Since the new season of the Drift Masters European Championship kicks off soon we wanted to relive one of the most amazing motorsport events we've ever attended.
The DMEC 2023 final took place in the PGE Narodowy, Polands national stadium in Warsaw, in the heart of Poland and we were lucky enough to actually be there!
I have been following the Drift Masters championship for a few years now and when I found out the 2023 final was lined up to be the biggest drift event in history, I needed to go.
So without looking at hotels, flights, dates or anything really, me and my good friend bought two tickets to the final and we were buzzing!
So with everything in place, we set off for the airport and the journey of attending the biggest drift event in history finally began.
The final was over two days, Friday and Saturday. We arrived in Warsaw on the Thursday, booked into one of the more "interesting" hotels we've stayed in and began exploring Warsaw.
It wasn't long before we found the centre of Warsaw and although probably most people didn't know what was happening over the weekend, there was defiantly a buzz around the place. Maybe because there was 25,000 people flying in just for the final or maybe it was because we immediately found an Irish pub...
So Friday had arrived and after grabbing breakfast, we heading over to the stadium via electric scooters, and anyone who's been to a city in Europe recently will know exactly how fun and convenient street electric scooters are!
We arrived at the stadium and had a wander around the grounds before going inside. This ended up being a good plan because while deciding what to buy at the trade stands, we ended up bumping into Jimmy Oakes and Spoon who were the nicest guys. Then we met Dave Egan, one of the minds behind the whole event! Who, although being insanely busy, took the time to stop for a picture and a quick chat, what a guy! Oh! and while Ally was busy buying AdamLZ merch, I managed to grab a photo with the Nightride boys on their way back from the bar.
After spending most of our money on merch, it was finally time to head inside and see what all the hype was about and it honestly lived up to it. Walking inside and seeing a custom built drift track inside a stadium was honestly mind blowing and the atmosphere made it even more special.
With Qualifying over and the line up set for competition the next day, we jumped back on the scooters and headed back into town and straight to the Irish pub where we actually found one of the drivers who was competing the next day sinking pints! Only in drifting eh...
Saturday rolled around and it was game day. The whole day from start to finish was just insane. The atmosphere, the noise, the smoke, the driving and being able to see Conor Shanahan lift the trophy after an intense couple of battles and hearing the stadium filled with 55,000 drift fans erupt with cheer was something I'll never forget.
The whole trip was an experience like no other, so much so that when we found out the 2024 final was going back to Poland we had to get tickets and we cannot wait to do it all again!