Fieldnotes: Drift Masters Finland

Finland’s Ahvenisto Race Circuit is definitely one of the coolest tracks I’ve ever been to. Ian Waddington, one of the Drift Masters announcers, accurately compared it to a rollercoaster. 

I had a layover in Amsterdam before finally flying into Helsinki, and on that flight I realized I was on the same plane as Jacob Gettins, the other announcer. After we landed he kindly offered to share an Uber with me, saving me from having to take public transportation all the way to my Airbnb. The Uber got me close, but the town the track is in is so in the middle of nowhere that I still had to wait two hours for a train to take me the last little bit of the way. That gave me a chance to grab some food.

The next morning I made it to the track after taking a wrong turn three times and hiking uphill for 20 minutes with all my camera gear. The media meeting went well and it wasn’t long before practice kicked off and the roller coaster of a track let the drivers start showing off.

The course started out with a pretty massive uphill that turned into a super sick downhill section that had drivers hitting 160 kph, right around 100 mph, and in true Drift Masters fashion there were flame throwers outside the last turn. The hills surrounding the track gave the fans some pretty awesome spots to watch everybody sending it.

Speaking of fans, the crowd was pretty insane. Finns really love their drifting, and the place was sold out. Even with so many spectator areas, the place felt packed. It made for a super dope atmosphere for all the drivers.

Qualifying kicked off in the afternoon and you could tell that the drivers were really pushing hard. The track looked even faster with them going all-out to get a spot in the Top 32. This round saw Krisse Aalto make history as the first-ever woman qualifier in Drift Masters history, made even more special because she’s Finnish.

After qualifying was over I went to a supermarket to get some food for my Airbnb since it was even more in the middle of nowhere than the track. The house I was staying in was super, super nice and also super cheap. It was like a private guest house that I had all to myself, and for three nights it was just around $220 total.

Sunday morning included a couple more hours of practice before the Top 32 kicked off in front of a packed spectator area. There was a pretty heavy crash involving Nasser Alharbali and his sick 400Z, but he advanced to the Top 16. Luckily there’s a decent break between the end of the Top 32 and the start of the 16, and I’m not kidding when I say there were seven teams all working on getting his car back together. It was really cool to see everybody come together to try and get him back out there.

They had a ceremony and parade after the break and we got to go out on track to shoot that, which was pretty cool. All of the battles in the Top 16 were super sick, and Jack Shanahan ended up winning with Benediktas Cirba getting second and Oliver Randalu third. Shanahan defeated James Deane in their matchup in the Top 8 on his way to his first DM win in 1,077 days. His brother, Conor, suffered a mechanical failure before his Top 32 matchup with Cirba.

With the competition wrapped up, I headed for my next stop in Vantaa, a little north of Helsinki. I got to see the sights for a couple of days before heading back home. Before I got to my Airbnb in the city, I had to grab some ice cream. If you know me, you know I’m big on my ice cream, and Finnish ice cream didn’t disappoint. Really good. The little studio apartment I stayed in was really nice, too. Also really cheap at like $118 for two nights. Hard to beat.

Helsinki’s a really cool, really nice city. I checked out a farmer’s market and a cool hobby store that had handmade trains and cars. I’m sorry to say I wasn’t the biggest fan of the food in Finland. They’re big on vegan and vegetarian stuff, but I’m more of a steak kind of guy and the $40 one I got was just okay, not great. Spain still holds the top spot for food from my travels to cover Drift Masters. I also tried a McDonald’s sometime during the weekend, and it was decent, but not as good as some other countries.

All-in-all, Finland was pretty sick and Ahvenisto is an insane track. It was an awesome experience to be there for yet another great round of Drift Masters, and I’m super excited to be covering Round 6 in Germany soon.

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