Conor Shanahan: 'It's nuts, if it was any other sport, it would absolutely blow up with the Irish public'
Conor Shanahan during Stop 4 of the European Drift Masters in Hämeenlinna, Finland.
Did you hear the one about the three Irishmen from the same small village in Cork who finished the Formula DRIFT PRO season on the podium in the United States?
Unless you were among the 70-strong Killavullen delegation who made the trip Long Beach or you visited the official Formula D website, you may not have heard, but it happened less than two weeks ago.
And that frustrates Conor Shanahan, who won his first FD title on October 23, five weeks after narrowly missing out on retaining his European Drift Masters crown despite winning the Warsaw finale in front of 55,000 spectators.
He pipped his neighbour James Deane to victory in California, while his brother Jack finished third overall.
Deane, a five-time champion who has spent 20 years in the sport and who won the European and US double eight years ago, beat Shanahan's older brother Jack in the Long Beach final but crucially came up six points shy of the overall winner.
"It's something that I've always wanted and so nice to finally have it. It's quite cool," Shanahan said. "The only stinger over the year is that I didn't do the double. Winning in Europe would have been amazing, but two big mechanicals cost us a lot. But I did have the highest results of everybody between the two championships, and that's still a huge achievement."
That all three drivers hail from close to the banks of the River Blackwater near Mallow, makes the achievement even more remarkable.
"If you break down what has happened, it's nuts, and I think if it was any other sport, it would absolutely blow up with the Irish public," Shanahan argued.
"I fully believe that it should. Like, we're driving at the highest level of a sport in a world championship and there is literally one mile radius between each other in a small place in this country."
The story was the talk of the teams at the end-of-season banquet in Long Beach, where Shanahan received his trophy.
"The other teams really understood it after myself, Jack and James' speeches. When they came to us afterwards, the talk was, 'whatever about being friends, that you all come from the same place is insane'," he recalled.
The title also marks the end of what Shanahan describes as a difficult journey. Last year, he took on management of his own team in the States while competing in his first full Formula DRIFT season and leading the Drift Masters standings in Europe.
The pressure took its toll, and Shanahan considered taking this year off to reset.
"It was becoming mentally demanding, and I started to ask myself probably the wrong questions, like, 'Is it me? Am I doing something wrong here?'
"It just kind of built up to the point at the end where I was just like, 'Damn, I don't know if I can do this again', and it was a weird contrast because I was fighting for my second title in Europe, while it was going so wrong in the States. Hard emotions to balance.
"That's when I made the decision, 'Okay, something needs to change if I'm going to come back and fight at the front of both championships'.
"This is my job now. I'm growing up and have to make sure that it's paying my bills, and it's a lot of stress to make that happen. And when you own your own team and stuff starts to go wrong, it gets very expensive very fast."
A "very simple" 20-minute phone conversation with US-based team owner Jerry Yang provided the change he needed. Shanahan joined Yang's team and drove a newly prepared car, powered by a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 out of a Nissan R35 Skyline, but its platform was similar to the car he drives in Europe.
After winning the opening round in America, Shanahan endured a mid-season dip and feared his title hopes had slipped away. Back-to-back victories in the third-last and second-last rounds brought him back into contention and secured a first DRIFT championship for both driver and team owner.
Shanahan is quick to acknowledge the support and opportunities he already receives from Red Bull and his other backers, but naturally hopes the success will help the team expand and attract partners.
Drifting is highly professional at the top level, but only 10 to 15 drivers make their living from it full-time. "It's a small window, and trying to stay in that window is obviously the hardest thing for us," Shanahan explained.
"But Drifting is going in the right direction, especially in America, and it's really after taking off this year. Our story has brought a lot of attention to it. American people love that story; they just find it hard to fathom with the geography of it.
"From the media networking side, it will hopefully turn into even more of a story and let the championship grow as big as it can."
However, access to training facilities in Ireland is limited. Watergrasshill karting track, around half an hour away, is expensive to hire because its day-to-day business must stop to accommodate their training, while other private tracks are few and far between.
"We want to have the opportunity to stay here but it's becoming super difficult to train in the country now," he said. "It's a very niche side of motorsport and I guess a lot of people don't have the same outlook on what we do.
"The next step for us would be to try to have a Drift training facility, but in this day and age to build a racetrack seems to be mission impossible. Hopefully that will change over time so we can represent Ireland more, maybe the Government could help us out.
"Maybe if things get really difficult, we'll either have to fly somewhere else to train or live somewhere else in the summer to train. But the goal would be to stay and try to eventually have something here, because Drifting in Ireland is booming. There's so much talent here that could go on and do huge things in the sport."
It will be another three weeks before the Shanahans and Deane know whether next year's European and American calendars will allow them to compete in both championships in 2027.
If dates clash, hard choices will have to be made and Shanahan is not prepared to say which series he would choose if forced to pick one.
He has also considered branching out but can't see himself following Alex Dunne's route into Formula 2, despite beginning his career in go-karting.
"I felt, in the nicest way possible, it was such a hard path to make it a realistic option. Given the investment involved, it would be such a big challenge," he said.
"What Alex is doing from this country is absolutely incredible and people don't realise the work ethic involved to be successful in that, the dedication involved but also the investment required.
"I felt like that was unachievable and unrealistic. If I was ever to do something else, it would be in rally or rallycross, something that still involves some sort of sliding.
"Ultimately down the line, if I stop driving, I'd like to own teams in a lot of championships. That would be the goal. But that's not my focus right now."
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