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| Straight outa Japan, D1 drift legend Toshiki Yoshioka did well making it to the top 8. Yoshioka competes in Japanese Gymkhana as well. All the way from Japan, awesome driving and this was the only lousy picture Jeff took of him! |
Team Falken’s Dai Yoshihara won a very hard fought battle in RWD with his LS powered S13. The car was able to walk away with the win by being the most well rounded car at the event. Some cars were able to rotate quicker, some had better straight line acceleration, but like a complete fighter, Dai’s car was excellent in all areas and was able to run consistently fast all weekend long, turning AWD like times. European Jr WRC driver Kevin Abbring commented on how perfect Dai’s driving was and that he never made a single mistake during his runs. Hitting cones carried a 1 second penalty but Dai never let it come down to penalties to take the win and kept his driving smooth and under control the whole weekend.
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| Who says drifters can’t drive grip? Dai Yoshihara proves them wrong by powering the Falken/Discount tire S13 around the course where elements of Drift and Grip driving came into play. |
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| Dai Yohsihara does a celebratory burnout for his victory against the lightning quick Toyota Corolla of John Russakoff… |
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| …and Kojima does a little dance. |
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| Although Michael Essa’s V10 powered BMW didn’t make it to the finals he certainly knew how to put on a show by winning the burnout contest with his 3 minute long 3rd gear burnout. |
One of the crowd favorites at the event was John Russakoff and his little AE86 that had some help in the power department courtesy of a turbocharged Honda S2000 motor. The Corolla looked to be one of the better handling cars on the course. Combine a modest 380hp in a well developed 2000lb car and you can see why Russakoff was able to take down Michael Essa’s BMW 335i powered by a V10 transplanted from an M5.
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| Corporate bigshots take note. John Russakoff has talent. Someone give him a ride! |
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| The JSP Corolla driven by privateer John Russakoff was lightning quick in the straights and seemed to find rear grip when he needed it better than anyone else in the field. He was almost able to take down the might Falken team singlehandedly. |
The crew from Bas Koeten Racing and BioMCN traveled all the way from the Netherlands to compete in the Gymkhana Grid invitational. The BioMCN 350Z is set up as a rally car and the team only had a few days to prepare the car for the gymkhana event. Except for the fuel system and ECU that runs a blend of 85% methanol and 15% gasoline which they call M85, their 350Z’s engine was almost 100% stock. Even though they were making considerably less power than the competition, driver Kevin Abbring displayed smooth and consistent driving that got them to the podium.
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| Their engine bay showed absolutely nothing to be seen as far as power adders go. They didn’t have so much as an intake on the car but Jr WRC driver Kevin Abbring was still able to drive the car to a 3rd place finish. Perhaps he was aided by a set of “illegal” ultra soft rally tarmac slicks. |
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| MotorMavens chief honcho Antonio Alvendia doing his thing running the car show plus taking snaps with MotorMavenette Samantha. |
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| Continuing the theme of different disciplines coming together for Gymkhana Grid, the Motor Mavens Mass Appeal car show was an impressive display of SoCal car culture. Here is an excellent specimen from the Bosozuku scene, a rare MS65 Toyota Crown. |
When the track went cold In between rounds we were treated to the Motor Mavens Mass Appeal car show and vendor midway in the paddock area. The local Supra club was out in force giving us a raw display of what a 1000hp 2JZGTE sounds like building boost using their 2 step launch controls. All genres were well represented with everything from the VIP gangster Lexus sedans with curtains to the opposite end of the spectrum with the row of Bosozoku Japanese rat rods.
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| The almighty Supra. The local supra club was out in full force showing us a raw display of HP. |
