Due to the legal issue drifting as we know it is not allowed there. The loop hole that has allowed drifting to return in its current form is a simple one. It has to be racing with a clearly defined start point, finish point, winner and loser. The event was timed. There were 3 classes, rear wheel drive, front wheel drive and four wheel drive. Rear wheel drive had to race sideways.

Now that I’ve explained a little on how the event worked I’ll shut up and stick up a few images.

The track layout was very fast with 9 clipping points. Yes I did say 9. This was the first event of the year where we got decent track access. We had 2 boxes on track we could use. This is always great for some long smooth pans.

This is Christy Carpenter in a borrowed 180. This was Chistys first event this year. He’s currently building a new ps13 with a 2jz.

This is Shane O’Sullivan. Gotta love the smoke trail on this one.

Another advantage to this setup is how close we get to the cars. These are Brian Egans eyes staring out at me.

Superlap saw James Deane top the ranking with a first. A perfect run. 30 points. Well done James. We’ll have more on this with James’s blog in the next few days. James was paired up against Adrian Walsh for the top 16.

James’s brother Mike took fourth in superlap but came up against Paul McCarthy in the top 16 who seemed unstoppable.

Shane O’Sullivan took fifth in superlap. This lined him up against up and coming driver Seamus Walsh.

In the great 8 Paul McCarthy came up against Damien Mulvey. Due to my position on the track I didn’t get Damiens crash. Heres a nice snap of it curtsey of Daniel O’Shea of ontherack.net. You can’t see me in this but I’m about 5 foot behind the concrete barrier that Damien is trying to drive over.

The first battle of the top 4 sees James vs Paul

The second battle is Shane vs Gavin.

In the third, fourth playoff James took the win over Shane.

It came down to Paul and Gavin in the final. With a great battle by 2 of the fastest drivers in the country Paul took the win.

Here is a nice little shot of Paul McCarthy showing how sunny it was and also how good an E36 M3 engine looks with no air box.


There always seem to be set trends when it comes to certain cars. Take the AE86 as a perfect example, how often do you see them with anything bigger than 15″ wheels? Occasionally 16″ wheels get on there. This weekend due to the track being so fast Alan Sinnott had to run 18″ on the back. I think they looked a bit too narrow but actually seemed to work OK on there!

Now down to business. A round of Prodrift follows a slightly different pattern to most other series world wide. You get practice first, qualifying next and then usually you’d go to the top 16. Prodrift runs a little different, they run superlap before the top 16 to work out who will battle who. During superlap each of the 16 qualifying drivers get a single shot at the track to do the best lap they can. No warm up, no second chances. Highest qualifier goes first, then it goes from 16 down to two. The driver with the highest score stays in a safe location on track until they’re knocked off the top, then the new highest scorer stays out. Each run is judged by the 3 judges with a maximum score of 10 from each judge. Once the 16 drivers have gone through we move on to top 16. Usually at this point there is a break in the day for lunch etc.

James Deane was top qualifier. Gavin Lenihan took second. Gavin is well known for being very fast while carrying plenty of angle and still being very aggressive. On this particular run he decided his wing was slowing him down and that he didn’t want me to take his picture so he very skilfully used the clipping point marker to remove the wing and throw it at me. Fortunately his wing aim isn’t great and it landed a missive 2 feet from me. Apparently I’m not one for flinching while under wing attack.

There must be something about that spot. Only a few minutes later Damien Mulvey attempted the same attack. This time the clipping point marker was too small and didn’t have the desired effect.

We also had Formula D driver Dean “Karnage” Kearney is a loaner car. Despite giving it his best effort, Dean didn’t manage to qualify.

Here is James watching sitting on the back of his SR20 FD RX7 watching Michael Swan completing his superlap.

Brendan Stone took the superlap victory with a score of 25.

Gavin Lenihan and Paul McCarthy battle it out, Paul takes the win.

Wesley Keating and Damien Mulvey. Damien won.

Alan Lenihan and Alan Sinnott, former Hankook team mates battled it out as well. Unfortunately Alan Sinnott clipped the outside a bit too hard at clip two and spun out handing the win to Alan Lenihan.

James Deane and Duane Mckeever gave us probably the best battle of the day. They were seriously close on Duane’s following run. When James was following they were right against each other when Duane straightened. James gave him a little love tap as they were so close. James goes through.

Down to the final four.
Damien Mulvey vs Paul McCarthy. Damien takes the win.

James Deane vs Shane O’Sullivan. Shane goes through due to James straightening. Turns out James was having mechanical problems. Its such a pity this battle went like this. I can’t wait to see these two in a full on battle with a straight up winner.

Final time. Damien Mulvey vs Shane O’Sullivan. Shane leads first. Damien leads second. Damien seemed to have a bigger gap. Damien takes the wins. Shane put up a great fight to make an amazing battle.

Damien really was walking on air!

This is Damien and his dad. It one of those moments that more often than not get bypassed by everyone at an event.

Finally, the obligatory podium shot. First, Damien Mulvey. Second, Shane O’Sullivan. Third, Paul McCarthy. Fourth, James Deane.

Adrian Walsh, a former pro who hasn’t competed in an event in a few years was back with his SR20 AE86. This is one well setup car with a more than capable driver. He spent the day making everyone wonder why he ever stopped competing.


During the day Saturday a few drivers didn’t have the best runs possible. The above photo shows Keith O’Shea making contact with the outer wall.

Although John “Boost” Hickey had the worst accident of the day he still drove back to the pits after.

Adrian went on to go through all the amateur and semi pro group to get in to the final with OMGDrift driver, Mike Fitz. Due to Mike’s tires having enough drifting for one day he spun out on both runs. Personally, I would’ve loved to have seen a proper battle between these 2 drivers but it wasn’t to be. Adrian deservedly took the win.

Sunday saw the pro class competing. A few drivers from Saturday were brought up to battle the pros. Amoung those were the finalists Mike Fitz, Adrian Walsh and Paul McCarthy. They joined pro regulars such as OMGDrift drivers James Deane and Alan Lenihan, along with 2011 champion Alan Sinnott. For those of you unfamiliar with the Prodrift pro series event layout, the drivers get a long practice session followed by qualifying. Once decided, the top 16 drivers then go through superlap. This determines their position for the top 16 battles.

Although the track was tight for some of the high power pro cars the AE86 chassis seemed to suit the layout very well.

During the superlap there were two incidents. One, was Brendan Stone who snapped a throttle cable resulting in him coming in last due to qualifying position. Second, was Duane McKeever. On entry to the first corner the car clipped the outside wall.

MG Crash Repairs teammates Damien Mulvey and Brendan Stone. Damien was top qualifier, Brendan was last. Brendan went through.

This is Mike Deane and Paul McCarthy. They ran two one more times, at which point Paul was the victor.

OMGDrift driver Mike Fitz faced off with Shane O’Sullivan. Shane came through.

Shane went on to come up against Adrian Walsh. Adrian took the win here putting him in the semis against Barry Leonard. Adrian progressed to the final after dispatching Barry.

On the other side, Brendan Stone came through against Paul McCarthy. Brendan took the win but not after emptying his transmission of all fluid all over the entire circuit. Due to the amount of fluid it did take some time to clear it up.

In the third and fourth place battle it was Barry and Paul. Paul took the third place crown.

This left the final with Adrian Walsh and Brendan Stone. It was a great battle and right until the final second, none of us knew if Brendan’s car would last.

So who won I hear you ask? Well the picture above speaks far more than I ever could. Brendan takes the win.

Needless to say the event went ahead, enough cars did turn up, I didn’t get hurt (much) and the cops only flew over a few times.

Just check out the sticker on the boot lid of Michael Swans car! That kind of sums up the whole weekend.

I’ve a people gallery on the way along with some Saturday action.

Over the next few days I’ll be releasing some information over how to get photos of you and your car over the year.