Went to Jon’s first event he hosted under his company @wildwestdriftcompany yesterday. It was a smaller turnout with a good mix of very experienced and beginner drivers out on the track. I had arrived later than Id planned, but despite having work the same day was thankfully able to still cover a good chunk of the day. Going through the pits there were a mix of people from all over the place. There were guys who traveled from NorCal to come drive, there was a shop that came to drive, and people from SoCal. It’s awesome to see how far out Wild West has reached, and Im excited to see them push more as they continue to host these events. The schedule included a practice session, entry comp, and free runs for the rest of the day. There was supposed to be a tandem comp, but I don’t think many of the drivers were yet comfortable enough with doing it, so they skipped it and just had everyone drive the rest of the day. At the very least though, Jon and his friend put down some really awesome tandem runs. It was really nice talking with everyone in the pits, and still to this day its crazy to me whats been accomplished with the fc. So many people always have nothing but great things to say about it and it makes me feel really proud! Everything made me reflect on my photographic journey as a whole, and it feels really nice to be able to connect with people through not only what I put out, but through legitimate experiences with cars as well. If you’re a photographer that’s been on the fence about committing that time to getting something cool going with a car, definitely do it, it is so worth it. Unfortunately, I had to leave for home earlier than I would’ve liked to, but overall I had such a fun time and I got to scratch that little drift itch I’ve had for the past 3 months since Seat Time. The car feels better, faster, and still like it has lots of untapped potential with the na setup, Im really excited to further develop it and turn it into the everything low car I want it to be! Also, thank you @applevalleyspeedway @avs_calvin for being out there on mother’s day, we appreciate you guys a lot!

Decided to visit @rankd.official on my way back home from Matt’s this past weekend. As per my usual visits, it was a really good turn out and a nice time to talk with some friends I haven’t seen in a while.

Happy birthday Matt, and thank you for being a pillar in what the fc has become now. Excited to see what comes about this year for you🎉

It has been just about 10 years since the last time I came to Formula Drift in 2016. Such a wild bunch of things have happened between then and now within my journey of figuring out my love and passion for the sport. Initially, getting into grassroots I thought I’d never really have an appreciation for where it has gotten now, but after being there in person once again, my viewpoint has 100% changed. I don’t think it’s my favorite kind of drifting, but Id be lying if I failed to admit how cool it is to see the badassery that is seeing a 1000+ horsepower death machine flying through a course, at a wheelspin speed of 120+ miles an hour. I hope that one day, I can build a bit of a crazier car that gives me that feeling, albeit it likely not making anywhere near that amount of power because I’d love to enjoy it on the road on occasion. This year’s FD at Long Beach featured some really awesome driving, and it felt like every run was fueled by the pure spirit of putting down the craziest run each driver could do. No one let off, no one tried to settle for anything, they just mashed the pedal and drove their hearts out. That kind of driving is the stuff that gets me pumping and motivated to emulate the same feeling, I really hope to refresh the FC soon and get out there more often. On top of the awesome driving, the booths and overall setup at FD was a sight to see. I think they do an excellent job of taking advantage of the already beautiful background scenery of Long Beach’s city street course, and honestly it felt like being a spectator within Need for Speed Pro street. The big screens, the announcers, the videos and the awesome music, the band playing at the Rockstar booth, all so lively and alive. I was very happy to see companies like 326 Power, Vertex, ORC, and Koyorad all at the event as well. Hopefully as time goes on, we can see lots of company involvement from them. At the end of the day, @uncbryan and I would end up taking some photos by the port area before heading our separate ways, it was a really cool sight, I love being around that area.

A lot of my time spent in Long Beach last night was spent looking for parking, so photos wise I only got very few. I was almost obliterated by an impatient woman in a trackhawk, who accelerated because I was merging in front of her, and just to have the people in front of her let me go in front of them instead. The negative aspects of Long Beach Thursday night were not solely because of the way it was organized, but also because of the ignorant behavior from the “community” itself. Type S Night Lights was…a show for sure. I think it was honestly the perfect event to use as an example of why to a certain point, paid events make sense, as well as why sometimes gatekeeping is sometimes an important factor in hosting things. If I ever make a return, I will most definitely have to plan my day around being there from morning to night. I think free events are wonderful ways to interact with a community, and I think they’re an important framework to keep a community engaged within their integral role in cars especially, but at a certain point, some things just need to be limited to those who were picked out from the bunch. It is really really hard to uphold a truly peaceful and smooth running gathering when you don’t have some kind of system in place that ensures no mob mentality. Mix this with two incredibly well known names in the industry being there, and it can set up a not so very pleasant experience. I hope that a lot of what went wrong is addressed by those who are seen as the leadership behind these events, because without that, I don’t believe it allows for these events to become better. For those of you who will be there, I’ll see you all at Formula Drift tomorrow!

A lovely night outing. Thank you for having me.

Man, what a jam packed weekend of fun I had this past time. From the simple drive to riverside, to my first rave attendance with my wonderful group of coworkers turned friends turned to a family I’d love to travel more with. The experiences, the hangouts, they all contributed towards a wonderful introduction into a new year of life. I’ve always been into EDM since I was a kid, Id walk around school with big headphones on over my head blasting deadmau5, madeon, Porter Robinson, all through my ears every day. I think at some point I had to have annoyed my dad as well with the many split screen Call of Duty sessions with me playing ncs and monstercat through my phone. This kind of music has always given my brain this natural, non chemically forced happiness that I’ve enjoyed thoroughly growing up. I didn’t need drugs, didn’t need alcohol, I was truly just a kid with a love of EDM. I think one of the most polarizing musically driven reactions I’ve had was opening up, and playing the First Forza Horizon for the first time, while living within Colorado. They did such a perfect job at capturing the life within a festival, and it always made me want to attend something. Beyond Wonderland was that something, and it was an awesome something. Thank you to everyone who welcomed me along for that trip, and thank you for allowing me to have my fun all while being able to take care of you however I could, I love you all. P.L.U.R The rest of the weekend was filled with really great hangouts, and some return trip sightseeing. Sunday, I visited the Riverside Mazda dealer for a Mazda meet hosted by @stormfc3s . Then after was my Monday commute to @wildwestdriftcompany HQ. Jon took me through a walk around of his spot, showing me the projects he’s been working on and what not. After that, he would show me the place where he first learned how to drive stick, before I would be on my way to Downtown LA to meet with Seb for some coffee. I didn’t get any photos there though, as this time I really just wanted to hangout and see how he was doing. After a good talk with Seb, I’d end the day over at Devon’s house, starting the stages of his FC prep.

Yesterday I had a great birthday burrito celebration with @k20tech . It’s funny the connections this drifting stuff can make, and the different coincidences it can manifest. As background, I met Ugo at some kind of cars and coffee event, to then later find out that he happened to have the same birthday as me, and be exactly 10 years apart. On top of that, despite his main 10 year commitment being this really clean 240 of his, he had an fc for a bit as well. Getting to know him over the years through our few times being able to hangout has been super rad, and Im grateful to have such an awesome dude as my birthday twin. I want to thank Alex for such a wonderful time at his stand, he’s a kind soul with a heart of pure gold. When we went to sit down and eat, a lady had tried to wave us off from sitting, and he threw her food away and told her he didn’t need her money. He didn’t appreciate what he saw as a disrespectful attitude towards fellow customers of his, and he treated us like family members. Thank you for seeing us as more than a transaction, I will definitely be making a hopefully consistent return, at least as consistently as I can. Coming back to Ugo’s place he showed me around and talked me through the story of his s13. I honestly really need to do a full write up of it when I get my website done, it’s really cool. He’s had it for 10 years, and its been in California, New, York, and Michigan. It’s a story of true commitment to the game, regardless of where it’s at, and Im really excited to see how it turns out when he has the chance to finish it up. Happy birthday my fellow 3/24 soulja, and happy birthday to all these March birthdays popping up left and right. Also featured in this set is Dominic’s GMC truck. It is a definite looker, and the condition is more than impressive for just how long it’s been in its existence.

Little station hangs 😁

Finally, after a month of air time, my beloved rx7 has touched the ground, and what a fitting first drive to be to go see Scotti, Joy, and many more friends @threespokecoffee . It’s always a great time, and Im grateful for every outting I get to enjoy with this car. For the new cooling fan setup, it works almost how I want to, but it’ll take more time and more money to get it where I want exactly. It was a very hot day, so the car getting pretty hot was unavoidable. At the moment, the controller only turns on when the ecu detects 85 Celsius, once it five degrees below, it shuts off. For now, its a good temporary setup while I figure out taking the billion controller to get opened up and checked out for any aging wear that would contribute to a dead signal for the fan 1 turn on. I also will likely need to change out my brushless ford taurus fan for a brushed fan and resistor, that way the 2 stage low to high speed works as intended from Billion. After suspension repair, the car feels solid again. Of course It will need an alignment to get all the way there, but for now, Im just happy to see it on the ground and moving. I hope I can make this year a good year for getting it closer to how Id like it to be mechanically.

Video Screens from Seat Time🤘🏾

Its interesting the things and the lessons you take in as you work. Recently, Vadim came by and worked on his Yokomo chassis while I did some late night wiring on the fc. We had been joking about the messes that tend to always arrive once we start working on things, especially mine. “I need to hurry this up and get this car back down so I can finally clean things up in here.” After hearing this, Vadim pointed out the coolness behind these messes though, and the fact that many of these messes spawn out of creativity. Because of these productive messes, they allow many awesome ideas to form from about them, and it really is a beautiful thing. When you look at many greats within their processes of building and curating things, you can sometimes well see a long term mess associated with their work, and when things are finally together their space becomes clean, but a new feeling is arisen from this spawn derived from their own creativity. Be proud of your non slob, productively created mess and strive to get things done so that you can return to that calming state of clean.