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After nearly a month-long break, the entire field of drivers competing in the 2025 Drift Masters season, along with a huge crowd of fans, gathered in Riga. It was there, at the well-known Biķernieku Trase circuit, beloved by fans of controlled drifting and motorsport enthusiasts, that the fifth round of Drift Masters took place on July 25–26. The event attracted as many as 44 drivers fighting for the title of the most precise competitor in the field.
This time, the bar was set really high – the cut-off score to enter the TOP32 during the Riga round was as high as 84.5 points, which is five points more than a month earlier, and as many as five Polish drivers advanced to the Saturday head-to-head battles. The level of competition was also shown by the fact that victory in the qualifying session was shared by four drivers. Juha Rintanen, Conor Shanahan, Piotr Więcek, and James Deane each scored 95.0 points, while Paweł Korpuliński, with a solid score of 90.0 points, was ranked 17th, just behind Dawid Sposób, who scored the same number of points.
This result meant not only solid runs by both Poles in qualifying – 16th and 17th places meant they faced each other already in the first phase of Saturday’s competition. Unfortunately, during the morning practice runs, there was an accident in which Paweł Korpuliński’s car suffered serious damage. The suspension at the front and rear, the steering system, steering rack, pump, and other parts were damaged. Although most of them were replaced in time, unexpectedly it turned out that the steering gearbox also needed repair – however, there was not enough time to replace it, causing the Pole not to make it to the starting line on time. As a result, fans could only watch Dawid Sposób’s bye-run, which allowed him to advance to the TOP16.
Only two Poles remained in the top sixteen, of whom only Piotr Więcek – the winner of the previous round at Mondello Park – advanced to the TOP8. There, he had to acknowledge the superiority of Jarkko Jylhä, and besides Więcek, James Deane, Nikolass Bertans, and Jack Shanahan made it to the top four. In the first semifinal, Bertans tried to perform well in front of his home crowd, but James Deane advanced to the final. In the second TOP4 duel, the Polish colors appeared again – Piotr Więcek, for the second time in a row, reached the final by defeating the experienced Irishman.
First, the spectators gathered in Riga watched the playoff between Nikolass Bertans and Jack Shanahan. The battle was quickly decided – the Irishman unexpectedly hit the barrier, which meant the 20-year-old Latvian took third place in his home round, avenging the final from two years earlier. This result undoubtedly heated up the emotions before the final clash between Piotr Więcek and James Deane. In the fight for the title of King of Riga, Piotr Więcek first, as the lead driver, gave no chance to his rival, flawlessly and effectively escaping, and then as the chasing driver stuck close to the opponent, avoiding going off track with his wheels – something the Irishman failed to do. Thus, by a unanimous judges’ decision, Piotr Więcek won the Drift Masters round for the second time in a row, and the title of King of Riga returned to Poland.
Thanks to spectacular driving and perfection throughout the whole weekend, it was the Pole who became the leader of the overall standings, with 298 points to his name. Second place fell to Conor Shanahan with 278 points, and third was James Deane, who was also in the final, with 229 points. Despite the unfortunate accident that excluded him from the competition, Paweł Korpuliński still holds a high ninth place in the overall classification with 164 points. The next round will take place on August 14–16, 2025, at the Ferropolis circuit in Dessau, Germany.
