Conor Shanahan: The Irish teenage prodigy moving forwards, by driving sideways

"There are often times people ask me, 'how did you do that?' and I'm like, 'I don't have a clue'.

"I left the start line and everything happened. If you asked me are you 100% sure you are going to be able to do this? No. It just happens.

"It's muscle memory from driving cars all my life, learning everything I know.

"I hope to keep learning until the day it all ends. I don't want to stop learning because that is the day you will stop becoming successful."

Conor Shanahan may only be 19, but this teenage prodigy speaks well beyond his years.

Every since he stepped into a drift car aged 11, the Irish driver has been destined to become a star.

His older brother, Jack, is a double British drifting champion, while his father John won multiple titles in rallying and mother Valerie is the only Irish woman to win a national championship. Talk about it being in your genes.

"I started racing at six or seven in karts, same as many kids in Ireland and all over the world, with the dream of thinking one day I was going to drive a F1 car," added Shanahan.

"I grew up at a race track basically. I got into racing karts and, obviously, when it comes to the financial side, it is quite demanding.

"I went away from it, tried different things and then my brother got into drifting. He became very successful at a young age.

"For me, I wouldn't have said drifting is the thing I 100% I wanted to do. I then remember watching a couple of events and thinking, 'yeah, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life'.

"When I was 11 or 12, that was when I started to drive full-time basically. It's been an incredible journey."

Since then, Shanahan has been a revelation and is the youngest driver to win professional drifting events at British, Irish and European level - where he defeated compatriot James Deane at the Polish round of the 2018 Drift Masters aged 15.

Drifting, as Shanahan describes it, is "driving in control, fully out of control. You are trying to be inch perfect while the car is completely out of control".

Drivers compete in individual timed runs around a course, earning points for their proximity to the clipping points, their speed throughout the course and the amount of style with which they do so. They then enter into a drift battle with drivers going side by side, just centimetres apart.

The European Drift Masters, where Shanahan races, contains the best drivers in the world, and the Cork teenager has eyes on challenging for the title in 2023.

"The sport is incredibly competitive and exciting to watch. For a driver, it's quite hard to push to the limits and understand it.

"An easy way to explain it for me is that it is different to racing a car. It's like getting on a BMX and being able to explain your personality through tricks.

"Drifting is the same. You can explain who you are as a person through your driving.

"Not many sports are like that, especially car sports, so it's an exciting motorsport and I'm definitely glad to be part of it."

Shanahan says the dream was "to make this my job" and his advice to young athletes is to "just go for it".

Having shown his talent on the Grand Tour programme aged just 13, he has won in almost every car he has sat in, from when he started racing to the biggest stages in Europe.

"My age helped because I didn't understand everything enough," Shanahan added, when asked how he dealt with being in the spotlight from such a young age.

"I never really looked at it as a job or a reason why I needed to win. I did it because it was fun, and my mum and dad were incredibly supportive and I was very lucky."

Despite his success, however, Shanahan says it was a season in 2019 that taught him the most in motorsport.

"I won a lot at a young age - I was very rarely not on a podium at pro-am level or even pro level - and I had one bad year in 2019," he said.

"I went to Europe and I built a new car, and I always say it is probably the best year I ever had because losing is so important.

"It's important to realise that you always can't win. Stuff can go against you and, personally, there are days where you aren't going to perform at 100%.

"I feel it is a big thing, there are always going to be eyes on you and you are always going to be nervous, but you have to try and use that as excitement.

"That's the biggest thing to get across, believe in yourself. I'm a competitive person, I don't like losing no matter what I am doing. Whether I am playing pool or driving a drift car, I want to win."