It was last weekend, on the 24th and 25th of August, that another edition of the Pinhel Drift , the Drift capital, counting for the Portuguese Drift Championship and for the International Drift Cup.
Participation was large, with thousands of people moving to the industrial area where the Municipality of Pinhel and Clube Escape Livre organized this year's edition, which was attended by 33 riders for the Portuguese Championship and 18 riders for the International Cup.
The winners
The big winner in the Pinhel Drift was the French driver Laurent Cousin (BMW), when he took two victories, one in the Portuguese Drift Championship — won for the first time by a foreign driver — and another in the International Drift Cup, in the PRO category . Still in the International Drift Cup, the winner in the SEMI PRO category was Fábio Cardoso.
In the Portuguese Drift Championship, Luís Mendes, in his first participation in the championship, achieved victory in the Beginners category, beating Nuno Ferreira, who reinforced his leadership in this category with second place. Paulo Pereira finished the podium.
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In the SEMI PRO category, João Vieira (Janita), the youngest Drift driver, was the winner, beating the hitherto unbeatable Fábio Cardoso, who took second place. The podium would be closed by Ricardo Costa.
In the premier class, the duel had an international flavor, with Laurent Cousin and Diogo Correia (BMW), the current national champion and championship leader, battling each other for victory. And as already mentioned, he would be the French rider to climb to the highest place on the podium. In third place was Ermelindo Neto.
Despite Cousin's victory, the latter, by not scoring for the Portuguese Drift Championship, allowed Diogo Correia to consolidate his leadership in the national championship.
Final note to Rui Pinto, the Pinhel Drift ambassador, who brought his new machine to Pinhel Drift, a Nissan, but ran into youth problems that denied him the possibility of qualifying.