Last weekend saw the 2021 Drift Masters Virtual Championship (DMVC) roar into life for the first time ever. As the world of drifting comes to a halt due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Drift Masters Virtual Championship gave fans their first taste of sideways action in 2021.

Round 1 brought our virtual drivers and fans to the Biķernieku Trase of Riga, Latvia. A high stakes, high reward circuit that was ready to separate the 24 DMVC and 8 DMEC drivers. DMEC drivers Piotr Więcek, Tor Arne Kvia, Sebastian Fontijn, Conor Shanahan, Martin Richards, Pawel Korpulinski, Adam Zalewski, and Alan Hynes took to the grid to do battle.

With 96 virtual drifters vying for the title of DMVC 2021 champion, the standard of competition was always going to be high but with fresh eyes on the world of virtual drifting, it was time for drivers to step up their game…and that they did.

Come qualifying it was Prodrift Academy driver Alan Hynes leading the charge and would top the board with a blistering 97 point run. The Irishman’s speed and precision winning over the judges and cementing him a bye run come the Top 32 battles.

Notably, as competition heated up and the bracket narrowed to the Top 4, 3 of the remaining drivers were DMEC competitors. Pawel Korpuliński, Alan Hynes, and Conor Shanahan proving that they can go door to door with the best on and offline.

And come the curtain call, it was sim-drifter turned professional drifter Alan Hynes that would claim the perfect start to his DMVC season taking the overall event win after an insane finale against Canadian Steven Hatcher.

With Round 2 just weeks away and the scores reset to zero, a fresh batch of DMVC drivers go head to head for their shot at glory. The big question left unanswered though is, what track will do they do battle on? Stay tuned to find out!