Formula Drift Round 4: New Jersey – John Remus III Photography

Just got back from New Jersey Formula Drift Round 4, where I was out shooting for Falken Tire again!

I wasn’t originally planning on being in Jersey for Round 4, but after contacting Falken on a whim it turned out they needed additional support that weekend. So that worked out great for me since I still had that weekend of June open and am always down to fly to a race to photograph.
So after what will likely be my last direct-flight to an East Coast race (you’d be surprised how many tracks I can fly to direct from San Diego) I met up with the video guys and headed out to grab a bite. This was actually the first time I’d really seen the Falken video crew this season. The other races I had be on, Le Mans Sebring, Atlanta Drift, Long Beach, etc, were all for other clients or Falken bookings where I was the only media support.

It’s always a blast being out with the team. They’re such a busy company that I don’t always get to see many people from their crew, which makes catching up on life less frequent. Plus, BS’ing with the video guys is fun since we can nerd it up and talk about cameras, software, hardware, and debate all the stupid things that none of my family or friends in SoCal really care about. Creative Cloud for Adobe?! Ripofffffff, what do you guys think? lol

The race weekend was great, and went by pretty quickly. Overall Falken did pretty well. Justin took second place. Darren barely missed third place, finishing fourth.

Next up I’ll be heading out to Seattle for Round 5 in Monroe, Washington. Looking forward to that since Falken has said I can go ahead and start being as artsy as I’d like with my imagery from the races. That “they have plenty of action shots” so I can feel free to be more creative with everything. So I’m stoked for that.

Also, I just talked and met with Sony Digital Imaging, I’m going to be testing some of their gear! This is pretty exciting. I was given a bunch of gear to test during the month of July! So I’m currently working with Black Flys sunglasses to set things up with their athletes for some awesome shoots with their athletes. Stay tuned. July is going to a lot of fun with all this new gear….

Anyway… on to the Drift photos!
There’s a bunch for you guys that just want to see a lot of photos of cars/etc. You will be able to tell the images that are straight from camera and don’t really have any heavy editing applied to them.

Oh, also, I’m trying something different for this blog and all the photos that follow are going to be 800 pixels at the longest edge… I’m trying it out to see if I prefer photos a bit larger than my typical 650 pixels at the longest edge. Let me know what you think in the comments about the size change. I’ll need to adjust the right column links though I realize.

More photos after the break

Friday morning, all is quiet since the crews are all just arriving and starting their day

Adjustment and checks being done to the cars before practice later that morning

The driver meeting was hot and crowded that day

Justin Pawlak

Dai Yoshihara

Justin, hitting the bank on his first practice laps that day

Ryan Tuerck

With the smoke lingering and no breeze it made for some flat images

Matt Field

Darren McNamara gridded up and ready to go

The Falken video guys heading in. Time to grab a quick bite and then knock out interviews

Darren and Dai sitting and waiting for their interviews

Cale, tweeting updates to the @FalkenTire followers!

Back on the track Patrick Mordaunt is burning through some Yokohama rubber

Afternoon qualifying seemed a bit slow. Darren was hanging with some of the crew watching as group 2 was gridding and running their laps

Danny George, waitin his turn

Danny’s car is a montoge of all his sponsoring fans! Pretty creative idea, if you chip in towards his effort to compete in the series you can have your photo put somewhere on his car! It can be hard for privateers to finance their season – this is one of the more creative ways I’ve seen someone do it.

Dai, hanging out in the shade with everyone until it’s his turn to get back on the track

Ha! he spotted me

After a long delay during what seemed like an unscheduled break.. Dai climbs back in his car and prepares for another qualification attempt

Warming up the tires

Later in the afternoon all the guys are sitting down for the autograph session. Chris and Matt, sitting and laughing.

The line wrapped all the way around the back of the Ford booth and to the grandstands

Back at the Falken paddock the guys were trying their hand at the race cars since pretty much everyone else was at the meet & greet

Race day morning started off with checks and adjustments.
It’s incredible how clean all the cars are and their engines. The crew is meticulous about cleaning everything often

Alignment check

Better grab a slice before they’re gone!

Randyl, Katie, and Julianna

Always a line to meet the girls and get a poster

Erik, spinning the tunes

The team goes through hundreds of tires every race weekend

Me and Joyce!

Me and Randyl, too! Always gotta get pictures with the girls, right?

This is how you clean up the track after sand is thrown down for a coolant cleanup… send the guys out to do a few donuts in that area

Really dig this shot of Chris… mostly because of the smoke trail I think. Maybe I’ll make a print of it.

I’ve also been trying different style shots of Vaughn to get a cool shot to print as well.
I actually have a collection of my photographs that I ask the subject to sign. Makes fun wall decorations for home, haha!

With qualifying nearly done, most of the Falken team is relaxing back at the rig watching the life stream on TV

Darren was hit in practice and the crew is rushing to replace the entire front rack.

It’s incredibly impressive how fast and accurately these guys can work

Darren hangs out with the crew and watches. He’s hoping to get back out in time to get a better qualifying spot

Waiting for his turn grid up

Burning the hell out of the tires to warm them up. I felt bad watching Darren, he was noticeably frustrated with his car that after and the accident. And just prior to his run where he was hit, he had been telling me his frustration with the car feeling a little uncomfortable that morning.

Darren put down some good runs and qualified for the finals though

Julianna, looking amazing

Julianna, watching Dai out on his last qualifying run of the day

Darren, standing in the smoke watching his teammate

With morning practice done, the pits are PACKED with fans

Back and Falken Dai and JBrad are chatting with fans

Dai is constantly raising funds to help Japan after tsunami last year. Today they were doing a kind “auction” for t-shirts

With all funds going right to Dai’s charity fundraiser they were going to the highest bidders

And people were willing to be very generous to donate to the cause and get their t-shirt. Most were paying $20 for a shirt, Dai would even sign them if you asked

This fan had saved Dai’s magazine cover feature to have signed by him

Back at the tech rig Darren was hanging with the team while they did a few more adjustments on alignment

Now the guys asked Darren to join them for some Q&A and prize giveaways

Some of the questions were easy, others pretty difficult

VP Andrew was signaling answers to the audience if you were paying attention! Haha, I guess it’s not cheating when the boss does it… right?

Not long after everyone filled back into the stadium for the main event

Qazi, getting some wide shots of the crowd

Danny George was his own umbrella-man that afternoon. Awesome. hahaha

Matt, chillin at his car. I just heard Matt’s reason for not having an umbrella girl is that he would prefer his g/f do it, or no one at all. And since she doesn’t want to, he’s not interested in having someone random there. Kinda sweet, no?

I really wish I remember the joke they made about Ryan… I think had something to do with “the other Drift Alliance guy” or something… Cuz he went to wave, heard the joke, and then just kinda went “What? What’s that about?” Mean while Vaughn, on Ryan’s left, was standing there laughing

The first battle was Justin and Danny, 1st and 16th in qualifying respectively… It was likely that Justin would easily knock out Danny… but Danny put down a great run either way