My day began at 3 a.m. as my alarm went off, ringing, making those wonderful annoying noises that wake us up mid-sleep. I began to gather myself. As I woke, wondering why I set my alarm for 3 a.m., it then hit me; Formula Drift was today! I scrambled to get all of my necessary gear together; cameras, memory cards, lenses, speed-lights, reflectors, tripod and batteries. As I walked outside to put it in my car it was a crisp summer morning, probably 40 degrees, and yes in July.

The journey began as I drove from Moscow, Idaho, to Monroe, Washington. It’s roughly a 5 hour drive, and I had a mandatory safety meeting at 11:30 a.m., which hasn’t changed since I have been shooting Formula Drift, I clearly had plenty of time to arrive. If I counted how many times I have done this drive I have to have some sort of world record, but I digress. My mp3 player was loaded with new music as I hit the early morning road which led through vacant towns and silent fields of wheat, it seemed as I was the only one up this early.

Five hours later, and over the Cascade Mountain Range, I hit the gorgeous outskirts of the Emerald City. The sun was gleaming across the city line, Lake Washington was calm, and your typical volume of cars on the road for a Saturday morning. I start my way north through freeways full of construction; hit the glorious Highway 2 east, out toward Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington I go.

Arriving at Evergreen Speedway you are presented with the back of the grand stands which can house roughly 15,000 drift fans, not including those that can fit between the fence and grand stands. You could tell Formula Drift had been there with their signs, tents, and banners all over the venue. I had arrived early with about 2 hours to spare before my meeting, which would eventually allow me to shoot on the track. It was easy to recognize and find people I knew that I could catch up with while waiting for my “orange Formula Drift bracelet” that would let me into the car show area, and to the pits. While the 100 plus cars filled the Slammed Society Showcase, we continued to bullshit and talk about the previous day’s events, of which I was not in attendance. Judging by their sun-kissed faces, some UV rays were in store for me and boy did I get burned.

Post-safety meeting I felt energized and full of know-how on proper ways to conduct myself while on the track. If the track is hot, you may not cross to the other designated photo areas. Only cross if the red shirt official with the mic and headset on says that it’s safe to cross. Got it. I had formulated a plan to shoot the car show and get some lifestyle shots of people at the event, but that went to the back burner after a friend from Emotive Image let me borrow some equipment. I was now in the video shooting-mode (Video will follow this post in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.). By this time the sound of engines revving and tires screaming filled the air as practice runs were in session.

The car show was my first stop for video, and a few still shots here and there. This is where I met up with the Eric Gearhart of NWAutoEvents.com. We discussed the hilarity in him being mistaken for my site, NWTuner.com and me getting credit for his work. So, we connected on that level and throughout the day had miscellaneous shenanigans. Below you can see Aaron Kathman, another great automotive photographer, and Eric (Yes, spelled with a “c,” who does that?!) chimping.

You might have attended the event and are wondering, “What do photographers do with all the downtime when the drivers request 5 minutes to inspect their car, and are waiting on runs?” Well, planking was what some of us did. We also discussed the new thing to do in photos, it’s called, “Owling.” Yep, you make yourself look like an owl.

The crowd poured into the venue and it seemed from the track that there wasn’t a seat left empty in the house. The Pacific Northwest continues to show its support for extreme automotive sports, earlier in the year Global Rally Cross was shocked by the hardcore rally community up here when their event was packed. Formula Drift saw a 10% increase in this year’s attendance with a sold out crowd.

We will let the photos speak for themselves. If you missed out this year, be sure to make it next year as it will be Formula Drift’s 10 year anniversary.

The top three winners at Round 5:
1. Yoshihara, Daijiro Falken Tire / Discount Tire Nissan 240SX Winner
2. Forsberg, Chris NOS Energy Drink / Hankook Tire Nissan 370Z Second Place
3. Aasbo, Fredric Need for Speed / Hankook Scion TC Third Place

12►

It was the same old story, up too late awake too early. The phone rings and I answer over the line I hear the words “Hey, I am leaving my house right now and then going straight over to Matt’s. We are going to grab coffee and be on our way to your house. WAKE THE F*&$ UP!!” So, I stumble out of bed and start my day. As I am finally ready and sitting down on the couch to try to wake up a little bit, I fall back asleep and then am woken when I hear a car pull up. It was them, and I grab my camera bag and head out. The car ride down was full of shenanigans as I have come to expect hanging out with these two. We finally show up ,still unknowing if there was a charge to get in or not. The whole thing seemed vague to me, but none the less I was interested. We park get out I hand a camera off to Austin grab mine and we make our way in. Once we were in, I finally realized that in fact it was a free event which made everything better! As we walked around, people were making their way in and trying to park their cars in the “premium 5 dollar parking” inside the gates. We walk a little further and stop to talk to Les. As we were bullsh*&$ing for a few minutes, I started “people watching” and was taking notice of everyone in the car show wiping their cars down, cleaning tires and what not trying to make an impression. The car clubs were grouping together and figuring out parking arrangements to catch spectator eye.

As we wander around trying to figure out where everything is we end up in the tech area for the drag racing. In the very back of the tech area there is a small group of cars parked. THE DRIFT CARS! The drift guys are having a meeting and the 3 of us get hyped and try to figure out where they will be drifting. We ask a few people and no one seems to have any clue as to what was going on. Finally we find someone who knows and directs us to the course. By that time the drifting had begun. We grab a spot at the beginning of the track and quickly realize there is no action here. A couple of guys told us that 100yards or so away that there was an S turn where they were about to head to and that is where all the good action is. Upon receiving that info we run up the side of the hill and start on our walk. The 100 yards quickly turns into a half mile where we finally come across some people standing on the side of a hill which below was the S corner. The angles looked fairly challenging and as we watched we soon realized our suspicions were right. Everyone was having troubles  with the corners. Not to mention it was up hill. Once everyone from the group of drivers made it to the top of the hill they turned around and started down the hill which deemed itself more of a challenge. This was not evergreen speedway.

We watched the drifting for a little while longer and I got a call from a friend who was about to line up at the drag strip. He was trying to break into the 11’s with his EVO IX SE. So, I hurried back to the drag grandstands to just miss his pass. He ran a 12.4 for his first pass. I decided that since I was there I might as well check out the drag portion of the event. There were a LOT of Honda’s and Mitsubishi EVO’s drag racing. The most impressive to me though were the guys on bikes. I noticed one guy flying down the track with his front tire lifting and setting down constantly as he flew past. After getting bored of the drags and realizing the drifters were taking an hour break I decided to wander around at the car show.

There were some  great cars out there! A little Honda heavy but this is the Honda capital (Kent, WA), so I tolerated. By far the most impressive group was EAS with their high end EURO and JDM VIP styled cars. My only complaint with the show was that it seemed a little on the small side, but for being the first event like this I had no complaints. If this turns into an annual event I can only imagine what it to come. The concept for this event is one of a kind and will bring a lot of people to one place. All and all I was for it and satisfied with my time spent there. Even feeling a bit under the weather.

Congratulations to all of the Evergreen ProAm drivers, you put on a great show for everyone. Here are some pictures that I got of the ProAm guys. The results were:

1st Place: Cyrus Martinez
2nd Place: Victor Moore
3rd Place: Ian Fournier
4th Place: Roland Gallagher

Evergreen Drift – April
Evergreen Speedway – Monroe, WA

A Premier Drifting Championship based in the Pacific Northwest, Evergreen Drift is the only series that you’ll see locals and pros tackle Evergreen Speedway’s 5/8ths course. This year our Top 4 ProAm (TBA) finalists will be invited to FD Pro Am Nationals.

The Month of April 2009
April 5th, and 19th – Open Drift!
April 29th – Evergreen Drift Championship Round #1

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