FORMULA DRIFT LONG BEACH 2012>> THROUGH MY LENS

April 11, 2012
by Larry Chen
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My goal as a Speedhunter is to produce the most beautiful photos of drifting that I can, images with as much impact as the sport itself. Hopefully my pictures of the drifting universe will allow future generations of Speedhunters to look back and experience the modest beginnings of professional drifting. In this story I am going to show you guys what I went through at Long Beach, from the moment I stepped foot on track to my lens getting a sprinkle of champagne.

Long Beach is one of the hardest courses for drivers. Walls generally don’t move… much. It is also hard on us Speedhunters, because there is very little run-time for such a massive field of cars – this year there were around 60 drivers taking part. To get the best shots I have to be dedicated and focused, but as always with motorsports photography nothing is guaranteed, no matter how much I prepare. For example, Darren McNamara was looking great all weekend. He qualified in a respectable ninth place.

But there was no way to predict that Darren would end up in the tire barriers outside of the second turn.

Luckily for Dmac, the safety measures that have been put in place saved him from any major injuries.

However, the fate of the Falken Tire Saturn Sky built by ASD is uncertain.

Though even if this car isn’t back in action, I am sure we will see Dmac compete in Atlanta in one form or another.

Thursday: But let’s rewind to the beginning to the event. In order for me to shoot at Long Beach or any track with a catch fence there need to be photo holes. These don’t just appear out of nowhere.

This weekend I had the daunting task of choosing where the photo holes should be cut. One by one the links were snipped.

Then the fence gets folded to the outside and secured by zip-ties. Three hours later all the holes we were allotted were cut.

There is no practice on Thursdays due to noise regulations at Long Beach, so I decided set up some nice shots on the track and around the paddock. Justin Pawlak and Vaughn Gittin Jr donated their time to move cars and make funny poses for me. It was very time-consuming and it took the better part of the day, But it was fun.

Vaughn recently got hitched and I had the pleasure of attending his wedding. This was an interesting scene: I think Vaughn was trying to let his wife know that he wanted little race car drivers! In a very subtle way of course.

The advantage of having an event in downtown Long Beach was the amazing culture and scenery.

This double-decked bus was imported straight from England. Its usual role is to shuttle tourists around Long Beach.

But for this day it was turned into the Formula Drift double-decker media party bus. Say that five times fast!

FD arranged with the city to have a police-escorted parade through the downtown public streets.

The boys were on their best behavior of course…

It was cold and windy up on top but it was totally worth it.

The bus was filled with all the drift media regulars, including Cheryl Tay – the official photographer of the FD Asia series. She traveled all the way from Singapore so she wasn’t used to the 65-degree Southern California weather.

One thing we had to look out for was low-hanging street signs. Luckily we had guys spotting for those of us who had our backs turned.

These cars have never driven straight for so long in their mechanical lives!

Friday: The next morning saw the first drivers meeting of the year, which is always pretty nerve-wracking.

Drivers can get a bit nervous.

I can see why it’s so stressful. New rules and regulations are
brought up, as well as what the judges will be looking for during qualifying.

This was Gabe Stone’s very first Formula Drift event. I can only imagine what was going through his mind.

This was also the first event for Brian Eggert, the new Formula Drift judge. He has been actively promoting legal on-track drifting since 2003 and has helped to push the sport in over 20 states across North America.

Some drivers looked like they had been burning the candle at both ends.

I know for a fact Matt Powers was up all night. He went to Willow Springs International Speedway at 3am that very morning to go test his freshly-built drift car. The team made it to tech on time and Matt was able to qualify mid-pack in 17th place.

I’m sure he had to smooch quite a few behinds to pull that off.

Matt’s spotter and former driver was along for the entire ride. After staying up for 48 hours straight he didn’t look tired at all!…

Matt’s teammate, Fredric Aasbo, was lucky he did not have to go to such great lengths to test his Scion tC.

Now that his team has had the chance to collect data for a whole year, they have modified the car to accommodate their lengthy Norwegian driver.

Unfortunately Fredric would go on to meet with last year’s champion, Daijiro Yoshihara, in the top 16 bracket. Dai would end up finishing in second place.

Didn’t you guys hate picture day when you were in grade school? Well, it was FD picture day since there were so many new drivers plus guys with new suits or sponsors. The drivers hated it. Everyone had a bad hair day except for Daijiro.

The master Speedhunter himself, Mr Rod Chong, made it across the pond to join me in combat and it seemed like he had brought the big guns.

As Morning practice came around I headed to the outside of turn 2. There I spotted Ryan ‘Hamshaaa’ Tuerck walking the track with his twin brother Justin, who is also his spotter.

I didn’t like his livery at first, but after photographing it over the course of the event it grew on me. The young driver got picked up by Retaks during the off-season. He will be driving the exact same S13.5 that Toshiki Yoshioka drove last year.

I asked him how much power the car was putting down and he told me he didn’t know, although he told me his butt dyno estimated it to be around 500hp. Amazingly he qualified in first place at this event. I guess it doesn’t really matter what car he is in, as long as it looks like it drove straight out of the ’80s!

Also walking the track was Kyle ‘The Menace’ Mohan. Kyle got a taste of glory when he placed fourth in his very first Formula Drift event five years ago.

Since then the competition has become fierce, but I have a feeling Kyle won’t quit till he comes out on top.

The first practice of 2012 got underway as the rookies lined the starting grid.

It took a few runs for drivers like Andrew Coomes to get used to the street course.

Pretty soon they were laying down smoke screens with no effort at all.

I’ve been following the antics of George Marstanovic for a while now. He qualified in 15th, which was the highest out of all the rookies. I still don’t know how to pronounce his name though!

As practice continued some more familiar cars came out to play. Walker Wilkerson placed his bumper against the wall with precision. I wonder how well he parallel parks?

Eventually the heavy-hitters made an appearance. From then on it was hard to see through the thick clouds of tire smoke that would linger over the track.

Another familiar face with a wall-scraping itch to scratch was Matt Fields in his highlighter-colored LS S14.

For Santa’s safety he colored the ends of his wing.

It seems SCCA flagger, Bil Baldwin, has become an overnight sensation in the motorsport community thanks to his interview from the Keep Drifting Fun guys.

I am surprised he doesn’t wear safety googles to keep the carbon-fiber shrapnel out of his eyes.

Qualifying began as soon as practice was completed. The ever-consistent and always punctual Conrad ‘Burger’ Grunewald qualified in eighth. Just check out that wheel lift.

Ken is one of the few drivers to get an all-new car this year. He seemed to have adapted pretty quickly, as he looked comfortable in it all weekend. Maybe that mock Long Beach course helped.

The last person to make a qualifying pass is always the points leader in the series. Since this was the first event of the season the last person to run was Daijiro Yoshihara. It must be nice to drive one of the most developed S chassis in the world.

Once the results from qualifying were in it was time for the top 32 practice, so I headed to the hot grid.

There are many people who work together to make this professional drift series run like a well-oiled machine. The guys on the front-lines are the hard-working and dedicated Formula Drift staff – guys like Luke Crowell will easily spend all day in the sun. Skipping a meal or two just to keep things running is not an uncommon thing among the staff.

I’ve begun to think Jim Liaw, co-owner of Formula Drift, had his phone permanently attached to his hand. How he keeps a charge on it is beyond me.

What the fans of drift don’t see are the long hours and all-nighters these guys have to pull to keep the show going. I am very lucky to be able to see the inner workings of such a series.

Then there are the crew members of all the teams that travel far and wide to compete in the series. Those are the guys who shed their blood fixing cars and setting up pit-spaces among other laborious tasks.

We can’t forget my brothers in arms: the media who deliver you guys the coverage – whether you like it or not!

We not only have a love of the sport, but we live and breath it. Let’s hope that in 50 years doctors don’t find out that tire-smoke causes impotency…

Of course there are also the hard-working drivers. What the fans don’t see is the hours they have to sacrifice between events to keep the business side of things in order.

There are few drivers who have attended the majority of events since the beginning of the series back in 2004 – but Vaughn Gittin Jr is one of them. The dedication he has to growing the sport is unlike anyone else on the grid.

As the 6pm cut-off time for noise regulations approached the top 32 session came to a close.

Autograph Session: This is always one of my favorite things to shoot, when the drivers let loose because qualifying is over. They get to relax a bit…

…they get to meet their dedicated fans…

…and some even crack a smile for the first time all weekend. Mr Blue Steel, also known as Dennis Mertzanis, snagged the final qualifying spot. What a great reason to smile.

I guess it could work to your advantage as long as you knock out the first-place qualifier. Dennis barely got the car working right the day before so he is still not used to it yet. I am sure he will get in the groove as the season progresses.

Fans seem to get the drivers to sign the weirdest things!

This was also a great time to get acquainted with this year’s new umbrella girls. Oh, the perils of Speedhunting.

As the autograph session came to an end it was time for the drivers, like Mr Blue Eyes, to get some rest as they had a long grueling day ahead of them.

Saturday: Early the next morning the drivers lined up for their final practice session before going into the top 32 competition.

This is when they let it all hang out and get as close as possible to the other drivers.

It was very hard to get any tandem practice before Formula Drift shifted to top 32 eliminations in 2009.

Since then the tandem battles have been getting closer and closer.

The top 32 eliminations literally started off with a bang.

On the plus side, Robbie Nishida has a brand new SC300 drift car that will be ready to go at the second round in Atlanta.

The carnage did not end with Nishida. Formula Drift rookie Nick D’Alessio went up against Rhys ‘Mad Skillz’ Millen in the top 32 bracket and went out in a spectacular fashion. Nick walked away unscathed, but the car was written off.