The first drift event of the season is always a hectic one from gathering money for event fee, gas, tires, food, where your gonna sleep and getting the car 100% before heading out. So its friday 2 days before MDU rd.1 and is helping the guys get their cars ready, Audi Riza aka "choo choo" driver of the white s13 missle was pretty much all set to go so there was minor work involved. On the other hand we have Sam Henry aka "papa jiggy" drive of the rapebull s13.5 who ditched the amazing rb25 with a 6262 for a na ls6 and had only got the car running for the first time a few days prior. Ton of work to be done but EPDC is always determined to make it.
ALL ABOARD!!! Its finally time to leave after leaving about 8 hours late and fixing minor issues we were on the road along with the guys from PRIMO PERFORMANCE who do awesome work and ready for the long drive from Minnesota. About 45 minutes into the drive the vans belt tensioner broke so we pull into mcdonalds which has a truck stop. luckily for us there was an auto store pretty close with parts in hand. While some of the guys are fixing the van the rest of us are chilling, hanging out talking, doing tricks on bikes, and fucking around. Sam decideds to pull out the go pro and do a few tricks with the bike, but he also had another up his sleeve..... talking to the guys in the drive thru with his go pro helmet cam he decided it would be funny to pull my pants down in front of the whole mcdonalds! funniest shit ever and you could see the guys in the drive thru kinda pissed while their girlfriends got all hot and bothered lol. fixed the van and we were back on the road after a few more stops which made the trip an even longer haul.
The trip itself wasn't bad at all we had plenty of room in the van, had movies on the laptop, music going, snapping pics and snacks galore. Day of the event you can see everyone came with the mindset that failure is not an option and you can also tell CUZ THEY GOT THAT MONAAAYY. Seeing familiar faces is always a good time and relaxes you a way that cant be explained. Pretty sure I was the camera man with the least experience out there but I was determined to show what I got! I believe I was even the first one taking pics and making sure I got use to the different lenses available. Comes time for the media meeting and I see a few guys with bright orange safety jackets on, facepalm I dont have one fortunately due to it being the first event they let it slide long as we make sure were safe, a sigh of relief!
s13.5, s14 and V8 haven literally. On a good note there were a few cars that stood out from an s12, volvo 240, mike with his amazing sounding fc and a guy with a baller fd you can tell he had that monaayy lol. Time for the first heat, cars getting lined up so I had to pic a spot for awesome pics so me and a local drifter Jordan Potter hit the infield of the track no jackets nothing only equipment and ready for action. I learned alot within a matter of minutes of how you have to turn with a cam, how many times you have to focus in and out and also how you have to try and stay out of the action shot for other camera guys. Having up close action is a complete blast except for the amount of rubber thats thrown on your face like a girl getting skeeted on for a porno but its worth the amazing shot.
Audi was blazing thru the track multiple times laying down awesome runs and even a few run ins with the wall but that wasn't stopping him. Sam also did an amazing job even being completely new to his setup he put down really good runs but due to tire issues and correcting during transitions it prevented him from qualifying. For Audi he ended up spinning and sliding into a wall for his qualifying run which prevented him from moving on.
Fiberglass explosions and wall tap love had to be the memo for the day because just about every driver tapped the wall and goes the same for kit explosions. Somehow me and Jordan became the cleaning crew since we were the only guys cleaning the track for fiberglass and other parts almost every other run. Seemed as if some drivers wanted to be one with the clipping point numerous times so they just kept taking cones out. Being on the track was a work out indeed 70 degree weather, running back and forth almost every run to pick up pieces and set up cones, no water no food I should of been on the biggest loser.
Time for a NEW SPOT!!! Right along the rail wall theres about a 5 foot gap with concrete cylinders behind them. PERFECT I thought and it sure was! Catching all the actions right as the drivers are tapping the wall and smoke/rubber covering me and the lens I knew I had the best spot. I was actually the only one with that spot then other media guys caught on but I still had to be different so I decided to stand on the concrete barrier to be able to get wall tap shots from above right in front of me.
The event was a signifigant success tandemonium, crowd roars, and drivers pissing excellence. But it all came down to two drivers Kris Hackenson the zombie and his street hooker trash s14 against another v8 s14! The first round was nuts they drove tandemed like the drivers for team orange inches away. ONE MORE TIME!! was called and kris followed with a wall tap staying on the drivers rear quarter with perfect clipping points. Time for Kris Hackenson to lead lays down an outrageous run with the following s14 spinning out and Kris crushing the run along with the side of the s14 right after the finish! If there was anyway to win and show that you went all out!! that was the way to go, congrats to Kris Hackenson and his street hooker trash s14.
C'MON'N RIDE THE TRAIN IF YOU WANNA CHOO CHOO- This is by far the best way i've ever seen an event end a tandem train for anyone with the balls and a cage to tandem. About 15 cars lined up and it was absolutely nuts watching a bunch of drivers slide together like the famous ebisu videos with no crashes and they did this multiple times back to back MDU OVERALL WAS A SUCCESs. EMPTY POCKETS DRIFT CREW cant wait for the upcoming MDU events!!!!
*for more pictures, visit Rio's gallery at http://photobucket.com/rioepdc
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