Winter Drifting

The end of the year is usually a slow time for motorsports. The winter rains make it hard for grip drivers to put down fast times. But for drifting the wet makes for some great driving. The slick track means less tires are burnt up and lower powered cars feel tons faster.

For the third year, Sonoma Drift held their year end Winter Jam at Infineon Raceway. Last year was wet and took out a few cars, but this year was cool and dry, perfect for drifting. This year the guys at Sonoma Drift decided to run two days. First day would be on their Wednesday Night skidpad with their Meihan-style course. It is a non-stop course modeled after the insanely tight Meihan Sportsland.

We used this time to shake down our cars. Jose is running a new tune on his SR20DET powered 240SX. Short, snappy courses like this are usually difficult for turbo cars, but not for Jose and his new tune. Big speed and big smoke all day for him.

It wouldn't be Meihan without a good wall to scrape against. The whole gang spent the day wall riding closer and closer.

 

Being a two-day event, Infineon Raceway let us leave our cars at the track. Let the beasts rest.

Day two. We return for competition on the old Formula Drift course. Cars come flying down over the Turn & bridge into the tight teardrop of 7A. Great course to separate out the brave drivers.

As we went into qualifying, Jose decided to do some last minute weight reduction. He put his car right up on the clipping point cones and the cones decided to fight back. Blew his window clean off.

Blown out window didn't stop him from laying down the smoke.

Limitless Motorsports built a beast of a S14 for Faruk Kugay powered by a 1JZ-GTE. How do people follow him in the coulds of smoke?

Congratulations to Donovan Brockway for winning the competition in his E30 BMW. Always a fun guy to tandem with!

We had a bunch of fun at Winter Jam. Sonoma Drift always throws great events and this event was even better. By having a two day bash like their Summer Jam events, it makes for a great drift experience on a legendary raceway.

And a week later we went to Thunderhill Raceway. Drifting two weekends in a row? Always up for that. Geoff Pitts of ThunderDrift held a two day event with Keep Drifting Fun, a full track day and a competition day. We only came up for the full track day to close out the year.

Rolling hills and the windmills are a beautiful backdrop for drifting.

Our buddies came up with us too! Don from Bob's Donuts brought out the family van to tow his Miata up. Vans are for more than soccer moms.

And we spotted this C110 Skyline at the paddock. What a gem!

These two track days were a great way to end the 2013 year. Back to back weekend drifting holds us over for the long off season. Thank you to Sonoma Drift for holding a great Winter Jam and ThunderDrift for a sweet KDF event.

Much more pictures here. Stay warm through the winter!