For those who may not know you, please introduce yourself and what you do.

“Hi my name is Jakub Przygoński, I’ve been involved in motorsports for around 25 years. I started from motocross and enduro, I did Dakar Rally six times on a motorbike and seven times in a car. My best result on the bikes is sixth overall and fourth overall in the cars category. Around 12 years ago I became interested in drifting and so the first car I started drifting with was a BMW E30 325 with 170HP.

With this car I was driving to my university and also on the weekends learning drifting. The next car I had was a Nissan S14 with a 1JZ engine and then the third car was a Toyota AE86 with an engine from a Mitsubishi Evo 8. After that I jumped to a GT86 which until now I continue to drive.”

What do you love about drifting?

“I really enjoy drifting because I think everyone who is driving the car is having the most fun and has the biggest smile on their face in the moment when you go sideways. Because of this I really enjoy drifting, I remember the first corners that I drifted with my BMW and from that moment I was really excited about drifting. On the other hand drifting is so nice because spectators also enjoy drifting from the side of watching because it’s really nice to see smoke, street cars with a lot of power, you know, driving sideways. This is a really nice sport from two sides, not only for drivers but also for spectators.”

What advice would you give to someone who wants to compete in drifting?

“If you want to compete in drifting these days, I think the easiest way to start is sim racing. Because the quality and the level of sim racing is so high, you can learn everything in front of your PC before jumping to the real car directly and then you can enjoy drifting in real life. Also I think starting with sim racing is much cheaper, easier and gives you a lot of fun which is almost the same as real driving.”

What is your favourite track to drive in Drift Masters?

“My favourite track in Drift Masters? I think I enjoy a lot Bikernieki track in Riga, Latvia. This is a really cool track with a powerful entry with really tight corner but it’s like power drift. Also on the other hand I really enjoy driving on the PGE Stadium with 50,000 spectators, because the track is very technical and everyone is touching doors.”

How do you deal with pressure when competing?

“Drifting is a really short sport with short runs around 20 to 30 seconds, which means you need to have everything perfect from beginning to end. Small mistakes like the wrong clutch kick, wrong throttle management or even small mistakes with the handbrake makes you lose the battle. Because of this you have a lot of pressure inside your mind. I think the easiest way to solve this is to train as much as possible, because if you’re training a lot your head will be stronger.”

What is your favourite engine for drifting?

“My favourite engine, of course the 2JZ is the king of drifting but for two years now we have been developing B58 engine from BMW. It is alluminum, lighter and a more modern engine but it is quite complicated. The new engine has a lot of sensors and wires which is quite complicated to manage but we are choosing the hard way and I hope this year the car works really good.”

How important is it to have a good team when competing?

“Drifting is changing for sure, many years ago I was driving on the track alone with my car. With the car on the trailer I was changing the tyres, and changing the tyre pressure by myself. In these days in Drift Masters at a high competition level you need to have a big team to support you. With tyre changing, with engine engineering, with all the things that are coming together with the car.

You need everything performing at a high level because those cars now have around 800 horsepower and they are really powerful but they are more complicated than they were ten years ago.”

So you think the sim is a good learning tool for drifting?

“I think sim is the best way to start drifting and the best way to understand drifting. You could spend your first, I don’t know, fifty to one hundred hours learning drifting in the sim. Then you could join with the real car on a real track and I think you would know directly what to do for drifting. This is quite a new thing but I think it is really nice.”

If you could own any car, what would it be?

“I really like cars from the 80s and 90s, those cars for me are the nicest. I really like to make small changes in those cars, I add only bigger wheels and a little bit lower springs. In the 80s and 90s there was no technology to build proper big wheels and now those cars are getting a second life. Of course there is Lamborghini which is really nice or Ferrari from 80s or 90s and those cars I really enjoy.”

Any message for your fans, our readers or any plans for 2025?

“Of course, I invite all the fans to our service place during Drift Masters. We can have a small chat or they can get an autograph. Come visit us and see our car as this season we visit seven countries which means we can visit most of Europe.”

• You can find out more about Kuba at his official website.
• Follow his instagram to keep up to date during the season.
• Find out more about Drift Masters.