Motorsport ace Nally seeks support to maintain drifting ambitions
By Kevin O'Neill
With an impressive career already behind him in Irish karting, Tang native Ryan Nally is determined to make a huge impact on an emerging and exciting form of motorsport.
‘Drifting’ is a sport unlike many other forms of motorsports, with so-called ‘car drifting’ all about using ‘oversteer’ to get the vehicle to drive sideways through corners. This has to happen at a high speed and while the driver remains in full control of the car. And in recent years it has become one of Ireland’s fastest growing motorsports, often attracting massive crowds at both national and international competitions, with high levels of social media interest.
Ryan, a 21-year-old mechanical engineering student at TUS Midlands, Athlone, has been involved in motorsports since the age of 12, and transferred into drifting in 2024.
A former pupil at Ballymahon Vocational School, Ryan said: “I competed in many karting championships, including the Motorsport Ireland Championship, where I had many wins and podium finishes. I even got a look in at the T4 World Finals in 2020 and 2021 and got a seventh-placed finish. But I started considering other forms of motorsports after that.”
In a twist of fate, he bumped into professional Irish drifting star, Conor Shanahan, at a karting event. They got talking about the sport and Shanahan soon offered him an opportunity to purchase a car designed specifically for the discipline. And Ryan jumped at the chance, as switching codes was something he had considered before.
“I had plenty of competitive experience under my belt but wanted to step up from the karts and try something bigger. With drifting starting to really take off in Ireland in the last few years, breaking the Mondello Park spectator record multiple times, I decided to see what the fuss was all about,” said Ryan, a son of John and Lesley Nally.
In 2024, he made his debut Pro 2 season in the Irish Drift Championship (IDC), in his 350bhp Nissan Silvia PS13. Making an instant impact, Ryan grabbed second-place in the Rookie Championship, just missing out on the top step by two points.
After this result, he was offered to jump the chance to on to Pro Class for 2025.
“It was something I considered but with the average Pro 2 cars being 400-500hp and Pro cars 600hp to even nearly 1000hp, we decided to take the 2025 season out to carry out upgrades to the car,” he explained.
In the family garage, Ryan and his father set about the task, replacing the engine to a higher level, and installing a new diesel BMW gearbox, along with many other drivetrain and suspension upgrades. Such improvements come at a high cost, said Ryan, but managing to call on his father’s knowledge of motorsports helped immensely.
“It helped a lot with the cost but work such as fabrication, wiring and tuning had to be done externally which was expensive.
"The cost of competing is expensive, too, so although we have a few generous sponsors at the moment, we are hoping more can come on board and help us out,” said Ryan.
“A typical competition weekend consists of Friday and Saturday morning practice, and then into the qualifying which is followed by the Top 32. Only 32 drivers qualify for competition grid out of nearly 100 drivers.
The top eight in the Pro 2 on the Saturday go through to the Pro competition on Sunday.
“On a dry weekend you would typically go through six to eight sets of tyres during Friday practice, and depending on how far you get in the competition, you can go through another six sets on Saturday, and an additional six to eight sets of semi-slicks on Sunday. Also, you use anywhere around 50 to 100 litres of fuel,” he explained.
Ryan described the sport of drifting as “extremely strenuous” on both the car itself and its mechanical components.
“Preparation of the car is vital before every event. A full service, strip-down and rebuild of anything breakable, and also upkeep of the bodywork, is very important, as style plays a big role in the sport," he said.
"The costs of running the car and competing are huge. We have tried to do this ourselves but to be competitive moving forward we need help financially and with products,” Ryan added.