Last Saturday was a beautiful day so I decided to get out of the house and I went to the El Toro Air Field to check out my buddy Ken’s Gymkhana event. Gymkhana USA is bringing us Americans the sport of Gymkhana which is really similar to SCCA Pro Solo with the exception that there are actually no pros. At the moment it is a bunch of car enthusiasts out there having a blast. Gymkhana is a combination of 2 inverted courses where 2 contestants go at the same time. There’s a slalom, small straight, and a series of very technical turns that encourages flamboyant driving such as drifting and power sliding. Of course the fastest way around the track is by NOT drifting, but the point is to have fun after all. Anybody can come out and have fun since it’s not quite fast enough of a track to destroy tires, kill your brakes, and loose control and put your car into a wall.
I believe that in Japan, Gymkhana is judged and timed. The more flamboyant, the higher the score. I think Ken set it up so that you just run against the clock this time. The sport has to evolve a little first before judging begins. There’s all kinds of cars that came. i’m talking Vettes, Mustangs, Loti, S13, 14s, WRX/STis, EVOs, 81 Corollas, 83 Celicas, AE86 Corollas, you name it. The cars were also in various state of tunes from stock to balls. I’m pretty sure I’m going to bring my BNR32 Skyline GT-R to the May 26th event at the El Toro Air Field. The GT-R is a shitty gymkhana car since it is so damn front heavy (or just heavy), but it’s just for fun so what the hell? See ya’ll there in May.
It’s good to see the FCs and S13s back in action. When I was young all we did was drag race them.
Greg Profeta of XS Engineering about to fuck some shit up.
Greg ended rocking almost everybody (1st in modified, 4th overall) in a stock engined MR-2 Spyder. Suspension and chassis are most important when you turn people! It doesn’t hurt either that Greg is a bad ass driver. He won the big trophy, $100 cash, and some 5zigen duraluminum lug nuts.
“Aniki” Ken, the organizer. Good job Ken! It was a dope event.