DriftSTL closed out its 2012 season with a Drift Matsuri event at Gateway International Raceway just outside of St. Louis. The event drew nearly 50 drivers from all over the Midwest and mid-South to run on what many drivers consider one of the best regional venues for the sport.
Weeks prior to event commencement, the decision was made to use the event as a fundraiser to raise money for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. Head of DriftSTL, Adam Reed, said five dollars was taken from each driver entry fee and one dollar taken from each spectator ticket to put towards the cause, and believes they raised around $500.
“I just think we’re getting large enough that we can start to give back to the community, even if it’s not ours,” Reed said. “This was just a large national disaster, and this was just a good way to help out, and we’re big enough we can offer up some assistance.”
The driver’s meeting was held around 8 a.m., with temperatures still hovering in the high-30s. This was considered “warm” by some of the Chicago drivers who made the trek downstate to the REST of Illinois. Other drivers came from Tennessee, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas.
One of those Kansas drivers was Dustin Doherty with KC Drift.
His gold S14 finds its motivation courtesy of a VQ35D, mated to a VQ transmission, Q45 diff and driver’s axle, 300ZX Twin Turbo axle and hubs, Z32 brakes and multilink suspension on all four corners. It was one of many cars to have a bumper divorce itself from the car.
“This was my first road course with it since I got done with it a month and a half ago,” Doherty said. “I love it.”
The car ran on KA power for six years. Doherty then added a rollcage in 2009 and coilovers in 2010. He competed in the D1 Grand Prix event in Chicago in 2009 where he made top 32 (he’s still rocking that banner on his windshield). He also placed second in MDU round three in 2009, and finished 7th at a Hot Import Nights even in the same year, the first event he ran with a cage.
“My dad would support me and he got sick and now I’m out here doing things on my own,” Doherty said. “That’s why there was a break.”
Doherty said he was finally managing stuff with the car he previously hadn’t been able to.
“I finally started to put some grip down and do some major extensions,” he said. “I’ve been doing e-brake extensions for a few years now, but I’ve been looking to get in to power extensions.”
Andrew Lewis was a driver who had no problems performing power extensions. His V8-powered S14 attacked the course aggressively and with a solid smoke show, and he was awarded the “Smoky Nagata Award” for best smoke production.
“It’s the fastest track I’ve been able to hit all year,” Lewis said. “Nothing like a triple-digit entry.”
Lewis spoke highly of the event.
“I think everyone did an excellent job running the event,” he said. “Special thanks to the St. Louis crew for making it happen. I should have brought way more tires.”
Lewis competed in the Midwest Drift Union pro-am series this year and finished in tenth. He said he would be running the KMS finals in Atlanta before going in to build mode over the winter with a new chassis to tackle MDU again.
Another MDU regular, Keith Carlos, came out to blaze the course with his LS1-swapped 350Z.
“I’ve been itching to drive (Gateway) since 2011,” Carlos said. “Videos do this course no justice. You have to drive it and experience it first hand. I’m looking forward to returning again and again.”
Carlos finished the 2012 MDU season just above Lewis in ninth, and was the top qualifier at Street Life Tour.
Aside from the heart of American iron courtesy of GRD Performance, Carlos’ Z33 is rocking a PBM angle kit, Stance suspension, SPC suspension links and arms and rolls on Enkeis.
Carlos indicated his season was basically over, but will be back next year for sure.
“For the rest of this year my sponsor GRD and I will be getting the car ready to run in the Midwest Drift Union Pro-Am series and Club FR events,” he said.
Speaking of ClubFR, a few drivers I hadn’t seen in action since No-Star Bash were down attacking the road course, including, Fred Kaneko in a pearl white FC – easily one of the nicest cars out there.
Kaneko went home with the “NFG (No F*cks Given) Award” for the smoothest and cleanest driver, and for being a “man among boys.” More on those awards later.
Several drivers pulled double-duty this weekend, heading down to Memphis International Raceway to participate in Traction Optional’s season closer. One of those drivers was Steve Fishel.
“I thought this weekend was amazing,” he said. “Possibly one of the most fun weekends I’ve had.”
As evidenced by the smoke, Fishel was hard on tires.
“I actually had to take a trip to the tire shop mid event to reload,” he said. ” The track was fast and awesome. I’d say the best part was being able to tandem on a big course. It’s always fun to try and keep up with the better V8 guys.”
Eric Patton, with his unorthodox upturned intake, made the trek up from Tennessee with fellow Team Waffle driver Jay Strobino.
“The St. Louis and T/O guys were awesome,” Patton said of the weekend. “Both events ran flawlessly and we got the maximum amount of seat time. I think that was the best part was how the events were run. They didn’t take any shit. You just got out there and improved on your driving.”
Strobino felt largely the same.
“It was very deceiving,” Strobino said. “It didn’t seem like you had to hammer it as much, but you did. I HAD to go harder there than I did (at Memphis). I went just as hard (at Memphis) because I wanted to, but at St. Louis, I HAD to. It was fast and I’m very happy I went.”
And now back to the awards. The “Mantry” award, nominated by crowd participation, was given to Dan Sommer for the “manliest entry.”
“He is the only guy I saw all day not touch his e-brake,” said DriftSTL staff member Steve Steverson.
Upon this remark, someone shouted: “that’s because he HAS no e-brake!”
And as an apparent inside joke amongst DriftSTL regulars, “The Durrell” award was defaulted do Darryl Moore.
“This award represents honor, valor and dedication, even though you completely suck,” Reed said to a response of laughter during the post-event ceremony.
Chris Hanley was retroactively award the “Biggest Loser” award for most parts lost for an accident he had earlier this year at a private Gateway event. He was driving his girlfriend’s car on Saturday.
Yet another award, this one the “Hulk Smash Award,” was given to David Mesker, who had smashed his car up a week before the event but still made it out to drive. In doing so, he went from a 240SX with an LS1 to one with an SR20.
To understand why Steve Steverson, a non-driver got an award, here’s what you have to know:
The award was dubbed the “Rhys Millen Biggest Asshole Award,” and was supposed to be given to whoever the drivers thought was the biggest jerk. Someone nominated Steverson for having ran over driver Cory Conrad’s skateboard with his Avalanche, and thus the award was given.
Your award winners: (L-R – David Mesker, Darryl Moore, Chris Hanley, Dan Sommer, Steve Steverson, Andrew Lewis; Kaneko was not available for the photo op)
Of course, there were more great performances by those who didn’t win awards, including MDU regular Hooman Rahimi, driving the 350Z he smashed into two different walls with at the beginning of the season.
Another driver I last saw at No-Star Bash, Richard Fisher, throwing tons of smoke on most if not all of his runs. (DriftSTL edit: he was the original winner of the Smoky Nagata, but had vanished before he could accept the award)
And of course, DriftSTL OGs like Mike O’Mara…
…and Kyle Crangle, in what has to be one of the cleanest S14s around.
I asked Reed to rate the event from 1-10, and he couldn’t resist a Spinal Tap reference.
“Of course we went to 11, we don’t do anything less,” he said. “The problems that we had was too many cars on the track, but that worked itself organically once people started burning through tires and spacing themselves out and figuring out who they wanted to drive with. Everyone had a good time. People were dedicated and committed. Even thought they’ve had long seasons, you’ve got guys running KMS and MDU and other circuits, and it’s great to see them to have a good time.”
I personally can’t wait to get back to Gateway. It’s less than two hours from my house and therefore easily the shortest drive to any drift event. It’s at this complex I saw drifting live for the first time, and I thus consider DriftSTL my “home” organization. I hadn’t been to an event on the Gateway road course since MDU round four in 2010, and the next event there can’t come soon enough.
Drift edit: Huge thank you to Nick Quigley for this awesome article, and as always, superior event coverage. We'll see you in '13, man! And thank you to all the drivers, spectators and hugest most biggest round of applause to the DriftSTL staff. Making dreams come true. Happy Thanksgiving and God bless.
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