Drift season opening
Last weekend, the ambitious opening of the Baltic drift season took place at the Biķernieku track, within the framework of which the new "Nik Nak Wolftrike" drift team also successfully presented itself. 14-year-old Nikolas Bertāns, Klāvs Ashmanis, founder of Wolftrike, and Dāvis Mangalis, winner of last year's Street class, also compete in its composition.
If in 2018, Nicholas spent an incomplete season, standing on the podium twice in four stages, then 2019 will be the first full season of the 14-year-old drifter. The first stage started with a not very successful qualification, because during the second race, one of the car's tires was seriously damaged, forcing it to spin and prematurely end the well-started race. The 58 points obtained in the first attempt allowed them to qualify for the finals in 21st position.
Estonians Rando Pusa and Rolands Bērziņš were beaten in the tandem races with a good performance in the TOP 32 and TOP 16 rounds, entering among the best eight ProAm pilots. In the TOP 8 round, another Estonian, Marco Prems, who showed the fourth result in the qualification, faced off. "In the first race, I followed him very close, practically in the door, in one moment he braked unexpectedly and I "straightened" the car a little, but nothing crazy. Driving ahead, I tried to get away, although I shouldn't have done it. In the second corner, accordingly, I entered too fast, applied the handbrake, slipped off the track, as a result of which I hit the tires and spun," explains Nicolas Bertans, his loss to the winner of the later race.
"Overall, it was a cool fight, thanks to the team and supporters. I will not hang my nose and will try to show higher results in the next stages," the young drifter is full of determination. It should be noted that the next stage of the Latvian Drift Cup will take place on May 19, on the Jelgava track "Rullītis", where Nikolas won second place last year.
An eventful opening of the season was also for Klavs Asmanis, who, competing in the Street class, held his debut competition in drifting. Although before the race Klavs had drifted only in winter, during the training sessions he also got a taste for the dry and much less slippery surface. In the second qualifying race, the drift rookie scored a commendable 67 points (the same as those in 31st and 32nd place), however, the zero in the first race did not allow him to qualify for the TOP 32 final races.
"Nikolass advice helped a lot, I drove better than I expected. In the next stages, the goal is to qualify for the final races and enter at least the TOP 16 round," said Klāvs Asmanis after the debut stage. Last year's Street class winner Dāvis Mangalis showed the highest team score at the season opener. He planned to drive in the ProAm class this year, but his new car was not yet ready for the first stage, so the plan was to skip the season opener.
In the last days before the stage, a friend lent him his BMW 328 and it was spontaneously decided to start the season with participation in the Street class. This spontaneous decision paid off, as he managed to win second place with beautiful tandem runs, only losing to Igor Wozniakovski in the final
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