Fieldnotes: Drift Masters Germany at the Incredible Ferropolis

Germany’s Ferropolis is such a unique, incredible location for a drift course. While it feels like an island when you’re there, it’s technically a peninsula that juts out into a man-made lake in what used to be a strip mine. It’s still home to several massive excavators that make for a crazy backdrop for some of Europe’s best drifting talent and Drift Masters Round Six.

I flew into Frankfurt, then took the train four-and-a-half hours to the Berlin airport to pick up my rental car. I got a Volkswagen T-Cross, which is a subcompact SUV. I’m not a huge fan of newer VWs, but it drove well and got good gas mileage. I drove to my hotel, which was nice. It was basic, and didn’t have AC, but they gave me a couple fans that I had running the entire time I was there. They did a pretty good job keeping it cool.

The next day I drove to the track and got some ice cream, since you know I love my ice cream. I spent some time just checking out the track and the location. It’s just so different to anywhere else. There’s even a beach a two or three minute walk away from the track that you can go cool off at. Sadly, I left my swim trunks at home. I know some of the other media dudes and drivers went down there.

They did a practice session both during the day and at night on the first day, with a break in the middle, so that was pretty cool. The track looks sick in the dark. I went to McDonald’s after the night session since it was the only thing that was open. It was solid. I just got some nuggets, pretty basic stuff.

The next morning I had some pretty killer Nutella pancakes on my way to the track. Of everything I ate on this trip, those really stood out to me. Pretty good breakfast ahead of the second day, which included some more practice time before they eventually got into qualifying.

They did something kind of interesting with their two qualifying laps. Instead of doing them back-to-back like most series, they had the drivers do one lap during the day and then their second lap at night. That was pretty awesome to watch, and then afterwards they did this big reveal of an RWB car called Artemis. Dave Egan did donuts around it in his Supra while they were unveiling it. Pretty rad, and the car looks sick.

The Top 32 kicked off Friday afternoon after some more practice in the morning. That was a lot of fun to shoot. Afterwards there was a big break ahead of the Top 16 that included your typical autograph session and some other festivities. Then they had a Top 16 opening ceremony / parade that was pretty cool because it was our only chance to actually physically go out on the track. For media, we were only allowed to stand at the barrier along the outside of the course. Anyways, that was sick and I really enjoyed the ceremony.

The Top 16 kicked off pretty late at night, around 9 pm, and they had everything lit up and got the flames going. Getting to see the Top 32 during the day and then the Top 16 at night was rad because you got the best of both worlds.

The night had some really killer battles that have set the final round up to be really interesting. Conor and Jack Shanahan met in the semifinals after having battled in the finals at Ferropolis last season, so it was even more interesting than a battle between brothers would normally be. Conor got the win over his big brother and moved on to a final battle with Piotr Więcek, which Więcek won, taking the season lead. Conor’s in third overall now, with Pawel Korpulinski in second.

That was a wrap on a really sick event. Ferropolis is incredible as a venue, and Drift Masters puts on an awesome show every round. I left the track and drove back to Berlin, where my hotel was, and I had to get gas on the way. I’d used just under half a tank in the VW, and it cost almost $70 to fill up. Insane. Gas was like €2.12 a liter, which equates to almost $10 a gallon. I was very thankful the rental price for the car was cheap.

I didn’t get to do as much sightseeing in Germany as I would’ve liked to. Most of my time outside of the event was taken up by travel, especially my first day that was kind of a mess. After way too few hours of sleep, I returned my rental car and made it to the airport where I had the best croissant I’ve had in my life. It was fresh and still had the greasy butter on it from them making it. Just awesome.

Drift Masters continues to impress, and I’m very much looking forward to the final round in Poland next week. Check out my full event gallery here!