At the age of 15, Nikolass Bertāns becomes the youngest Latvian, Livonian and Baltic champion in drifting
Bertans came to this race already as the overall leader, although with only 1 point advantage over the Lithuanian Benediktas Chirba. In the qualification, Bertāns set the third best result, remaining behind Bluš and the Lithuanian Ivanauskas. During the competition, the organizers decided that the Top 24 will be raced in the tandem battles, which meant that Bertans automatically entered the TOP16.
Raivis Alkshars faced Nikolass in the Top16, both athletes have their debut season in the PRO class this year. Raivis shows a good performance throughout the season, he is slowly getting to know his new car, PRO class speeds and tracks, but in this fight Nikolas was stronger.
In the Top 8 battle for entry into the TOP 4, Nikolass' opponent was the Lithuanian Zabulionis, as the Lithuanian drove into a concrete wall in his previous tandem battle, until the tandem with Nikolass he failed to fix his car, as a result, Nikolas automatically entered the Top 4.
In the Top 4 Bertans faced Blush, this fight was certainly expected by the majority of the audience and also by Nikolass himself, besides, before the Top 4 fights Bertans had already secured the title of champion in the overall standings. In the following races, both pilots demonstrated a fantastic and very similar battle on the track, however, Nikolass drove a more precise leading race, thus celebrating the victory in this battle.
The final fight for the first place with the Lithuanian Andrius Vasiliauskas, who was also one of the main contenders for the title of champion of his country, right at the Riga stage. Bertans continued to demonstrate fast and accurate driving in the final battle, however, he turned around in the following race. On the other hand, Vasiliauskas, driving ahead, driving at too high a speed on the straight towards the stands, overdid it and was forced to reduce speed rapidly, braking at an angle, as a result of which Bertans was forced to avoid a collision, which was also the reason for the spin. The judges evaluated this ride for a long time, as a result Bertans was recognized as the winner in this battle and also in the last stage.
Nikolass Bertāns, Latvian drift driver: "I'm happy, of course I'm happy about this outcome of the season. I started the 2020 season already in January in Oman, which definitely gave me confidence at the beginning of the season. This summer turned out to be very intense and intense. The biggest competitors were my Lithuanian teammate Benediktas Chirba, who started with a borrowed car in the last two stages, which also prevented him from fighting to the end, and Estonian Oliver Randalu. The debut season and the championship title are a very important achievement for me, but I understand that this is only the beginning of my career, I still have so much to learn, train, and seeing the performance of the other Latvians this year, they will not let me win so easily next year, ahead it will be a very tough fight in the 2021 season, I know that for sure, and I can't wait! I want to say a huge thank you to all my supporters, my family, my team who believe in me and motivate me, and of course to all the drifters for a fantastic season!”
After this stage, Bertān's closest competitors, Benediktas Čirba, ranked second in the Baltic standings, trailing Bertāns by 54 points, while Estonian Oliver Randalu was in third place.
If we look at the season as a whole, Bertāns started the season in the semi-pro class for training purposes, according to the LAF rules, athletes have the opportunity to change the test class once a season. At this stage, Bertans convincingly won the first place in the competition and the first place in the qualification.
Next stage in Estonia, first official PRO class race in career, debut first in qualifying and first in competition.
A week after the Estonian competition, the next stage in Lithuania already followed, in the difficult track configuration on the Palanga viaduct, Bertāns had an emergency in practice, fourth place in qualifying and top 8 in the competition, which was also the most unsuccessful race of the season.
On August 2, Bertāns finally got the opportunity for the first time as a PRO class pilot to drive the big drift configuration of the Biķernieki track, the Drift Masters competition was ahead, and he had to start preparing for it.
A week after the training and before DMEC, Bertāns went to the next stage in Laitse Rally Park in Estonia, one of the most difficult PRO stages for Latvian athletes, in terms of accidents, in this stage Bertāns took 2nd place in the qualification and 3rd place in the competition.
Drift Masters, one of the biggest adventures of the season, international athletes, the first official PRO competition on the home track and immediately in the European Drift Championship. The debut in the strongest championship of European drifting did not turn out as desired, a very painful loss after the crossing to the four-time Czech champion and King of Europe 2018 champion Marco Zakouril is already in the top 32, 6th place in the qualification.
Less than a week later, the next round followed, this time the Northern European Drift Championship at the dangerous witch's cauldron, which is one of Bertan's favorite track configurations, as it was there that Nikolass first qualified in his first Semi Pro race and won his first tandem. Rain, changing weather conditions, fierce competition, 7th place in the qualification and again climbing to the top step of the podium.
It should be noted that Bertans managed to be first in the qualification and first in the competition 3 times in a row during two seasons. This season, out of six races, Bertans has won four and took third place in one, so in 6 races, 5 podiums.
The next stage was planned for the dangerous Kehala track with the big jump, which would certainly change even more in the overall standings, but since there was no opportunity for Latvian athletes to go to this competition, where the Latvian championship stage would also take place, the competition was cancelled.
The season was concluded in Biķernieki. In his debut season in the PRO class, Bertāns has become the Latvian, Livonian (combined Latvian and Estonian) and Baltic champion in the 2020 season, as well as Bertāns' newly created, first Baltic drift team "Baltic Drift team", in which he drives together with the Lithuanian Benediktas Chirba, takes a convincing first place in the overall ranking.
The full article is available here.