I can’t believe a week has already passed since the 2010 Spring Matsuri got into full swing! So before the Formula D action gets going in Atlanta lets wrap up the coverage from Ebisu with this final look at what is by far the best grassroots event on the planet. The opening shot offers a perfect look at just how crazy the action was getting towards the end of the festival as tons of drifters headed to the Nishi short course which was opened up at around 3 pm. Leading this quadruple drift is Andy followed by Alexi and two chasers who managed to keep nice and tight allowing me to grab this cool shot.

It seems there was far less carnage happening in Minami compared to previous Matsuri’s, but judging from the damage on some cars I probably missed some of the action! That is one of the problems with this event, there is so much going on in each of the different circuits that it’s hard to cover everything. Still thanks to Andy’s little quad I was able to move around pretty quick!

Clean S14 up in Kita.

Remember that D1-SL Kazama Auto wide body S15 we saw in the paddock at Minami in Part 2? Here it is being aggressively thrown sideways at insane speeds.

I didn’t spend much time at all at Higashi this time round, the track wasn’t too busy most of the time with a few Honda’s out enjoying some grip driving like this Accord Euro-R.

Drivers of missiles don’t really care too much about fine-tuning their cars, if it kind of goes straight and kind of steers it’s all set to go. Others however spend lots of time setting up and getting all things meticulously checked like the owner of this very nice RPS13…

…doing last minute adjustments to his alignment.

This Laurel from Garage Circuis was reluctant to start so some guys were trying to give it a jump…

…to see if the SR20 that now sits in the engine bay would crank into life. The problems were obviously more complicated that the owner thought and it never managed to get going again.

This is a very very sad picture. The crazy Motorfix Corolla sedan which was converted into a wagon came to an end. The owner rolled it and the car is pretty much done. The engine and driveline are salvageable as are other bits and pieces. The owner put on a brave face and told me that this is a good time to start on a new project so I really can’t wait to see what he will come up with next.

Meanwhile at Nishi the action never really died down. At one point there were so many cars out on the short course it looked like a Tokyo traffic jam rather than a race track. Andy, disappointed that he hardly got any time out on track during the Matsuri brought out his JZX90 D1 machine and two sets of tires.

Here he is, doing what he loves most.

MSC triple drift style! Andy in his smoke machine leads as Chris DeJager and Alexi follow in their S14 and JZX100 respectively.

Allen Lorenzo, following some set-up advice from Goto-san, was getting some nice drifts on Sunday afternoon. Here he is taking Aki out for a few hot laps in the little hachiroku.

Chris Forsberg was really getting the hand of Andy’s beaten up RPS13 missile and was out enjoying himself with Joey’s video camera mounted to the roof. Notice how the exhaust is dragging on the ground. Good luck to Chris for this weekend’s Formula D round in Atlanta!

Desperate to catch at least a couple of more “wall shots” I drove down to Minami with 10 minutes to spare from the closing of the Matsuri, but there it was all very quiet following this big crash into the barriers.

So the best I could do is take a shot of what the track along the pit wall looked like after a weekend’s worth of crazy drift action. I think this picture tells a thousand words!

That’s it from the Matsuri. Until August that is! I already can’t wait!

2010 Spring Drift Matsuri

-Dino Dalle Carbonare