This year we will see 15 rookies in the Drift Masters European championship, and Clint van Oort is one of them. Last week Drift.news talked to Clint about the beginning of his drifting career, his first events, the Oman International drift championship and the upcoming Drift Masters season.
Clint van Oort drifter profile
Introduce yourself
My name is Clint van Oort. I’m from the Netherlands and live in the city of Utrecht.
When and where was the first time then you saw drifting? Your first emotions?
The first time I saw drifting was through friends living a street away from my home, and I was immediately hooked on it.
What are your first drift car and the circumstances of buying it? Why this model?
They drove E36, and we visited some events, and I just fell in love with the sport, and we decided my dad and me to buy a car and try it out ourselves.
Evolution of your drift cars
The first car we bought was a Nissan 300ZX Z31 had it for a year, but it was a hard car to start in, and only a few aftermarket parts for it. So without looking for out there popped a Skyline R32 on our path and bought that. It was RHD also drove that from my 18 until 22. After that, I wanted to go LHD again and found the car I’m currently driving, S14 2JZ.
That was in 2018-2019. We built the car and did some events with it at that point. It was 2JZ with a BMW gearbox, nothing special.
But over the years, it involved, and in 2019 I got in touch with Sebastian Fontijn, and we started to hang out a lot together and started to get excellent friends in 2020
We did a lot of practice together and focused on the proximity of the line chasing, leading etc., a thing I had never done before because I was “drifting” and didn’t know how to improve myself etc. Still, Sebastian taught me a lot, and in 2021 we just had the idea to go together with the pro cars.
Now you drive Nissan with 2JZ. What’s the story behind it?
So there, the S14 got solid, and in 2020-2021 we completely rebuilt it until now. DBM engineering 2JZ, Samsonas gearbox, Winters diff, rear mount rad, Parts Shop Max suspension, BC Racing coilovers, Origin Labo body kit.
Do you remember your first drift event? If yes, tell us more about it.
My first drift event was at the Midland circuit in Lelystad with the Nissan 300ZX still. To this day, I practice there and do local competitions. Currently, it’s the only track in the Netherlands where we can drift.
And as I said, in 2021, Sebastian took me under his mentorship to Drift Masters and BDC. I met many new people and learned a lot from Seb. So we did the year 2021 together. We had a wildcard Riga, but that was the first time driving the car after being rebuilt with all the goodies and 800 HP.
For some of us, Oman IDC was the first championship where we heard the name, Clint. How did you get where?
So Seb asked me if I was interested in joining Oman for 2022 as he trusted me and saw potential in me, so I said yes, and that’s how I got into Oman. And 2022, I won the first round of OIDC and finished 4th in the season after a hectic few rounds with engine rebuilds, but we still had a great time. And 2022, I did some more events and went to Germany for the Nurburgring, managing to grab 2nd place. There did Iron Drift King and the Norwegian drift championship. And from there on, we are in 2023 and went to Oman again. Not the results we wanted, but we did our best to show our skills again!
What are your impressions about the championship? What was there a difference between 2022 and 2023?
About OIDC, between 2022 and 2023, they are continually improving the event in every way. The tracks, judging, and everything behind it is like meet and greets for the drivers and fans. It’s incredible how much work they put into it! Hats off to the OIDC organization.
This year you will compete in the Drift Masters European Championship. What are you looking for? What are your expectations?
In my eyes, there is no better championship than DMEC, and my opinion is if I can’t compete at the level of DMEC, I don’t know. I don’t think it’s worth putting that much time into the sport. Because for me, one thing counts, and that’s winning. I’m competitive. But DMEC is going to be extremely hard for me. I need to give it all, so now I have something like I don’t care. We are just going to give it a shot and see how far we get and drive 110%
