Ireland’s Dean Kearney took top honours at a pulsating opening round to the 2009 Prodrift Super Series., Donnington Park UK. The 21 year old driving the Maxxis Tyres Nissan Onevia defeated all before him to claim his second career victory amongst a grid of top drifting talent from the UK & Ireland.

Although drifting has previously taken place at Donnington Park, this was the first time that the competition had been set up away from the conventional track. A large area of asphalt situated to the rear of Turn 1 of the Grand Prix circuit was of sufficient size to create an exciting drift layout that encouraged entry speeds of over 95mph followed by a series of flowing curves that weaved in front of the spectating public.

The Prodrift Super Series is a new competition format for 2009 that will gather the best Pro class drifting talent from the UK & Ireland across a 5 round championship with events staged in both countries. Following this event, the Prodrift Super Series heads to Ireland for a similar style track at Punchestown before hitting Croft & Lydden Hill (UK) and then finishing up at Irelands largest Japanese tuning festival – Japfest, Mondello Park, in September.

All eyes were on Donnington however for the opening Round and with the British Drift Championship taking centre stage on Saturday, the main event on Easter Sunday was guaranteed to deliver a grid full of Irish and UK talent. The first event of the year also brought with it many changes to team setups, personnel and machinery. Manchester based Team Japspeed were returning to 2009 with massive expectations. Two RB powered Silvia S15’s replacing the trusty R33 Skylines that were terminally damaged at Silverstone in 2008 and all cars running on the Maxxis Z1 Drift tyre for the 2009 season. UK drifting specialists Driftworks were also present in new metal. 2008 EDC champion Bon Bon had ditched the Toyota Chaser and defected to the Prodrift Super Series driving the all new and improved Driftworks R32 Skyline powered by the 1JZ heart of a Toyota. Travelling from Ireland, Team WKD Imports arrived courtesy of a new team transport unit housing the 3 car team. For 2009 WKD will run Nigel Colfer and Johnny Power in similar Nissan 180sx with Wesley Keating also set to make appearances for the Carlow based team.

Qualifying:
Having made some adjustments to the BDC track layout, the Prodrift Judges required competitors to take an alternative line to what was required on Saturday. Outside clipping points on many of the fastest corners meant that the fastest line through the corner was sacrificed in exchange for a spectacular wider line. Many of the drivers struggled with this outer line in early practice, but experienced competitors such as Bon Bon, Dean Kearney, Johnny Power, Pete Barber and Gavin Lenihan made light work of the new layout and as such were seen as favourites heading into the all important afternoon battles.

Top 16
The Top16 was a perfect split of the nations and contained 8 Irish and 8 UK Drivers. UK hero Bon Bon got things off to an ideal start for the home supporters with a comprehensive defeat of UK up and coming talent Steven Moore. Surprises were to follow however as both Johnny P and Pete Barber (Qualifiers 2 & 3) were eliminated by Alan Sinott and Dean Kearney respectively. Steve Biagini, Matt Carter & John Calvert were also eliminated at the Top 16 level, meaning that the Irish drivers took 5 of the available 8 positions in the Top 8 Battles.

Top 8
The Driftworks Skyline of Bon Bon was made work twice as hard in his Top 8 encounter with Paul Cheshire. The Team Green driver forced a sudden death decider with the EDC champ but the elation was short lived as Cheshire suffered a 10-0 defeat in the ‘one more time’ battle and Bonatron in his smoking Driftworks skyline proceeded to the semi finals.
Joining Bon Bon in the semi finals was the powerful Silvia of Gavin Lenihan. His narrow defeat of John O’Connell (BMW E30) meant

Prodrift Ireland , New Venues for 09.

Today it has been announced that the Prodrift Ireland Series will incorporate 2 new venues for the 2009 Irish national drifting championship.

Across a 5 round Championship, Prodrift have scheduled a 2009 series that will place top level drifting competitions in 5 separate venues throughout Ireland.

Beginning in Ennis Town, Co.Clare, the Prodrift Series will travel to 3 custom venues during the year whilst also placing events in Ireland’s 2 main motorsport centres, Mondello Park & Nutts Corner Racing Circuit.

The return of Punchestown, Co.Kildare as the venue for Round 2 will immediately appeal to the thousands of drift fans that enjoyed the same event in 2006 and similarly, the 2009 Punchestown event will also include a points scoring round for the new Prodrift Super Series, guaranteeing a strong entry of overseas drivers.

The trip to Nutts Corner for Round 3 of the Irish Series marks the continued growth of the Prodrift brand in Ulster. Following a strong showing from local drivers in 2008, this year’s event will move from the Nutts Corner Oval to the recently re-opened Nutts Corner Circuit and set new challenges for the Prodrift teams.

The penultimate event of the season takes place at the home of Irish Motorsport, Mondello Park, where drivers and spectators can expect the regular instalment of high speed door to door battles. For the final battle of the year, Prodrift will cap off the season at another brand new venue, Cork Marts, Fermoy. This new venue houses an expansive site of asphalt surrounded by an amphitheatre bank that will deliver a unique atmosphere for the final event of the season.
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Prodrift Ireland 2009 Calendar :

Round 1 ........ Ennis, Co.Clare......................... April 25th/26th
Round 2......... Punchestown Co.Kildare............ May 30th
Round 3......... Nutts Corner Circuit, Belfast...... June 27th/28th
PD Trackday.. Mondello Park.................. .........July 24th
Round 4......... Mondello Park, Kildare.............. August 1st/2nd
Round 5......... Fermoy, Co.Cork...................... September 26th/27th.

License/logging day for the 2009 Prodrift Series will take place on Friday April 24th at Clare Marts, Ennis. Information regarding application for 2009 License day will be released in due course.

For further information on the 2009 Prodrift Ireland Series please contact +3532241924 or info@prodriftseries.com.



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