Witch Kettle 2017 | Who won the TOP16 battle?

In the past weekend, we attended one of this season's most anticipated races in all of Baltics- Latvian Drift Cup & NEZ Drift championship stages in the historic Witch Kettle part of Bikernieki race track. This was the race everyone was waiting for- because- in addition to the fact that Drifting in the Witch Kettle part of Bikernieki is an magnificent show for the spectators-

Witch Kettle is associated as one of the most obscure and complicated tracks in all the Baltics, so this race is a very technical and interesting experience for the drivers as well.

We kicked off the weekend with a training sesion on Friday- where both classes had 4 hours of free training. The weather was fantastic, the asphalt was dry and we had the chance to train full mode- to truly understand and adjust the car for the upcoming race, witch was really great! In trainings, the car felt fantastic and we managed to set up the perfect suspension settings witch set a good tone for the upcoming race day.

Saturday was the day it all went down! The only problem was that we woke up with very heavy rain witch didnt seem to stop anytime soon... This changed everything and we had to try and adapt to the new track conditions in the short, one hour- morning training session. In this hour on the track we had a chance to take a pretty good view of how the track should be driven in the wet conditions and I felt ready to take on the race day ahead. Ready or not, it was time to start the competition!

Qualification.

In qualifications, we had only one mission- to qualify for the top32 battles. As always, the first run was a "safe run"- to score some points, so I could go "all in" in the second one. So we did. In the first run I managed to score 64/100 points and had to improve my score in the 2nd run in witch I overshot a bit and I straightened my car. This meant that we had to make up with the score we had. The 64 points in my "safe run" were enough to put me in 20th place qualifying and enter the TOP32 bracket. Misson completed.

TOP32

My first opponent in the TOP32 battles was Kaspars Skrinda- who I had met in top8 battle in JelgavaDrift 2017. And once again we were against each other. This time on wet track conditions. After our first try, the judges could not set the better of us- so we had to OMT (one more time). The second time we entered the track- Kaspars made some major mistakes and it went like this:

Video: Latvian Drift Page

Win in the TOP32!

TOP16

In the TOP16 bracket, my opponent was Aleksandrs Murajs. Murajs is one of the championship leaders and I knew that I need to go "all in" in order to WIN this guy. So I did. After the first time, the judges could not agree on a result, once again, we had to OMT. The second time we entered the track it went like this:

Video: Latvian Drift Page

After this battle, I was quite confused about why the Judges made the decision in favor of Murajs because I was much closer to my opponent throughout the whole course- when following, and got all the boxes- when leading. But Murajs cut the first corner- when leading, and lost distance- before the finish, when following.

But this is something we- as Drifters- must accept. If the Judges think you lost- you LOST!

What are your thoughts of who should have won the TOP16 battle? Feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below.

But we try not to think too much about the past which we can't change and concentrate on our future plans. The main thing is that we entered the competition with great emotions, put on a great show, and had a hell of a good time, while doing what we love.

Big thanks to my sponsors for letting this all happen: