MOTORSPORTS: Red Bull Drift Shifters 2018 (YB)

Yesterday, me and David were lucky enough to attend the Red Bull Drift Shifters 2018 here in Liverpool at the Pier Head (thanks to @PeelLivWaters on Twitter who I won tickets from).

Now, I've never been to see drift racing of any sort before, but I absolutely loved it and my son did too.

I'd read about it before we went and read about the drivers who were taking part and watched some of their previous races, as I thought it would be nice to know a bit of background.

We had a brief look around, before picking out of spot to watch from, and we saw this...

We got a great spot right near the track, so I got some amazing photo's to share with you all!

The track was brilliantly designed, starting at the Mersey Tunnel, under the Angle Grinder, along the Pier Head Wallride, through the Undertaker Truck, around the Yellow Submarine, then into the George's Dock Wallride and back again, with the drivers being able to choose whatever route they wanted in order to get the most points.

The drivers did a drive around before the competition begun...

 

There was a practice round, then the twelve drivers started in qualifying. We saw some brilliant scores over 4m in the qualifiers alone! Fredric Aasbø
topped the table after the qualifying round with a massive 5.08m. Here are some photo's from the qualifying round:

 

 

 

The qualifying round scores were:

Fredric Aasbø - 5.08m
Forrest Wang - 4.86m
Gaz Whiter - 4.49m
Abdo Feghali - 4.29m
Dean Kearney - 4.21m (LCQ)
James Deane - 4.05m
Mike Whiddett - 3.78m (LCQ)
Piotr Wiecek - 3.73m
Joachim Waagaard - 3.36m (LCQ)
Masato Kawabata - 3.35m
Fanga Dan Woolhouse - 3.29m (LCQ)
Matt Carter - 2.31m (LCQ)

The scores in practice and then qualifying were really high, and set high expectations for the scores in the quarter finals. And they did not disappoint! Some great scores in the quarter finals. Here are some photo's from it...

Everyone was surprised to see previous champ 'Mad' Mike Whiddett knocked out at the qualifying round, but the scores were very high and it was a tough competition from the onset. He was a real crowd pleaser though as while a lot of other missed out the submarine and phone box, he took all of them on and did amazingly too!

The scores from the quarter finals were:

Forrest Wang - 5.56m
Piotr Wiecek - 4.92m
Gaz Whiter - 4.82m
Fredric Aasbø - 4.57m
James Deane - 4.27m
Abdo Feghali - 4.15m
Masato Kawabata - 3.64m
Dean Kearney - 2.90m

Again, the scores in the quarter finals were really high and the competition was really on. From all we'd seen, there was going to be some major competition in the semi finals, and we were not disappointed, with 3 out of the final 4 scoring 5m+ each!

The scores from the semi finals were:

Gaz Whiter - 5.33m
Forrest Wang - 5.21m
Fredric Aasbø - 5.15m
Piotr Wiecek - 3.93m

We were really excited for the final between Gaz Whiter and Forrest Wang.

The final scores were:

Gaz Whiter - 6.29m
Forrest Wang - 4.75m

You can watch the video from Red Bull taken with a GoPro of Gaz Whiter's winning performance:



We had an amazing time, and it's safe to say we are now drifting fans! I hope I get another opportunity in the future to go and watch!