As the cars entering the show area slowed, we made our way back to the media building to catch the drivers leaving their meeting. As luck would have it, the illustrious Larry Chen was interviewing the lumberjack-bearded Danny George.
We headed over to the track after the media check-in. As we were crossing the pit lanes, we stopped to get some shots of Matt Coffman’s S13. This car was like a smoke machine! Every time he’d head to the grid, there was a trail of white behind him! It was nice to get a few shots of it cruising.
We were walking through the pits towards the grandstand when we came across our good friend pingisasian and his freshly wrapped 180sx hatch. Twerk it Miley, indeed.
Once we made it to the media area of the track, we found some good spots to set up shop. I started out close to the exit and worked my way up towards the apex of the first turn. We wanted to find the best vantage points for when the Top 16 started.
I met Will from Titan Motorsports at the apex. Real cool dude. He shares the same affinity for paintball that I do. I had no idea that wearing paintball pants to a drift event would be such a conversation starter.
As far as the racing goes, Top 32 kicked off without a hitch, and it was exciting as usual. The Formula Drift drivers never fail to put on a show, and the sounds of the various motors and tire screeching is absolutely amazing. Everyone has their favorite drivers, so the event brought a packed crowd with cheers and/or boos being displayed after every decision was made over the loudspeaker.
After some good practice coverage, I found Minus so we could do yet another photo dump! Yes, we were tipping the scale at over two thousand shots by now! We made it back to the media building to complete the dump and in walked our new friend Mike of LoweredLifestyle. We talked to him about his experience so far and what we should shoot next.
With our clean memory cards, we were ready for more action. We headed over to the track, and I went straight to the other side so that I could get some unobstructed shots. There I met trackwrex & missphotog who shoot for Hankook and Achilles respectively. Again my paintball pants were the ice breaker. I met some really cool people, and the best part was all the Android love!
It was a great experience, shooting and meeting such amazing people at the new venue. The last time a Formula D battle went down in South Florida, it was at PBIR, so the track layout was new to everyone making for an even playing field. The competition was as intense as everyone expected with a lot of familiar faces going at it, keeping the entertainment level very high.
So before we knew it, Top 32 was done with and there was a break before Top 16 got started, giving us time to prepare to wrap everything up.
