DHU Overcoming fire and rain, Deane takes opening round drift victory
Three-time Formula Drift champion James Deane, hailing from Castletownroche, is riding high after winning the opening round of the 2024 Formula Drift season in Long Beach, California last Saturday.
It was not all plain sailing to the finish however, as a ‘catastrophic fire’ engulfed the Ford Mustang RTR’s engine just a few days beforehand. At the time, Mr Deane was giving a ride to a Canadian man, Kevin Darwish, who promised in his blog to take fans ‘along for a ride’ at the Formula Drift Long Beach media day, held on Tuesday last week.
Video footage captured by Mr Darwish showed how smoke and flames appeared from under the bonnet and within seconds thankfully both men were out of the car. The Mustang was a seemingly charred mess afterwards and speaking on his blog, Mr Darwish observed how he thought, ‘Oh, the first time I’m in a car without a race suit, the car goes on fire’ and he knew he had to get out. He was left with what felt like ‘really, really bad sunburn’, but luckily, neither men suffered any further injuries.
“If there’s only one thing you learn, wear the proper gear!”.
However, a short few days later the car was repaired and ready in time for competition, though the win itself was not short on drama, as ‘mechanical gremlins’ would plague the team throughout the day and the Golden State’s skies drove rain on to the track.
Beating Federico Sceriffo in the top
32, he overcame Jonathan Hurst in the top 16, before getting the better of Fredric Aasbo and then Aurimas Bachis in the ‘final 4’. Deane now leads the championship by 13 points heading into round two which will be held in Atlanta in May.
Killavullen’s Conor Shanahan also participated in Long Beach, losing out to Ryan Tuerck in the ‘ Top 32’ round.
On the podium, Mr Deane was reportedly emotional, after what he described as a ‘challenging week’.
“It’s been such a challenging week after coming back from the fire on Tuesday and the weird things happening to the car throughout the weekend. But we never gave up. And then it started raining. Conditions changed so much but we pushed hard and managed to reach the final with Simen (Olsen) after beating some of the best. I’m so happy and so proud of the team. Bring on Atlanta!” he enthused.