Northwest Dopeness >>> Once Upon A Rainy Day In Oregon

Since I’m terrible at introducing myself, let’s get it over with. Hey everyone! My name is Ben and I love cars, coffee, beer and photography.  You have no idea how much time it took to think of that finely crafted introduction, but now that that’s out of the way let’s get to some drifting!

The great thing about the Northwest is drifting happens nearly all year, rain or shine. Today’s season closer at Pat’s Acres Racing Complex was no exception. Even though when I arrived there was hardly a creature stirring, soon the drivers and spectators started to trickle in.

This is Chris. Chris is “el Jefe” of PARC, the big boss. He wants everyone to be safe, but to have fun. It was also his birthday!

I’ll admit I only know a few names of the drivers who frequent the track, but the auditions saw a lot of fresh faces. As soon as they felt comfortable with the track, it didn’t take long for some serious sideways action.

For the first couple runs cars were baptized in the holy waters of almighty drifting.

For some drivers like John Reed with his “Rally America” Hachi, this was familiar territory.

Even though much of the cars on track were S-chassis, the variety besides was awesome.

Of course the local favorites like James Wiklund never failed to deliver, even though it was dumping rain.

There’s also certainly nothing wrong with some big V8 muscle, with Nick Rountree at the wheel.

Going as hard as these guys do there’s an occasional slip up when power levels reach over 9000. It took a few hard workers and many onlookers to get this guy back on track.

Soon after, the likes of Craig Alexander once again chucking some mad skids.

Personally, my favorite corner is turn 11 because the cars carry so much momentum coming into the corner that they can just dive bomb it.  It’s exhilarating just to be near the apex of the corner snapping pictures.

The enthusiasm of the folks riding along is unmatched, especially when I get flashed the devil horns. METAL.

Keep drifting fun? No problem!

Because I’m an idiot for wearing my old, worn Vans to a drift event in the rain, I had to get some blood circulating back into my damp feet; Walking around the pits seemed like a good idea…

… And a good idea it was! Hanging out pretty much by itself was an incredibly gorgeous Z. Cue dramatic, artsy black and white photograph.

Phat. That is all that needs to be said. Time to go back to the tarmac.

For the short amount of time I’ve known Jess Atkinson, he’s a cool guy with cool plans for his Miata. I think it looks awesome as it is, so I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next!

Idiot moment number two: Forgetting the lens hood in my truck to keep rain off the glass, even though the glare coming off the headlight is kinda rad.

This ‘Stang had two eyes in the beginning. And then there was one.

The purple E30 with Texas-sized haunches wasn’t the only one killing it!

There were a lot of epic tandems, but I just couldn’t take a good enough picture to do them justice.

Destroy and add lightness.

Little red about to go big time into the hairpin.

As much as I would like a BB gun for Christmas, I’d be okay with a E30 to drift so I don’t shoot my eye out, almost like that one kid in that one Christmas movie classic.

If you’ve been reading up to this point, thank you! I know this post was a little long-winded, but I felt like this final event of the season was just too awesome to do a short summary. I hope you awesome readers have enjoyed it!