During the week leading up to our first Word Up Drift/Gymkana event of the year, I found myself getting more and more excited as Saturday approached. I found myself watching the news everyday to check the weather. I knew it was going to be a wet one which actually made it a very interesting event. The weather was bi polar this past Saturday. One minute its sunny, next minute there are thunderstorms, then its sunny but raining at the same time. I was looking forward to hanging out with the FTLC crew since I have been MIA for the past 2 months or so (SF Giants baseball took over my life) and finally being able to see Mark’s S14 back on the track. We all met up at the Paddock the night before and prepped this beast for some sideways madness…

The front end looks evil with the front bumper off. I can’t even remember the last time I saw Mark’s S14 on the track but I do know that it was awesome to see it do what it does best again…

Kenny even took his wagon out and whipped it around for awhile. Pretty awesome.

We started off the day with our drivers and media meeting and we could tell the drivers were getting anxious to hit the track. Can you tell that Jan was stoked?

Jan had some pretty unfortunate luck with his Cressida getting to the track in the morning. But all it took was a few runs around the course to cheer him up…

Jan was in such a better mood that he busted out with some FTLC karaoke and his seduction face. Sade’s “Smooth Operator” to be exact.

The drivers didn’t even care that it was raining and wet on the track. There were a lot of talented drivers out there.

This is probably my favorite photo I captured all day. It was hell standing out there in the middle of the track with the winds picking up and rain coming down but i’m glad I did. The rain and wet ground gave the photographs a pretty cool effect I think.

By the way, rainbows make Kenny levitate…

Even local Pro FD driver Matt Field came out with his 240.

But wait a minute, isn’t that…

Oh I see what you did there…

Speaking of local drifters, here’s Jay Pizo tearing up the track in his LS1 powered GS.

Sorry, I got a little carried away with this panning photography…

Overall, I had an awesome time at the event despite the cold and rain and hope everyone did too. Its always good to see everyone and meet new people. I feel like this event not being open to the public helped a lot of the drivers relax and just have fun with it. During the morning, cars were drifting the track and doing donuts. By the time the sun went down, cars were drag racing and catching some air, LITERALLY. We will see you all next month. I’ll leave you with some random photographs…

Andy