We made some noise recently about last weekend’s Red Bull Car Park Drift in Abu Dhabi (hope you stayed glued to Red Bull TV). A couple of weeks ago though, we experienced drifting in an entirely different arena: indoors and on ice.

Hosted in the Dubai Mall, the TAG-Heuer Ice Race is a bi-annual event organised by timepiece retailer Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons and runs in collaboration with in-store promotions and online competitions. Winners are invited to compete against each other on-(frozen) track in specially prepared go-karts for cash prizes, with intrigued shoppers also getting some wheel-to-wheel action across the two day event.

Despite the premise, few changes are made to the karts themselves. Electrically powered (petrol motors are an unsurprising no-no inside the mall) and equipped with snow-studded tyres, the machines are theoretically capable of 40kph, providing drivers can keep them in a straight line.

And for those of you wondering how crankandpiston honours were upheld, third place was as good as it got in (what I decided was) a tough heat. Walking through Dubai Mall with one sodden buttock though – thanks to ice on the seat and a hole in my racesuit – must surely make up for that.