For those who were waiting to see them, here are some photos from the very first "Grip Day" event at Willow Springs, put on by Drift Association, the same people who brought us the ever popular Drift Day events, which changed the traditional scene of grassroots motorsports by making them more fun, youthful, and dare I say it, diverse! Okay, okay, I know this event happened last week, but I think the pics are better late than never! Haha!

Big thanks to Naoki Kobayashi and the Grip Day Staff for putting on such a great event, and thanks to my friends Kassie 86, S14 Carina, and Henry Nguyen, a photojournalist I met from Northern Cali, for helping me out by taking photos while I was driving the yellow Nissan 370Z, above! I gotta say, the Grip Day event was super fun! For only $128, drivers at this event were able to get a whole day of track time, and timing transponder rental fee was included.

Therefore, drivers – if you want to work on improving your line and smoothness of driving inputs in a safe environment with safe, courteous drivers around you, this is a great event to practice at!

On Saturday, it was pretty much open practice, and drivers had the option of getting driving tips and/or car setup tips from experts like Taka Aono, Hiro Sumida, Alex Pfeiffer, Gushi san, or Yoshie Shuyama. Even though he wasn't driving the event, our good friend Daijiro Yoshihara also stopped in for a little while to hang out.

On Sunday, they held the actual time attack, with different classes: KA class, 4AG street tire class, 4AG race tire class, and others. There are more classes, but since I don't think you guys want to read them all, just visit the Drift Day website for more class information.

Next year, Naoki says he is kicking around the idea of starting an actual 4AG Challenge Series!!! (It depends on if there will be enough competitors down to compete though) I'm excited! Maybe I need to dust off one of my trusty AE86s and get it back on the road – a 4AG Challenge Series sounds funnnnnnnnnn! Can you imagine a track full of cool looking (and let's be honest, some low budget looking) AE86s??? Love it!

Check out this Vitz err… Yaris! This is Alex Pfeiffer's roommate Jeff, rocking what I think is probably the coolest Yaris I've seen on US shores. I just don't understand why so many people put effort into customizing things like Scion TCs but they overlook cool mini cars like the Vitz! In Japan, they have a whole one-make racing series devoted to these cars – I got to watch them firsthand when Rod, Ryo, and I went to the Pokka Super GT 1000kms Race at Suzuka Circuit. Anyway, I think Jeff's car is super cool! Dig the wheels and stance!

Also dig the wheels and stance of this Miata! Sitting quietly in the pit area, Tony Pham's Miata is dropped super low with nice round Japanese sidemarkers and banana spoke wheels… wait, are those XXRs?

Wow, good job making your car look dope even on lower budget wheels! Amazing.

Thanks to Kassie for quickly positioning the 370Z for me so I could take this photo right away, before the water in the pits dried up! Man, I've become quite the fan of 370Zs.

John K from JIC brought his cleeeeean new white R35 GTR out to the track just to make us all jealous! Damn, white R35s look GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!! Actually, I want to try driving an S2000 out on the racetrack as well – I bet it's super fun. Last time I drove an S2000CR, I thought it had excellent handling and acceleration!

Here's Jeff's Vitz again, which has been cleaned up immensely due to his super cool metallic brown paint job (hey! that's the color of my first car! cool!), shaved badges, twin Recaro seats (okay baller!), and super low front chin spoiler. Very, very cool!

Here's Naoki from Drift Association driving this S13 with the Drift 101 graphics on it. If you don't know what Drift 101 is, it's a drifting tutorial session set up at track days, so professional drifters can instruct you one-on-one on how to begin drifting, or how to improve your drifting skills… for more information, check out the Drift Day website, don't ask me.

Although it wasn't in his beat up black primer AE86, Alex Pfeiffer was out at the track (recognize the metallic Hawaiian graphics on his helmet?) with his "Lowcost" project car, which is powered by the same 4AG turbo setup that he had in his AE86! Alex went out on the track for a short time on Saturday, and I think he pulled the fastest time of the day with a 1:23 lap time? Damn, that thing is fast! Or actually, I should say… damn, that guy is fast! I dunno if he still has it, but I remember a few years back, Alex was telling me he had some sort of lap record at Laguna Seca, driving a Porsche…

What do you guys think about these type of project cars? I think it's cool to have a light, powerful car… but I saw Alex driving this thing on the 605 freeway near Irwindale one day, and I kept thinking, "damn, doesn't he get bugs all up in his face since it doesn't have much of a windshield?"

I also spotted Alex in this car on a separate occasion, as I was heading to Irvine with Ashley Sarto (the Hankook umbrella girl/Import Tuner cover model that you might have seen in previous SH posts), and we were trippin out on just how small and low this car is, compared to normal cars. It definitely attracts a lot of attention on the freeway! Also, driving this thing on the street, don't you think you'd be upset of the car in front of you began washing their windows on the freeway, or if you're driving next to the toxic fumes of a big bus or a diesel Benz? One day, I should ask Alex about that… I suppose you could just accelerate past all that though…

The R&D guys had a huge lineup of 240s, S2000s, and other cars assembled for their run group. These guys even brought out a big bbq grill and food to the track! Man they were prepared! Thanks for the food guys! See you all at the next event!

-Antonio Alvendia

Drift Day and Grip Day Events