Juiceboxforyou » Blog Archive Prodrift Round 1: Ennis Pt1

Prodrift Round 1: Ennis Pt1

It was 5am on a Saturday morning and the phone was vibrating with a text from Martin Ffrench. Walking out of the house and seeing his Altezza all loaded up on the trailer looking gleaming and ready for action was enough to wake anyone up. The car was ready for the first round of Prodrift which was to be held in Ennis Co. Clare. Hopes of a dry weekend slowly started to fade as we made our way through the Tipperary countryside and darkness started to disappear and reveal some horrible Irish clouds . This was looking to be another typical weekend just like the one at Ennis back in 09. To our surprise we drove right through the rain and out the other side…. mother nature was down for some drifting on that weekend and gave us Ireland some of the best weather it could have ever asked for.

The best part about the first round is the amount of new cars which have been built throughout the winter. Cars which are ready to be brought out and given a good beating on the course. One of the most memorable cars of the weekend was Brian Egans Roadster Turbo. I could watch this car slide all day.

Imagine finding panels for this jzx81! So nice to see such a variation of cars this year. Shaking up the usual Nissan dominated event.

But I guess you cant complain about the amount of Nissans when you have the likes of Christy Carpenters S15 to look at. The car looks amazing in the classic Yokohama/Advan colours which have picked him up for the 2011 season. One of the coolest liveried drift cars in Ireland.

It doesn’t get any more Irish then a bunch of sheep gawking out at the arriving drift cars!

This s14a was looking very nice indeed.

Even though Damien Mulvey’s Onevia is unfinished, it already looks superb in this state without any graphics. Such a mean looking car both inside and out!

The WKD team come prepared with a van full of Tires all waiting to be killed!

The commentator box looks down as Trevor Murphy makes friends with the wall in his sr86.

Competition was just as tough on Saturday amongst the amateurs and just as exciting to watch as the pro class ended up being the following day.

The track looked tight, and seemed quite tough at first for a lot of the drivers to comprehend. Leaving its mark on many of the cars throughout the day.

Luckily the back end of this ae86 is mostly fiberglass!

Other cars weren’t as fortunate.

Credit has to be given to Neville Brett, when he figured out the course, he drove it in a true “don’t give a shit” style in his sr86 and was definitely exciting to watch as he ran the walls. Keeping in to many of the experienced drivers throughout Saturday landed him a 3rd place spot in the amateurs.

This AE86 both looked and sounded amazing but it would be the R32 driven by Nick Queally that would go on to win the Amateur class and also go then on to qualify in the top 16 for the pro class the next day. Impressive driving and definitely a name people wont forget in the upcoming season.

Another new AE86 in the competition was Chris Brady’s freshly finished Green Machine on some insanely wide Image RS1 wheels.

Things really started to get intense amongst the drivers throughout Saturday with drivers surprising drivers like 15 year old Duaene Mckeever showing the crowd how he can handle an 763 brake rb26!

Martin Ffrench would unfortunately spin out in a battle against Micheal Sheehan and fail to qualify for Sundays Pro Competition.

WKD Owner and Driver Wesley Keating was tearing it up all weekend qualifying second in the non seeded category on Saturday.

One of the more interesting cars of the weekend was Robert Barnett’s RB25 powered E46 BMW.

Ciaran ‘Gem’ Synott was attacking the top corner with impressive high speed entries.

Jay Rockett was holding his own for much of the weekend in his missile spec14.

The track was tight and at first seemed to be tough for people to get dialled, once the drivers figured out the right lines, things only got more and more inteting from then on.