Drift Masters: Drama and elation for Ollie Evans and Team BC Racing UK

The Drift Masters European Championship is the continent’s gold standard of European drifting. Starting from relatively humble beginnings back in 2014, DMEC has evolved into a powerhouse with global reach and huge audiences, showcasing the best-of-the-best of the pro drift scene and pitting these driving heroes against one another in the smoky crucible of top-flight motorsport. And for Round 6 of the 2022 season the intrinsic drama of the series really ramped up, with all the drivers on the podium backed up by BC Racing hardware.

After a year of touring the finest drift arenas in Europe, the season finale of Drift Masters was held at Poland’s Moto Arena Łódź, in front of a sold-out crowd of 20,000 fans. An intimidating forum in which to compete for Team BC Racing UK’s Ollie Evans, and the event would prove to be a cavalcade of drama from the outset right through to the bitter end…

The weekend got off to a flyer in qualifying, which saw Ollie finishing in 10^th overall with a first run score of 80/100 then following up the 2^nd run with a more impressive 87/100 run, which was his highest qualifying result of the season.

Now over to the main event

In the Top 32 rounds Ollie came up against the 2JZ Subrau BRZ of Christian Erlandsson, proving to be a close battle but ultimately the plucky BC Nissan came out on top, Putting Ollie into the final 16, and then the rain came.

Levelling up to the Top 16, Ollie was head-to-head with Diogo Correia in the increasingly slippery conditions, and it was this situation of sub-optimal traction that led to the real drama: going into the first corner Diogo span and went flying into the concrete wall, breaking his radiator in the process and unable to carry on the competition. With Ollie being so close, he simply didn't have time to stop and also sailed straight into the concrete wall surrounding the track, throwing his S15 through the air in the process. It was plain to see that the damage sustained was substantial; in fact, the car had suffered two bent wheels along with numerous kinked arms and chassis components, and it was starting took like game over.

If he wasn’t able to get the car working within ten minutes and initiate the first corner for the second run, he wouldn’t be able to continue. A seemingly hopeless state of affairs, but we should never underestimate the ingenuity and camaraderie of the modern drift scene. Panic in the pits quickly translated into action, as the entire Drift Masters paddock scrambled to work on the S15 at once; parts from four other competitors’ cars were pillaged and, with milliseconds to spare, Ollie was back out on track in time. And he rewarded this incredible team of helpers by posting a score strong enough to push him through to the Top 8!

For the next adrenaline-drenched outing, Ollie was competing against drift legend Juha Rintanen. Juha span the car while chasing on the first run, meaning Ollie had the advantage, and a clean run was all that was needed to qualify for the Top 4 – something that he achieved with aplomb, and so it was all down to the Top 4 battle for the indomitable Welsh drifter.

James Deane was his next adversary: The BC Racing NA driver and 2x Formula Drift World Champion made a small error in the lead run which gave Ollie a big advantage going into his lead run. He knew Deane would be the closest and as aggressive as anybody has ever been going into a lead run, and of course Ollie got pushed all the way to the line… but he managed to hold on, sending himself gloriously into the final, against current champion Piotr Wiecek.

For the final battle, Ollie was lined up with arguably the best in business, Piotr Wiecek. This was something of a nerve-wracking situation, as just half-an-hour previously Piotr had been crowned Champion for the second year in a row, in his home country of Poland, supported by the vast majority of the crowd. No pressure, then…

It was the first corner that once again provided the backdrop to the theatrics: Piotr slightly lost control in the wet which saw Ollie go into the wall yet again, damaging a wheel which this time couldn't be repaired. As Piotr was at fault, the three Driftmasters judges ruled in Ollie’s favour which led to him becoming winner of round 6 of the championship.

As commentator Dave Egan said: “A 1000/1 outsider has taken the win on the biggest stage in European drifting history – phenomenal.”

So as the dust settled and all was said and done, it was a HUGE weekend for Team BC Racing, with all three of the winning cars running BC Racing Suspension. James Deane finished in 3^rd place, Piotr Wiecek placed 2^nd, and Team BC Racing UK’s Ollie Evans finished 1^st – taking his first podium and beating three of the biggest names in drifting to get there.