It’s that time of year again out in Oregon. The Deuces Wild Poker and Show N’ Shine has been going on for the past few years now. I personally, have never had the chance to make it out (it’s on the list) to one of their events due to my schedule; however, they are typically very well attended (currently 60 confirmed on their event listing). You can expect to see some highly modified cars if you plan to head out to Cobb Surgeline Tuning in Tigard, Oregon this Sunday August 14th. You can find a Facebook Event listing here with the full details of where to go and when. The great thing about this event is that all the proceeds go to the American Cancer Society.

This is a guest post by Benjamin Graybill.

Anyone driving within a mile of the Southcenter Mall in Tukwila, Washington, would have known something was different than a usual Friday night. Loud music and engines rumbling filled the air on a rather surprisingly nice evening in the Pacific Northwest, as car after car rolled up the parking garage ramp to the show. The event, put on by NWMotiv.com and NOS Energy Drinks was to accompany the premiere of Fast Five as well as a VIP show/meet for local automotive clubs and forums. More than 100 of these VIP cars were on display for all to see including a 700 hp Genaddi Ford GSX1, a RB26DET swapped AE86, NSXs, and Andrew Coomes’ LS240 Formula Drift Car. This was an amazing show with free NOS Energy drinks everywhere, NOS girls, gorgeous cars, and great music. Hopefully, the success of the show this year will lead to many more down the road.

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.