Ricky Bobby gets Fast and Furious

Mopar sponsored an event that made for a strange gathering of people who either came to see their favorite NASCAR driver try and their hand at drifting, or to see some of the best drifters from Japan’s D-1 circuit. I tried taking pictures of the event, but my lens was way too slow and I was too far away from the action. Though the pictures are way too blurry, the event was too interesting not to post them.

The Japanese drivers were, of course the highlight of the night. Unfortunately, we arrived a little late at the Irwindale track and missed most of their performance.

Seeing these guys race brought back memories of over 7 years ago, when I first saw cars like these tearing through the giant intertwined maze of bridges and streets in Yokohama. Back then, I had no idea what drifing was, and was amazed to see these cars evade the police with such grace and ease, and then returning shortly after the cops left to continue racing.

One NASCAR driver demonstrated how hard it is to drift in a NASCAR racer. I have to admit, it was pretty funny.
The NASCAR fans went wild watching their favorite drivers attempt to drift, but I quickly became bored of watching them.They didn’t practice beforehand like they were supposed to, so we were watching them learn how to drift. Thankfully, the Japanese guys came back on the track for an unscheduled finale.

Bigfoot also had a go at drifting. Watching that huge truck lunge from side to side was entertaining, but this is not the Bigfoot that I remember from the old days. The old solid blue design was much better! Now the sponsor’s name is written in larger print than the name of this iconic monster truck.
There were many strange things about this event: First of all it was sponsored by Mopar. It was also weird to see absolutely no Autobacs signs.
This was my first time actually being around NASCAR fans, and likely my last. I’ve never seen so many mullets in one place at one time! Nothing against NASCAR or the people who like this variety of racing, it’s just not my scene. I’ll take rally racing any day over doing donuts or drag racing.
I think the lesson from this event is to avoid Mopar sponsored drifting events, and stick to ones that are sponsored by Autobacs.