McKeever is back to the ‘four’ after frustrating season

DUANE McKeever admits that while his fourth Irish title win has eased the pain of what has been a frustrating campaign, he’s still disappointed at how his year has panned out.

Having pushed Lauri Heinonen all the way during last season’s Drift Masters series – essentially the European championship – the Coalisland man was hopeful of going one better this time around.

Unfortunately for ‘The Northern Smoke Machine’ mechanical woes straight from the off blighted his bid which has been left in tatters.

And while he has travelled to every round of the series, he has been unable to be competitive through no fault of his own.

But when one door closes, another can open, and that was the case with McKeever’s 2025. Just when things reached their darkest point, he saw some light at the end of the tunnel with sponsor, Strom Wheels asking him to drive their S15 machine in the Irish Drift Series, winning the first round, which led to him deciding to do the whole championship. That proved a fruitful decision as he pipped Harry Kerr during a thrilling season finale in County Kerry, much to McKeever’s relief.

“It’s good to get something done this year!,” he exclaimed. “It definitely softens the blow of how disappointing it’s been.

“It’s been a mixture of bad luck from multiple things, I don’t actually know what it comes down to – it certainly wasn’t just the one thing – but it’s all added up to a year of bad luck.

“It’s been disappointing considering how close I got [to the Drift Masters title] last year but that’s the way drifting goes.

“Honestly, it’s just bad luck because I put everything new into the car this year.”

Meanwhile, McKeever was aiming to sign off on a high over the weekend during the final round of the Drift Masters series in Poland, where he won last year. Unfortunately, he was unable to repeat the trick as a couple of less than favourable judging decisions cost him dearly, most notably in the Top 16 against Naoki Nakamura, which most in attendance through he had won.

The judging panel thought otherwise and that ended his participation in the event and for the season.