Thousands of people. It was under a human frame that broke records in the «Drift Capital», the city of Pinhel, that André Silva in the Pro class, Pedro Sousa in semi-Pro and Hélder Neto in beginners, rose to the highest places on the podium in the respective categories.
Training and qualifying, which always had attentive spectators, already suggested that the best drivers of the first test of the Portuguese Drift Championship, Diogo Correia and Nelson Rocha, would have to apply in depth in the face of stronger competition led by the young André Silva (debuting a new BMW), without forgetting Filipe Vieira, Sérgio Gomes, João Gonçalves or Ermelindo Neto.
Confirmation of a close battle
The battles showed that equality was only broken by an inspired André Silva who beat Diogo Correia in the final, leaving Nelson Rocha in 3rd and Filipe Vieira in 4th. Although he had come to Portugal to participate in the International Cup (held on Saturday night), Frenchman Sebastien Farbos also signed up for the Pinhel race for the Portuguese Drift Championship, and demonstrated his great category, although without direct correspondence in the results.
Unhappy on the weekend was Firmino Peixoto, a driver with firm credits but that a touch with another driver would prematurely remove him from the fight for the front places.
Rui Pinto, DRIFT ambassador in Pinhel, was below his possibilities, but he cheered the audience up with his Nissan pick up. In the beginners Hélder Neto won, confirming Guilhabreu's good performance, while Paulo Pereira finished ahead of Daniel Azevedo.
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André Silva in a night of glory
Saturday night hosted the International Cup and one of the biggest floods in the industrial area of Pinhel, also known as «Cidade Falcão».
After the track was recognized, battles dictated the choice of the best ones and André Silva started here to design a weekend that will remain in his memory. He won the International Cup, repeating last year's triumph in the Iberian Drift Cup, and beat Paulo Nunes, Sebastien Farbos and Rui Pinto who qualified in that order.
The Daniel Saraiva trophy, which the Clube Escape Livre instituted to reward Fair Play among the pilots, honors and remembers the Drift pilot in the region who disappeared prematurely and was given to Vitor Dias.
Organization satisfied with the success of Pinhel Drift
In the end Rui Ventura, President of the Municipality of Pinhel, expressed his satisfaction by referring that it was “ a winning bet for Pinhel and for the territory and a sporting and economic asset for the municipality”.
Luís Celínio, president of Clube Escape Livre, underlined “ we are proud to be the first to bring a car competition from a Portuguese Championship to the district. We will continue to work with FPAK and CAM, promoter of the Championship, to improve all organizational aspects.”