Drift Masters

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Drift Masters, often called DM, DMGP, or DMEC, is a European drifting series that began in 2014. It’s regarded as the biggest drifting series in Europe and one of the world’s largest. Each season crowns a drivers’ champion and a country’s teams champion, and since 2024 there’s also a Rookie of the Year for the best debut driver.

History in brief
- 2014: Drift Masters Grand Prix started as a Polish national series with three rounds. A Drivers Search qualifying event helped pick the top talents. The season’s prize pool was 120,000 PLN, with 40,000 PLN going to the top five finishers at each round. Piotr Więcek won the first round.
- 2015: The series expanded to 12 rounds in six locations, but the Wałbrzych round was canceled.
- 2016: The series added an international round in Riga, Latvia. Polish driver Paweł Borkowski won “King of Riga.” All rounds were broadcast on Polish TV (nSport+).
- 2017: The calendar was reduced to six single rounds, and the format changed to a larger Top 32 final. Adam Zalewski won the championship; Piotr Więcek did not compete that year, after joining Formula Drift USA.
- 2018: Rebranded as Drift Masters European Championship (DMEC). Arkadiusz Dudko became CEO, linking with Zigen Promotions. James Deane won the DMEC title and the Formula Drift title in the same year.
- 2019: Red Bull Media House began broadcasting rounds live on Red Bull TV with multi-language commentary.
- 2020–2021: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the schedule. 2020 saw only the King of Riga event; 2021 had several planned rounds canceled or moved, with the final in Georgia also canceled after four events.
- 2022–2023: The series returned to a full six-round schedule in 2022. In 2023, a record 55,000 spectators attended Round 6 in Warsaw, the largest crowd for a drifting event at the time.
- 2024: The series was rebranded to remove “European Championship,” signaling a move toward a global drift series. The year also marked the 10th anniversary and introduced a qualifying showdown for extra points.
- 2025: The first round at Vallelunga in Rome was canceled after the Pope Francis death. Dave Egan stepped back from commentary to drive full-time; Jacob Gettins took over as commentator. Conor Shanahan won the drivers’ championship, while Ireland took the teams’ title.

How the competition works
- Each round starts with two qualifying runs. Judges score each run up to 100 points, based on set criteria.
- The top qualifiers move into tandem battles, where two drivers race head-to-head in two runs. Winners advance through knockout rounds (Top 32, Top 16, Top 8) to a final.
- The final winner earns the most championship points (the winner gets 100 points; others receive fewer based on finishing position).
- In 2025, three main judges rotate per round, with Maciej Polody as competition director.

Notes
- Drift Masters publishes official statistics that exclude data prior to 2018.