JustDrift All-Star Bash 2013

Words by Matt Willis

First off…I realize this post may be old news for some, but lately things have been very busy here as we were quickly approaching SEMA week and all. I am happy to report we have returned from Las Vegas and are back in action, although we still have thousands of images to sort and bring to you in the next couple of weeks. Sevenstock is also taking place today at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, where Tim is currently, and the annual Autofashion VIP Festival takes place tomorrow here in San Diego. We are definitely staying busy and taking advantage of the cooler weather this time of year…

Anyhow…last month, Tim and I took a trip to Willow Springs on one very busy weekend. Following just a week after another successful and climatic 2013 Formula Drift season, the JustDrift All-Star Bash event brought drifting enthusiasts in from all over the nation – from grassroots amateurs to the seasoned professionals. In total, over 100 cars were registered to run on the Streets of Willow course, and over 1,500 spectators were present. It was by far the biggest event we’ve attended at Streets, with the entire paddock packed full with cars, trailers, vendors and even makeshift campsites. Everyone was having a great time and the drifting continued well into the night.

I thought it was great that they were making use of the entire Streets course, instead of just a couple of turns. I realize only about half the turns at Streets offer the approach speed and width necessary, but even so it makes things a little more unpredictable (as Streets can be an unpredictable track to begin with).

As I mentioned before, several cars on the track were being driven by professional or pro-am drivers.

Other cars were in rough shape, which is the norm among the drift community. Body damage is extremely common in drifting so many cars are built with that in mind…

This is one of my favorite drift cars, which has made appearances at several other events we’ve attended. I love the S15 body style to begin with, but the kit and matching satin wheel/body color really puts the icing on the cake.

Very aggressive 240SX.

Danny George making smoke with his 5.7L LS1-powered Miata. If you can see closely, all of his close supporters and donors have their images affixed to the body of the car.

It was great to see the master photographer at Speedhunters, Larry Chen, out in his own car. Although there wasn’t much drifting going on, I’m sure he was getting great shots and perspectives.

At nightfall, they closed the back half of the track due to a general lack of illumination. The front half was now the battleground and the competition officially began.

All the drivers still seemed to push the envelope despite the hindered visibility.

Groups with as many as eight cars were running at a time.

That’s it for the JustDrift All-Star Bash. Though we spent most of our day at streets, we visited Global Time Attack and the weekend drag racing at Big Willow as well – both of which will be posted soon.

Thanks for reading!