Roland Gallagher arrived late in the afternoon with his 240, which he had worked on through the night to complete in time for the demo. I’m not sure we captured any video of this car, but we definitely got some great photos, including some killer action shots. More after the jump.

Continue reading "Roland Gallagher Makes a Late Entry" »

Drifting is all about personal style. I’m no drifting expert, so I can’t really describe Victor’s style, other than to say he is smooth. And consistent. He was agrressive as hell on every corner, but I don’t think I saw him spin out once. Victor built his ’89 Nissan 240SX coupe with the help of his dad, and has definitely been getting noticed in the Northwest drift scene over the last couple of years. Here’s a quick video of Victor coming up and then coming back down the S curves at Pacific Raceways. Our videographer did a ride-along with Victor, so expect to see some cool footage from inside his 240 once we’re finished with the editing. I also did a short interview with Victor, so provided the audio came out ok (over the drag racing behind us) we’ll have that as well. I’ve got a ton more pics of Victor and his car after the jump.

Continue reading "Victor Moore Gets Sideways at Pacific Raceways" »

Grape NOS is coming back, and that’s what everyone was drinking Friday night while we were shooting the drift video. NOS is a big sponsor of both Drift Office and Pacific Raceways, and Terry Vo and his crew were there handing out free energy drinks to the drivers and spectators. Thanks guys!

Continue reading "Grape Returns" »

While we were shooting the video with the Drift Office guys there was some great action behind us on the drag strip. I kept running over there check out the cars (gravitating to the Mopars of course). I really dug this Dart with slots. There was a pretty sweet ’63 Plymouth, too, and I knew Sean and Kathy would be pissed if I didn’t snap a pic of the Corrado. A ton more photos after the jump.

Continue reading "Friday Night Drags at Pacific Raceways" »

When we were out at Pacific Raceways on Friday, it was pretty sweet watching the drifters tackle the wicked S-curves on back section, but going for a ride along was even cooler. I went with Matt Gehr in his ’86 AE86 Coupe, and while he was driving a little too aggressively early in the day—which resulted in a couple of spins—by the time I was strapped into the shotgun seat he had the course totally dialed. Matt has been been drifting for about five years, and looked completely relaxed as he whipped the car through the turns. The sensation of going sideways at 60+ isn’t something I’ll forget, and this experience made me determined to get a ride-along when Formula D makes its Seattle stop this summer. On the last turn, we actually hit one of the candy-striped borders on the race track, which made the car briefly go up on two wheels. For a second, I thought we going to flip, but the little car promptly righted itself. Good times! Eight more pics after the jump.

During the Drift Office demo at Pacific Raceways on Friday I caught a ride with Bobby Rice in his nicely prepped AE86. As you can see in the pics, this car looks a lot cleaner than most drift cars, though Bobby doesn’t baby the thing. He has about $15,000 invested in it so far, and has gotten a lot of help from Bob and the rest of the crew at Drift Office. I got some crummy in-car video of my ride–going up and coming back down. As you can see we spun out both times, which was pretty hilarious. Here’s another video I shot earlier in the afternoon of Bobby ripping through the s curves. Thanks for the ride, Bobby! I have a bunch more pics of Bobby’s AE86 after the jump.

Continue reading "Riding With Bobby Rice" »

On Friday, Rob, Sean and I bounced a little early, and went down to Pacific Raceways for a drifting exhibition. Bob from Drift Office and the Raceway’s Marketing Manager, Tracie Brandenburg, organized the event, which is set to become a series this summer. Some of the Northwest’s best amateur talent was on hand to tear up the track, and of course, there were a bunch of dope rides on hand. Matt Gehr and Bobby Rice both drove ’86 AE86s,  Earl Smith was behind the wheel of a ’90 Mazda RX-7—the back end was converted to a pick-up bed—and Victor Moore and Roland Gallagher each piloted wicked ’89 Nissan 240SX Coupes. We’ll have a bunch of photos posted in the events section tomorrow, and some professionally shot video posted in the next couple of weeks. For now, check out pics of all the cars after the jump. What did you do this weekend?