Having never won a trip anywhere I didn’t know exactly what to expect beyond a flight and the event. It started off pretty damn good though; upon arriving at the hotel there was a nice surprise waiting for me in the room…

An XBOX360 and a copy of NFS:Shift (which I already have on the PS3, but hey two is better than one).  Along with that was some interesting swag, free stuff is always good! The guys at EA hooked us up throughout the trip going way above and beyond what I expected. To the point that I felt a bit bad actually as I fully expected to be paying for my own food and booze at the very least. Enough about all this though, you’re not here for my travel diary. The first full day in LA we went over to the track to see some practice session action and the pro-am guys do their thing. I also managed to score a media pass as I had been in talks with a couple editors to shoot for them pending the results I got since I was down there. We’ll see where that goes… Once we got to the track I made a b-line for the first subie I saw. In this case the Crawford drift GD car. Even before competition started it ws clear this car had seen battle…

RPF1s and a bunch of stickers a drift car do make…

One thing I never noticed about this car in photos is the opening in the rear window on this car. I assumed incorrectly this was to feed cool air into the compartment at first, turns out the rads are hiding down behind that huge pipe in the trunk area. I never bothered to look where they put the fuel cell..

Interestingly the Falken/Sears drift “Saturn” is right hand drive, something I never picked up on. Perhaps it’s an Opel at heart? One of the many things I meant to ask the crew but forgot to.

Chilling at the Falken booth can net you some decent meetups. Vaughn Gitten Jr. came over and talked to us fo ra while, showing us his custom Falken colored DC kicks. This guy was as real as they come, had no problem standing around shooting the shit with us while he definitely had better things to do. I was a bit awe struck at first, it’s pretty weird to see someone in person you’ve only seen in a thousand photos before. All the drivers turned out to be as approachable as Vaughn but he was definitely the coolest to us.

Of course Vaughn’s daily driver is a Mustang, but not just any. He’s got his own special edition of the GT500 that he’s worked on with Ford called the RTR. This thing is absolutely stunning, Ford made some subtle changes to the 2010 Mustang but they were all the right ones. Vaughn made a few more changes of his own for this package and while the GT500 is a bloody expensive car up here in Canada, this RTR package is absolutely killer.

Walking around the pits a bit more before the main practice started there was a brief memorial presentation for Shaun Carlson, who if you don’t know was a formative figure in the Formula Drift series who passed away a few weeks ago at a very young 35. It was quite moving to hear his friends and colleagues talk about him, you definitely can see these guys are all a very tight knit family just like a grassroots drift crew, they just happen to have huge sponsorships for their team. The NuFormz Viper was done in a special livery as well to memorialize Shaun and it was great to see the car out on the track.

As I had media credentials waiting for me, I had to attend the media safety meeting. While our meeting was obviously boring and full of pearls of wisdom like “don’t cross the track while cars are drifting” I did get to also sit through the driver’s meeting where the FD judges explained what they were specifically looking for on the Irwindale track. The entry & exit speeds they wanted to see and how they were scoring. For example the drivers had to come out of the long sweeping turn 1 at at least 80mph and would lose one point for every mph they were under that speed to a maximum of 10 points. So if you came out at a mere 70mph you were getting zero for that section. Judging is brutal.

As interesting as it was I was still pretty awestruck by so many iconic drivers sitting feet in front of me. In the foreground here you can see a few of my favorites – Tanner Foust and Matt Powers listening intently. Rhys Millen is in the left of the frame along with Dai Yoshihara in the middle ground. Matt Powers was another driver who really impressed me, even though he’s just young (albeit with serious driving skills) the guy is as real and down to earth as it gets. He’s got a great sense of style and dices it up with the huge corporate sponsored cars in his Nissan 240 like it’s no big deal. I was always a fan of his from the coverage the guys at Speedhunters give him but I have huge respect for Matt now having seen what actually competes with in person.

Of course I was axious to start watching (and shooting) some real drifting for the first time in my life. The DMCC series we have up in Canada is a very grassroots effort and while it’s entertaining and I’d never talk down about our local guys, there really is no comparison to the speed and power of the cars. The practice session was already more intense than the competition at our local drift events.

There were some really iconic cars already flinging it sideways on track and it was actually a bit emotional in a weird way to see so many cars I’ve read about, watched videos of, studied, now flying at me out of turn 1 at 80+mph fully sideways.

The drivers definitely weren’t holding back during practice and were trying to find their line along the top of the big banked first turn where they were told to try and keep the car. They weren’t supposed to drop in towards turn two until they were passed this clipping point cone you see in the foreground. This is Ryan Tuerck in his Pontiac Solstice showing what he thinks of Toyota by wiping the car’s ass all over the wall. It was actually all very seemingly controlled.

Here’s a closeup of Vaughn flying past me about 15ft from where I was standing at around 75mph. There was luckily radar guns right near where I was stationed shooting this practice session so I got to hear the entry and exit speeds that were being used to judge this section as they were radioed to the judges. It was really interesting how the high horsepower cars didn’t have that much of an advantage over the smaller but more nimble cars like the Hachis.

The NuFormz Viper sounded absolutely fantastic out on the track banging through the corners with very little fuss.

Here’s Ryuji Miki showing Tanner Faust how it’s done around the track in his Gruppe-S/Apex’i RX-7. Ryuji was the D1GP champion in 2004 and has been drifting forever. His car sounded and looked incredible, the rotory cars just wail and scream while everyone else grunts and drones.

If you ever doubt these guys have skill just take a look at how hard Ryuji Miki was pushing it during just the practice session. That clipping point is millimeteres from the canard on his FD3S and yes this was the clipping point they were supposed to be doing 80+mph through. If I recall correctly Ryuji was tossing the car through here at 76mph.

Here’s Tanner Foust following Ryuji as closely as he can through that section. Tanner’s a pretty smooth driver, of course it doesn’t hurt having a purpose built car and more horsepower than most of the grid under the hood. This NASCAR V8 powered car as just obscene levels of power and I imagine not having to manhandle the car as much into a drift allows Tanner to focus on his line a lot more. Any car that makes a Viper look and sound under powered is clearly a sight to behold. He also lays down a lot more smoke going through the turns compared to the less powerful cars which must make following him a nightmare.

One more shot from this section for now, this time of Rhys Millen in the Hyundai Genesis. I expected this car to be on par with the V8 Scion for lunacy but it really didn’t seem to be pushing as hard as some of the others. Still a very cool car to see out on track and obviously Rhys is one of the best drivers at putting anything on four wheels around any course at the moment.

Here’s a closeup of  Rhys waiting at the start gate with the door open. In the late afternoon sun these guys are absolutely roasting inside the cars, add to that the methanol, racing gas, and tire smoke and even with that dry-carbon 1-piece dashboard in front of you it isn’t the most pleasant office while standing still.

Stephan Verdier was pushing hard in practice as well and unfortunately put his ar into the wall at the end of the transition section after turn one. Here he is checking the damage out immediately after the crash before the safety crew even got there. It’s a wall that you’re generally not going fast enough to hurt yourself going into, but fast enough to seriously wreck the car. Verdier has had some rough luck this season and I feel for him because he’s actually a really very good driver. Perhaps he has a bit of the Colin “McCrash” McRae spirit in him – “Either win, or crash.” The Subaru had to be towed off the track at this point, but it would be back…

Here’s Chris Forsberg chilling by the side of the pits. He was the Championship points leader going into this weekend and when I spoke to him briefly he seemed pretty relaxed considering where he was and how close he was to winning the overall Championship. Definitely another driver who was more than happy to say hey and talk briefly even while working.

Calvin Wan making it look too easy in his stunning Falken liveried S15. This is easily my favorite looking car in the whole grid, the Falken colors are just so sick, and I’d quite literally drive over most people I know just to get my hands on a S15. That’s right. Watch your back.

The DriftSpeed S15 was another killer looking car. The carbon aero kit on this car was nuts, I can’t imagine putting all that stuff back together. Definitely speaks volumes about the confidence of the driver to keep it all off the concrete. Or perhaps they have a huge budget for bodykit parts? Probably a bit of both.

It definitely had no trouble chasing down opponents in practice seen here keeping the corner right up the ass of the AITRacing 350Z which itself was no slouch.

Ahh the two Signal Auto S15’s going through the 2nd last turn together, these cars were both very different from each other. The car in the background was running a VK56DE V8 out of a pathfinder with ITB’s. An S15 with a tuned 5.6L V8? Don’t mind if I do.

Under the “MadMax” category was this G35 with a huge supercharger kit poking through the hood. I couldn’t decide if the two supercharged G35s were cool or just kind of lame, it’s a weird looking car to see drift (very long) and while the supercharger whine is cool, it’s nowhere near as badass as the brutal V8’s, highly strung rotaries, or constantly backfiring turbo-4s.

Here’s a close-up of that supercharger sticking fully out of the hood. Mad Max really would be proud.

Another of that V8 powered S15 along with a S13.5 in the background. The Maziora paint is just so nice in the late afternoon California sunshine, and those SSR TypeFs are easily my favorite rim. I’m glad they didn’t go full drift style and polute the rear with something mismatched.

Following this practice run there was definitely smoke coming from under the S13.5’s front end…

But the crews put out the fire quickly. This wouldn’t be the last fire for this car however. I never found out exactly what was causing it but judging by where they’re spraying in this picture I’m assuming there was an oiling leak around the turbo or manifold that was igniting. There was definitely a slower burning flame under the car at one point so it was dropping something in substantial amounts.

Practice was winding down the some of the drivers were heading back to the pit area, here you can see Tanner Faust (in the mirror) driving his V8 Scion back.

There was  brief break between practice sessions so drivers in both series (FD and ProAm) could make some changes, fixes, and adjustments.

The Hachis were first back out on the track. What was I saying about the smaller cars not lighting the tires up as much as the V8s?

By now the sun was making some nice golden light through the tire smoke and shooting was great. The cars were all finding the line nicely and practice was becoming fairly rythmic.

That S13.5 was back at it again in short order and stomping out some decent runs in late practice…

But again it didn’t last long as the end of this run resulted in more flames, more fanning of smoke, and the fire crew earning their pay.

Here’s Kenji Yamanaka in the V8 powered S15…

And here he is making eye contact with me through the lens, hahaha I couldn’t believe this. I’m sure he’s not actually but it looks like it.

Shooting in sunny (and smokey) California is easy!

You can see one of the track workers picking up a piece of an S13 that made friends with the wall, and some of the love left behind by Stephan Verdier’s WRX STI earlier in the day.

The other STI was doing well. I’m not sure what the tie-in with SouthPark was but the kids were on the hood and on the rear window. Look how smokey it is inside that car after just one turn. It still looks weird to me to see an STI drifting with rear wheel drive. Looks like fun though, wish I could switch mine to full rwd.

Rhys came back to do some more damage to the track with the Genesis coupe. It’s a great looking car.

Now that’s some nice traditional drift imagery right there. Dai Yoshihara in the Discount Tire 240 got some serious angle in practice and was one of the faster drivers through the radar gunned section.

By now the sun had dipped behind the horizon and the mood was changing.

In the start finish line the cars were starting to wrap up the second practice sesssion and set up their final runs.

They were already showing signs of battle though and for sure tomorrow was going to be intense based on how these guys were bringing it before the competition even began.

Total jokers, all of them. Clearly luck had something to do with some of the drivers not making friends with the wall.

Other cars like this RX8 take a more pragmatic approach to protecting their body parts.

Love the upturned exhaust on the Drift Speed S15.

It’s pretty awe inspiring to get this close to such iconic cars. And then feel the ground rumble a bit as they launch.

Having only ever seen an S15 in car shows it was pretty captivating seeing so many of them set up so differently in such a tight proximity.

Because of the banked nature of the track, the starting line where the cars were doing their burnouts was very sloped so the cars would slide down the bank towards crew, other cars, and smoetimes most scarily photographers.

Gotta respect that fitment.

A quick glimpse inside Calvin Wan’s Falken S15, he’s got a very business like cockpit compared to some of the other ars out on the track.

Matt Powers is my hero, this guy has a hilarious sense of style and just brings so much fun to an event that would otherwise feel very corporate. “Mattley Crüe” – amazing.

In the fading light the Maziora cars paint really starts to look punchy. Again with thsoe SSR TypeFs…

Chris Forsberg was running in practice but I imagine keeping his cards face down and holding off till the event to go balls out.

Ahh the V8 S15, here’s a quick look at it as it idles on the line with those 8 ITB’s popping through the hood. This car has also seen a supercharger poking through that hole in the past.

Rhys was watching the competition very intently during their runs. These guys are here having fun, but there’s a lot of analysis of each other’s line and technique that goes on while they’re running.

I’ll leave it there for today, stay tuned for the next update with more photos and some HD video of the competition day!

If you sat through that and still want more pics, be sure to check out the ENTIRE gallery at Flickr: here!