises to be a very exciting season. :) Scotty

18

This is goingto be fantastic, Thanks for coverage

19

shane lynch is the shane from boyzone? XD



no wonder his name sounded familiar. i was thinking of his last name and wasnt able to nal it.



pretty cool. XD

20

You have already seen our preview stories on the upcoming European drift season and the 2009 Japanese D1GP series, so now let's continue with a preview of the 2009 Formula Drift season, which will kick off in just over two weeks on the famous street

21

Paddy's pictures are amazing!

22

Students will participate in shaping the from the Renaissance to the twenty-first c http://www.dissertationtime.com/need-an-expert-to-write-my-dissertation-for-me To receive an essay, a customer normally submits a mannequin that describes the naming that he or she wants realized, how many pages it needs to be, and when it needs to be realised by. FAS is wide some variety of monthly checks

OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS