Ireland has a new champion as Cork's Conor Shanahan has won the Drift Masters European Championship title.
Sixth round of the series
Shanahan - backed by Red Bull - has previously finished second (in 2021) and third (in 2022) in the premier European drifting championship has finally taken the title in an action-packed sixth and final round of the series in Warsaw.
In front of a packed stadium full of 53,000 spectators, Shanahan, alongside his brother Jack and Tyrone drifter Duane McKeever, took the Nations Cup for Ireland, beating out Finland and Poland.
Beating the Finn
Shanahan finished ahead of Finland's Lauri Heinonen to win the event in the PGE Narodowy Stadium.
Shanahan, just 20, also had to beat the likes of wildcard driver David Sposób and on-form Portuguese driver Diogo Correi.
Much to the delight of the record-breaking crowd, with the title fight already decided, Shanahan and Heinonen threw caution to the wind and put on a final to rival all before it with pin-point displays of drifting.
Congratulations from rally champ
Despite not taking home the win on the night, the Finnish driver still took second in the championship standings to round out his best-ever season in Drift Masters.
Shanahan received online congratulations from none other than 2022 World Rally Champion Kalle Rovanpera for his victory aboard his highly-modified Toyota GT86 drift car.
Six title contenders entered the arena at the start of the weekend, with Conor Shanahan, Lauri Heinonen, Jack Shanahan, Juha Rintanen, Piotr Wiecek and Duane McKeever all in the fight for the season's top honours, but it was the 20-year-old younger Shanahan brother who ended the weekend heading home the happiest, doubling up to take home the championship overall in the best possible way with victory on the track.
Shanahan finished the season on 459 points, 44 ahead of Heinonen. The event was streamed live on Red Bull TV, and you can watch the highlights there online for free.
The 2023 DMEC season began back in May at Mondello Park in Kildare, so hopefully, Irish fans will get to see Conor performing on home soil next year with a title to his name.