BDC Round 4 Norfolk Arena: Part 1

Sweet Oblivion were out in full force this weekend as both Matt and I got out butts down to Norfolk Arena in Kings Lynn for Round 4 of the BDC. With a full two days of drifting ahead of us it was looking to be a cool weekend with Semi-Pro and Pro competitions on the Saturday and a Team drift competition on Sunday. All fingers and toes were crossed that the weather would hold out as we rolled down in Matt's gangsta low and stupidly comfy 7 series.


Norfolk Arena normally plays host to muddier pursuits like stock car and speedway racing. It seems like an unusual place for drifting but for such a small venue it has good basic facilities, coupled with the fact it's far out in the middle of nowhere away from any fuds who would complain about the noise, which makes this a very drift friendly venue. A small basic track is set out on the tarmac inside the oval dirt track, very different to the other tracks in the series as it is a tight, dusty and relatively low speed course.


By no means is that a bad thing though as it gets the drivers to pull some different skills out of the bag. This track is all about momentum and avoiding understeer on the dusty surface. Too much wand will have you grinding to a halt and there's no time or space to rely on power-over alone to get you out of trouble. Frankly it's perfect for a smaller, lighter, underpowered car like an AE86 and I was gutted that none were competing this weekend.

However! There were two cars.. small, old school and relatively underpowered and very much my cup of tea! They came in the shape of a Mark 2 Ford Escort and a KP Toyota Starlet. The Starlet had a 2.0 ltr Vauxhall XE under the bonnet and was putting in some super clean runs during qualifying.


This Escort was my favourite car there. It looked cool and understated as fuck.. had a decent amount of grunt from the YB under the bonnet and the driver was giving it the beans out on track. Loved it.


The atmosphere in the arena is pretty cool as the sun goes down and the flood lights come on.





I'm not sure how Matt managed to look so wasted in this picture..? He was doing the driving so hadn't touched a drop! LOL (spotted! elusive Moose sat to his his right)


Stacy was along for her second dose of drifting after her first with Matt at Prodrift in Ireland.



So the sun went down, bumpers were smashed, battles were won and the all dominating Japspeed cleaned up all the trophies. My action shots were a bit sketchy as I was shooting from the grandstand and our man Daniel didn't make it down so no hot shots from him I'm afraid. But I'm banking on a cool BDC video of the event from Brooksie being released in the next few days so we'll skip my sketchy photos and wait for that instead.

In the meantime.. Roll on Sunday!

With Moose off home to get back to the spanners and fixing his S13 we swapped him for Sweet Oblivion's oldest friend Mark Trotter. We'd not seen him in ages and I'd heard rumours of a mint 180sx he was rolling around in. So we set off in the morning to the agreed meet up point. As we approach we see not a 180 but a rather tidy looking S15 parked up. Mark is waiting with a bunch of friends.. must be one of theirs we figure.. So some quick hellos later we jump back in the cars and head off for the track.. still wondering where Mark's 180 is hidden.. but wait a minute.. what the.. he has the keys to the S15!? and he's bloody getting in it?! WTF!?!? Turns out only a few days previous he had found and wangled it for a frankly bargainous price. So we introduce to you, Mark "freshly flash git" Trotter..


The morning was fun, catching up with friends Mark, Sid and Chunk and with our arses parked back in the grandstand we were ready for another day of skids.


Enough from me I think! I'm gonna let Matt take it from here..

Snapshot:

I knew Grids would work. I'm loving the colour choice too.

X Body Spots

This rad little video popped up on the excellent Fatlace™ the other day. Good skids and tunes courtesy of Mos Def.



"Yeah so!?" you say. You're a cool kid and you've already seen it. However! Around the 2:00 minute mark and for only a few seconds you see a MX73 parked up with the others.


Yeay! says me. It's always cool to see X body drifters out there. It gives me that little bit more motivation to get mine rolling.

Sadly you don't get to see it action in the video above but, after some rummaging around on the web I found these shots taken by Jay of Speedzoku.com


Pretty cool! If you click on his link at the bottom of his blog entry it takes you to the gallery where I found these. There's some really nice shots in there like these.


If you or anyone you know out there drifts one of these beasts right now give me a shout! I'd love to here from you.

Will Roegge/Speedhunters All Star Bash '09

What can I say? Another awesome production from Will Roegge, This time collaborating with the Speedhunters crew. Will and Touge Heroes are producing some of the best drifting videos in the world right now. FACT.

Snapshot:

all. night. long.

Motormavens.com

An oldie.. but a goodie..

Here's an old promo video from way back that I'd forgotten all about. It nicely answers the question that friends always ask.. "Drifting?! What the fuck is that?" If you're feeling lazy just show them this. The explanation that Darren McNamara gives is so simple and clear it actually makes drifting sound sensible Haha!



The now legendary Kazama Vs McNamara battle is discussed in part two. I think it's fair to say that one battle alone was responsible for boosting Darrren McNamaras career and driver profile through the roof. And rightly so! Anyone able to go up against the all dominating Japanese champion of the time and give him a real run for his money deserves the props they get. And the drift geek in me was there watching it happen! I remember the feeling so well. All the European guys were pretty much having there asses handed to them by the Japanese. Amazing to watch but with a sinking feeling inside that the home team were just cannon fodder. And then it came to Kazama Vs McNamara. Darren had driven the best out of all the Europeans but he was up against Kazama, Japanese champion, amazing driver, never makes mistakes. Oh well I thought.. But then.. As the battle unfolds "Is he.. he is.. HE'S ON HIM.. HE'S FUCKING ON HIM.. YEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Me and my girlfriend at the time, both screaming our tits off in excitement. Haha! It was amazing. I think that could be the moment I fell in love with drifting. Some screaming was involved with falling in love with the girlfriend too I'm sure, but that's another story that would required some Jäger.



I just found these pictures I took in the depths of my hard drive. I feel kinda privileged to have seen those old Japanese D1 cars now. In the flesh, in England!


Good times.

All Star Bash '09

Just been looking for a link to Will Roegges new All Star Bash '09 video and found this from Hero productions.

All star bash is made of win! Cool cars, awesome drifting and weather we can only dream of!

JDM Allstars Wembley 2009: Friends and photos

It seems silly to do a write up on the event seeing as it was over a week ago now and the video I posted yesterday really captures the feel of the event perfectly.

But what I will say, and I'm not alone in my thinking of this, is that this could be the best drifting event that Europe has seen so far. The level of skill and commitment shown by the drivers at JDM Allstars was high, real high! Which rubbed off on everyone involved. The crowd got to see some really exciting stuff while the drivers got to do what they enjoy most, surrounded by talent from around Europe in a chilled but well organised event where everyone was there to just have fun.

I had a great time catching up and hanging out with friends watching some of the best drifting I have seen in a long time! And to quote our friend Daniel "There's nothing like hanging out with mates cheering on some sick drifting!"

Daniel hooked up with Sweet Oblivion for these exclusive shots from the event that you won't see anywhere else.


You'll find the rest of his awesome photos from the event on his flickr here and here.

Roll on the next round of JDM Allstars!!

UK drifting just got sexier

Just as I'm doing my own little belated write up of the event this video from the Touge Heroes crew pops up. Who needs words?!



That chase shot of the blue WKD car blows me away. And the combo shot with Dan Chapman talking through the course as he is drifting it in the background.. Proper ace. Good work sirs!