WAR WRECKS SHAN’S PLAN
CONOR SHANAHAN’S masterplan this year was to succeed his older brother Jack as the Russian Drift Series Grand Prix winner.
Cork teenager Shanahan was even due to drive for a Ukrainian team in the FIA Intercontinental Drifting Cup in Sochi in June.
Then Russia invaded Ukraine and the 19-year-old had to scramble to save his season.
He did that and, having come second in last year’s 2022 Drift Masters European Championship, the Red Bull athlete (inset) will be one of the top attractions for the 8-10,000-strong crowd at Mondello for the start of the new season on Sunday.
“Things have changed massively,” said Shanahan, whose Toyota GT86 bears the slogan ‘We Stand With Ukraine’ on the side.
“We’ve a lot of friends (in the region) and the team we were actually supposed to drive for was a Ukrainian team. Obviously, financially it’s not a cheap sport and we’ve also got to make money because it’s our job now so you’ve got to work everything out in a short space of time.
“Luckily with the support of people that we’ve had over the last couple of seasons we can go back and decide that we’re going to do the full European Championship.
“It doesn’t really change anything in terms of driving because both championships are as competitive as each other.
“We’re going to focus now on Drift Masters and put that behind us, and let’s see, hopefully next we can have the conversation about going to America.
“We’re glad that we have the opportunity to drive in Europe in a high level championship.”
The Shanahan brothers will both compete in cars built by Jack, 23, and both hope to take down last season’s Masters winner Piotr Wiecek.
Conor managed to do just that in the last race of last season but by then Wiecek had the title in the bag.
Like many in the field, the Corkmen hope that using the same tyres as Wiecek this season will bridge the gap. The problem is, the field will only get the new tyres today and the Shanahans have had very little time to test them.
“It’s the biggest worry for a lot of drivers who have changed to this tyre,” said Conor. “But I haven’t won a Drift Masters event in front of a home crowd so it would be nice to start with a bang on Sunday.”