Through My Lens: Drift Masters Austria
Meet The Masters

The year is 2019 and the Drift Masters European Championship (DMEC) is not messing around.

Over the past few years, this fledgling series has broken off from its roots in Poland, overcome heavy competition, and made a name for itself as the proving ground for European drifting. Other championships have come and gone in this time, but if this past weekend’s season opener in Austria was anything to go by, DMEC is here to stay. And it’s setting itself up to be the best drift series in the world.

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Yes, I said that. Controversial I know, but here’s why…

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Drifting in Europe is in a very strong position right now. Collectively, the continent is honing the best drivers of the moment – no exaggeration. I don’t want to throw any shade on the US or Formula Drift, but who was the last American driver that you can remember coming out of nowhere and blitzing the national championship? Me neither.

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Then there’s the circuits. I’d never heard of PS Racing Center Greinbach in rural Austria before – and I’m guessing neither had you – but it ended up being the ideal battleground to open the 2019 championship at. This small part-karting part-rallycross venue was both fast and technical, and pushed the drivers and their machines heavily over the weekend.

Circuits like this are in abundance around mainland Europe, something that will hopefully keep the championship fresh and challenging for years to come.

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Perhaps the biggest leap that I’ve seen in the last few years in Europe is the high standard of vehicles. Not so long ago, a European drift event meant a full field of E36 BMWs with undoubtedly questionable and often somewhat agricultural modifications throughout.

Now, almost every car in DMEC should be considered a fully-built professional race car. Winters quick-change differentials, sticky track rubber, sequential gearboxes and fully custom tubular steering and suspension geometry are the norm, and if you’re not bringing at least 600hp with you then you’re at a real disadvantage.

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James Deane’s new 2JZ-powered Falken Eurofighter is the perfect example of this. Sadly, due to ongoing fine-tuning and setup adjustments during round one I wasn’t able to take a closer look at this impressive car, but I will in the near future.

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But perhaps the biggest improvement that I saw in Austria this past weekend was in the presentation and production of the event. Behind the scenes, DMEC is a well-oiled machine, and it seems to be overcoming what I’ve always thought was drifting’s biggest issue – downtime.

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What’s more, for 2019 DMEC has teamed up with Red Bull TV to produce the series livestream, and I have to say, without embellishment, that the show and user interface is on another level. If you don’t believe me, check it out for yourself. The live on-board cameras for one are a game-changer – being able to see each driver’s actions and reactions in the car during the run completely changes the viewer experience.

For this very reason I’m not here to rehash the events of the weekend – you can watch them back for yourself and gain a far better representation of what happened than from reading my words.

Instead, let me give you a look through my lens trackside as things unfolded. Enjoy the gallery below.

Jordan Butters
Instagram: jordanbutters
jordan@speedhunters.com

The Gallery
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1

Wait! Wut?? It wasn't streamed or something? I followed last season through their youtube streams but I saw nothing popping up lately and missed it...

2

you can watch it from red bull tv

3

Thanks!! I started to doubt myself, went trough all YT channels and it was nowhere and then Wiecek/Deane uploaded their video. Thanks again!

4

"who was the last American driver that you can remember coming out of nowhere and blitzing the national championship?"

Everyone knows Formula D. It's probably the most well known drifting organization in the entire world. The people who have come out of it are some of the best to ever do it and some of the biggest innovators in the sport.

In 14 years it has been around the Americans dominate it with 7 titles. Japan, Ireland and Sweden are all tied with 2 titles each, but only Japan has actually seen two different drivers win the it all.

Who was the last driver to come out of nowhere? Chris Forsberg or Michael Issa. Until just now I had no idea who these people were and I've been following racing for 25 years. So I guess there's your answer. Any of em!

5
Paddy McGrath

You would hope that Americans would more often win an American championship but in the 15 championships (2004-2018) so far US drivers have won 7 titles, with non-Americans winning 8 titles. There's some catching up to do ;)

6
Jay Soh Tsu Chung

What Jordan meant is that, who was the last American driver you know to join FD Pro and already make a huge impression in his rookie season?

7
Chris Colouryum

Matt Powers always stood out for me. Although he quickly jumped (pirate) ship.

8

I thought they did a brilliant job with the live stream. The virtual tour of the course shows what the perfect line is. Also a little opening commentary from Piotr Wiecek. I like the use of the cross hatched geometric figures on the course to signify the clipping points/zones. Makes it pretty clear whether they hit it or not. THis particular course was very technical and fun to watch

9

It's a sad time that Speedhunters no longer covers Formula D events.....

10
Paddy McGrath

There's not much more we can cover at these events at the moment, and readership numbers overwhelmingly reflect this. Sometimes it's good to take a break, look at new things and try to tell new stories from new places. We can always go back in future.

Nothing but love for the FD crew, teams and drivers BTW.

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