A Unique Drift Masters event
the good Photos are stolen from Jordan Butters - Drift Masters (Hope they dont mind) Unique for me. I need to preface that straight away.
In fact, the whole of the Ferropolis event is fairly unique. Its a beautiful location, an old repurposed quarry, with all the original equipment left to look awesome, that has been now turned into a Stadium for festivals & a man made lake along side it!
Last year was my first time visiting and I loved the aesthetics of the place but my word does this place reverberate sound. It is LOUD, should have brought ear plugs with me !
But anyway, It all started fairly normal, getting straight to work as soon as I arrive as always, for those of you who don’t know, I run the social media stories for the event on Instagram & also try my best to create content for the tiktok which is insanely hard, i feel like people who are good at tiktok live on a slightly more braindead wavelength than me, but i digress ill have to try and learn more for that.
Thursday was cool as the drivers got a full day of practice, a long with Iron Drift King also being ran at the same time as us. So 2 X Drift Championships with the top 3 qualifiers from IDK going into Dmec.
Friday comes around & this is where my event changed completely.
Once again, the day starts like normal I crack on doing 1 million steps trying to find some stories of the event to share to the audience on the social platforms. I actually love it, I have loved being able to create the rapport with the drivers, their teams, friends and families through out the last couple of seasons & have absolute complete access to them and whats going on.
around 11:30 I found myself wandering up to the pits of one of the winners from the IDK qualifying to get an interview & i got a text from one of my bosses Cian, who said can i come to the office. Obviously im not going to tell him no so I turned around and headed up.
When I got in, I found out that Becky, our RedbullTV presenters flight had been cancelled and she wasnt going to be turning up before the broadcast goes live & That my name had been put forward coming off the back of a successful LZ world tour event. I cannot lie, I said yes instantly. The LZ world tour was one of the most fun weekends I’ve ever had at work, so if this was going to be for DRIFT MASTERS theres no way I will say no!
Instantly I am manhandelled by a bunch of redbull broadcast employees and they get me all mic’d up and ready to go.
At this point, I had no time to prepare. I promise I was absolutely blank in my brain but I believe in myself when it comes to this. Also I had confidence in my friendships with the drivers, i know theyd make it easy for me If i make it easy for them, we’re a big family at drift masters.
I had Nick, the man in the truck in my ear directing me, he asked me about 45minutes in if I had any stories i could think of. I wanted to talk to Orjan Nielson, a man whos had a rough season, but its a small family run team, his girlfriend and his brother help keep the car going along with his best friend as his spotter & other people who are close family to him all involved. Thats what the magic of drifting is to me. So i wanted to call on him
If you want to watch the whole show, its on the drift masters youtube channel!
Orjan and I have become good friends over the last few years, he is such a lovely dude & always great to talk to and because he speaks perfect english, it makes my life much easier !
Getting that first interview out of the way was important for me, once I went live with him, I knew I felt at home. But without time to prepare I was freeballing the whole thing!
Once again I got to interview my friend & one of the best drivers in the world Jack Shanahan. in fact, get yourself over to my podcast channel, as I am starting it all up again & Jack will be my first guest!
How cool is this shot, where im about to interview 2 X Drift Masters Champion Piotr Więcek
Tor Arne Kvia not competing in DMEC this year has been a really big miss I feel, he’s one of the most talented drivers I’ve ever seen, once again with a small but loyal team keeping his 180sx on the track. He qualified first in IDK, which saw him enter Dmec - then he qualified first in Drift Masters too. I pray, to the drift gods that Tor comes back to Drift Masters next year for a full season. I miss him !
But one thing I found with this moment is that I got to be there, right in the thick of it. when he scored a 98 he went mad, celebrating in front of the fans & because I’ve managed to become friends with him outside of the cameras over the last 2 years, he instantly felt comfortable enough to celebrate with me. He grabbed me in, big hug on camera and a then we went into the inteview, it felt like a real Joe Rogan moment in the UFC.
No matter your opinion on Joe Rogan, I’ve loved that guy since I was in my teens, not just that even as an adult, what he said helped me over come my biggest insecurity and just shave my fkn head, embrace the baldy and changed my life. For me as an early viewer of UFC & watching Fear Factor growing up, that dudes always been in my life when it comes to celebrity, I love how he conducts his interviews because its unique to him and the UFC. His podcast brings new life to it too. He has friendships with the fighters out side of the show, he trains Jiu Jitsu & Kickboxing with some of them in their down time and i feel like I have a similar relationship in drifting with some of these guys. In our downtime at events we all hang out and just chat shite, outside of the events I try to get to ireland as much as I can to drive with some of these guys too. If i had the money id travel even further to drive everywhere, but money holds me back a lot, but Its authentic & Drifting should be that in my opinion. I love it a lot. And this moment with Tor was special for me, i wont forget this anytime soon.
Another interview I love seeing although its only a short one due to broadcast time restraints was with Lauri Heinonen. Last year this guys driving showed how talented he was, but he could not keep up with the bigger names. This year he’s come back with 300Bhp More and holy moly he is tearing up the Championship. A Title Contender going into the finals. And once again, I’ve made a great friend in Lauri. My favourite part of the event is the time i get to spend just chatting with the drivers, not even just about drifting. I love seeing them out in their element, I wish I could join them!
Itay Sadeh, young 17 year old from Israel really had a breakthrough event, big number in qualifying and beating Jack Shanahan in the Top 32! Big future for this young man !
Max Heidrich has an interesting history at the Ferropolis event as he won IDK years ago! Now he competes on the big stage of Drift Masters representing Germany! such a nice dude & a huge sender!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx4FNIMwVhs Drift Games boys caught me on the track in their vlog of the event, see my happiness! I loved the experience
Considering I had zero time to prepare, zero practice and like Josh said on the vlog, I was thrown in the deep end, I think for my first appearance on here I did well, but I am my own biggest critic, theres a lot for me to learn with interviewing & I want to get better at it, I hate how I set the guys up on this really, I need to figure new things to say, but like i said considering the circumstances of this one I wont be too hard on myself & I’ll allow myself to enjoy that feeling of being apart of the show!
Who knows If ill ever get that opportunity again. But to say I’ve done it now, what a feeling. This type of job is something I’d love to pursue but only really in drifting. My passion lies within that sport & I hope it shows through. But anyway, I have to now go back to just making tiktoks, which I will do happily with a smile on my face. I love Drifting & I love Drift Masters. It’s an absolute honour to be apart of the best media team in the world.
Tune in to the podcast soon, as Jack Shanahan and other Drift Masters drivers will be joining me. I also want to try get other people on too. It should be awesome, just need to focus my time back on being creative!