Our annual car show and drifting event, DriftCon, returned to Evergreen Speedway on June 14, 2015. DriftCon combines a trackside car show, on-track import meet, ProAm drifting competition, Team Tandem drifting competition, and Hoon-Off (burnout competition). This year the weather was amazing and the turnout of spectators/car show participants was nearly double the numbers of 2014!
Photos by Kenny B, TK Akiyama, Adam Ruiz, and Nick/Melissa Poirier (Wicked-West). Text by Matt Haugness.
Competition was fierce in all aspects of the event. We accepted car show entries up to 3 weeks before the event and only the top cars were allowed in the Great 85 Car Show located on the pavement right next to the track. All of the competitors in the show voted to determine the winners. There was an interesting twist this year in that each competitor was only allowed to win one award. In the event that a competitor won two awards they would automatically be awarded the highest award and the second place finisher in the other category would win.
This worked out very well and helped spread the awards amongst competitors. We’re continuing to fine-tune how we determine winners at our car shows and always looking for feedback. Let us know what you think of this format in the comments below. Scroll to the bottom of this post to see photos of the winner in each of the categories.For the ProAm competition we opted to run the 3/8 mini-Irwindale layout to help bump up the numbers of potential competitors. After qualifying some of the top 16 match-ups were intense. Ultimately it came down to Formula Drift Pro 2 driver Cameron Moore and Matt Vankirk in the finals. Moore managed to take the win with the most insane tandem battles of the day. Third and fourth was between Shain Cannon and Mike Goddard. Shain took the win in their battles and placed in the top three.
Another aspect of DriftCon which was first showcased at Afterdark last year was the Hoon-Off competition. In this competition five high-horsepower street cars took to the track to put on a 45 second show for the crowd. Ben Whyte and the team tandem judges made the call on the final placing for the competitors and the overall winner was Seth Hunt in his RB-powered 1990 Nissan 240SX.
To end the day, six teams of 3 drivers each competed for the Team Tandem Cup. All teams competed in every round of the competition. The teams were judged on how closely and how well they followed each other on the lead driver’s line. The first round took place on the standard layout 3/8 track and each team had three consecutive runs to put on the best show possible. Only the highest score was kept before the team advanced to the next round.
For round 2 the track was flipped to the mini-Irwindale layout and the teams had 3 chances again to put down their best score. The final round was done at the very end of the event right before the awards ceremony and it consisted of each team taking their preferred line and then doing a 1 minute freestyle. The teams could do whatever they wanted in this final round and some teams put on an awesome show.
For the most part the crowd and teams loved this style of team tandem. We have some interesting ideas for how to expand on this competition even further so look for those updates before our next big DriftCon event. Scroll to the bottom of this post to see team tandem results.
We would like to thank everyone that attended and competed in DriftCon 2015! We plan on continuing this event and making it even better in future years.
Did you have fun at DriftCon this year? Make sure to attend our end of summer event – DriftCon Afterdark on September 12. RSVP on the Facebook event page.
Special thanks to the following sponsors:
StanceWars
Vogue Autowerks
Urbn Panda
Raincity Raji Kon
NWN Motorsports
Wraps N Gadgets
Niche Road Wheels
Meister Werks
Ozzy Motors
Stickers by Nikki
Other coverage:
StanceWars
Shinchoku
Njacober Photography
Nice Hunters
See below for photos of all of the car show award winners.
Pro Am Round 3 Results
1st: Cameron Moore
2nd: Matt Vankirk
3rd: Shain Cannon
Team Tandem Competition Results
1st: Tandem Knights
2nd: Backyard Built
3rd: Redneck Coalition
Hoon-Off (Burnout Competition) Results
1st: Seth Hunt – 1990 Nissan 240SX
2nd: Lupe Zaragoza – 1948 Chevy Stepside
3rd: Theran Weaver – 1985 Volve 740
VIP Parking Awards
Best Form
Shea McGlone – 2010 Mazda 3
Best Function
Beau Michaelthon – 2JZ-GTE swapped 1968 Ford Mustang
ImportMeet.com Staff Choice
Jun Usher – 2004 Honda S2000
DriftCon Great 85 Car Show Results
Best Engine Bay
Andrew Louangphakdy – 1996 Honda Civic
Best Interior
Nate Dickey – 1994 Lexus LS400
Best Exterior Finish
Andy Nissen-Barber – 2002 BMW M3
Best Import
Isaac Lafountaine – 1994 Acura Integra
Best Euro
Alex Ng – 2006 Audi A4
Best Domestic
Hiroshi Kanno – 2007 Ford Mustang
Best Old School
Steven Smith – 1977 Toyota Celica
Best Street Mild
Travis Wilson – 2007 Infiniti G35
Best Street Wild
Tyler Pineau – 1994 Nissan 240SX
Best Race/Track
Kendrick Gray – 2006 Subaru STi
Best Stance (Judged by StanceWars)
Kevin Nguyen – 2012 Scion tC
People’s Choice
Derek Llewellyn – 2009 Nissan 370Z
Best Honda
Austin Hironaka – 1994 Honda Del Sol
Best Nissan
Frank Moreno – 2005 Nissan 350Z
Best Subaru
Mallory Tatman – 2011 Subaru STi
Best Toyota
John Rodrigues – 1995 Toyota Supra
Best Lexus
Aaron Davis – 2006 Lexus GS300
Best Mazda
Justin Kroman – 1992 Mazda Miata
Best Mitsubishi
Frank Mirabelli – 2003 Mitsubishi Evolution
Best of Show
Rob Evo – 2006 Mitsubishi Evolution
