{"id":9236,"date":"2013-10-18T13:23:50","date_gmt":"2013-10-18T21:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/?p=9236"},"modified":"2024-01-20T11:15:22","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T19:15:22","slug":"formula-drift-round-7-irwindale-speedway-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/formula-drift-round-7-irwindale-speedway-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula Drift, Round 7, Irwindale Speedway 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend was the 2013 Formula Drift Finals in Irwindale.
\nI was out shooting for Falken Tire unexpectedly, which is always a great thing. They’re a fun to team to shoot for and work around. Unfortunately though we didn’t have a strong weekend. All three drivers qualified Top 32, however both Justin and Dai were knocked out before top 16.<\/p>\n

Saturday was my only actual day there to shoot. However I showed up on Friday to get my media vest early. The biggest problem with the Drift Finals is that there are a TON of people that apply for media passes. And I’ll be completely honest, most of them have no business being there. They’re un-experienced and represent no major company, no team, nor driver. There are people that I’ve met at these events that simply have their own auto blog and were able to get credentialed in.
\nTo be clear, I’m all for people learning and working hard to advance in a competitive industry. However these inexperienced people tend to be rude, don’t follow rules, and have no common curtesy nor professional respect I find when I shoot a series like American Le Mans.<\/p>\n

So rather than deal with a ton of people in the media meeting on Saturday, I showed up on Friday to check in early and then spent most of the afternoon seeing a few friends on other teams and with various vendors.<\/p>\n

Race day was busy, as is every Irwindale race.
\nSo, read on, check out a bunch of the shots I’ve selected to upload, and maybe I’ll see you guys out during the 2014 season!<\/p>\n

Click the break to read on:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"JRX_7697\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Darren, during a practice run on Friday<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7707\"<\/p>\n

Dai, gridded up and waiting<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7748\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7763_1\"<\/p>\n

Patrick Mordaunt, A’PEXi team<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7776\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7781\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7796\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7814\"<\/p>\n

Matt Field<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7865\"<\/p>\n

Starting the morning off on Saturday, unloading the rigs<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7868\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7871\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7873\"<\/p>\n

Backing the Mustang up onto the lift. There is very veryyy little room for error here<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7876\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7886\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7888\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7892\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7897\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7898\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7901\"<\/p>\n

Checkin out the engine before practice starts that morning<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7906\"<\/p>\n

Unloading the 240 for one last race weekend<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7909\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7910\"<\/p>\n

Changing the plugs<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7915\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7918\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7923\"<\/p>\n

KW stopped by to check the shocks<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7926\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7929\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7931\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7940_1\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7944\"<\/p>\n

Discussing strategy that morning before practice starts<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7949\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7954\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7958\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7964\"<\/p>\n

All the ladies have arrived for a long day of meeting fans<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7981\"<\/p>\n

Julianna<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7988_1\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7997\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_7999\"<\/p>\n

Katie<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8003\"<\/p>\n

Randyl<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8004\"<\/p>\n

Jumped in to get a selfie with Julie while seh was waiting for actual photobooth setup to work<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8005\"<\/p>\n

Then Ian offered to take an actual photo. haha<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8009\"<\/p>\n

Pat Goodin won the Falken Cup, highest scoring privateer that season<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8011\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2561\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8017\"<\/p>\n

Pretty cool view from up top<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8032\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8052\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8061\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8066\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8085\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8100\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8111\"<\/p>\n

I’m going to miss the 240. Such an awesome looking car out on the track<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8145\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8167_1\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8190\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8191_1\"<\/p>\n

Whoops! Needed that!<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8204\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8212_1\"<\/p>\n

Finally get a cool angle shot of Pat’s car and the season is over. I’ll have to have him sign it in April at the next race. hahaha<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8242\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8251\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8264\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8308\"<\/p>\n

Justin, waiting his turn to run<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8314\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8326\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8339-2\"<\/p>\n

Patrick rides gangsta style… seat is on the floor apparently<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8339\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8347\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8353\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8358\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8377\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8378\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"JRX_8399\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8408\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8411\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8415\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8420\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8429\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8430\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8437_1\"<\/p>\n

Darren saw this and said “I look pissed”… I think he was just annoyed with his last run during practice. This was right after when they were discussing the car\/etc.<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8440\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8458\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8478_1\"<\/p>\n

Katie and I working hard… on our lunch break<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8479_1\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8483\"<\/p>\n

Julie, busy signing posters<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8494_1\"<\/p>\n

Down at the track waiting with Joyce and Randyl for Darren’s Top 32 run.<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8502\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8507\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8510_1\"<\/p>\n

Danny George<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8530\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8539\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8547\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8558\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8590\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8608_1\"<\/p>\n

Randyl, looking amazing as usual<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8611\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8638_1\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8644_1\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8649_1\"<\/p>\n

DJ Peewee, still spinnin<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8651\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8655\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8660\"<\/p>\n

Joyce, hanging at the paddocks making sure things are running smooth<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8670_1\"<\/p>\n

Went to bug Sarah to see if I was on the list to get VIP entrance. hahaha<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8681\"<\/p>\n

Dai is a total crowd pleaser. When he’s not in a meeting or on the track he’s signing autographs and meeting fans<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8685\"<\/p>\n

As soon as Darren got back to the paddocks he joined Dai for meet & greet<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8706_1\"<\/p>\n

Julianna, laughing with me about the massive group of fans<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8708_1\"<\/p>\n

Poor Randyl. These girls have a ton of patience for all the guys that come to take their photos that always seem confused on how to use their camera<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8712\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8719_1\"<\/p>\n

This guy was going around asking models to sign his arms. He had about 10 by the time he got to Falken<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8722\"<\/p>\n

Katie, busy taking signups for the raffle<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8725\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8726\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8733\"<\/p>\n

Dai was still busy with fans<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8742\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8744\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8748_1\"<\/p>\n

Julianna, Ian and me waiting for the raffle to start<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8749\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8756\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8757\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8762\"<\/p>\n

The crowd was getting bigger and bigger as soon as the raffle started<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8765\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8771\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8775\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8779\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8782\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"JRX_8783_1\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8789\"<\/p>\n

Randyl wasn’t too impressed with how loud people were<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8800\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8807\"<\/p>\n

Dai came out for some raffle questions<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8810\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8825\"<\/p>\n

Darren is the man… brings two models with him out to the track!<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8831\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8835\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8839\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8841\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8845\"<\/p>\n

Katie went to the grid with Pat to support our Falken Cup winner!<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8848\"<\/p>\n

Matt is always just chillin, it’s kinda funny. Like he’s just there sitting thinking “I’m just going to enjoy these moments rather then jump and wave”<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8862\"<\/p>\n

Had to get a shot of Arley<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8867\"<\/p>\n

Selfie time!<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8868\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8880\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8886\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8891\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8895\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8902\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8910\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8915\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8919\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8921\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8944\"<\/p>\n

…he’s gettin close to that wall<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8947\"<\/p>\n

I think he’s rubbing it..<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8948\"<\/p>\n

Yep, he is<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8969\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8985\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8992\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8997-2\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_8997\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9001\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9018\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9024\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9037\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9071\"<\/p>\n

Waiting for the call on who won<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9084\"<\/p>\n

Darren wasn’t happy with the call. Several people weren’t, actually. But despite a formal protest of it, the call stood.<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9106\"<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9128_1\"<\/p>\n

I stayed one more run to get a shot of Vaughn’s Mustang. Despite being mostly black, it photographs really well<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9131_1\"<\/p>\n

Me and Rex<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9132_1\"<\/p>\n

Me and Rommel<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9136_1\"<\/p>\n

Henry, Narisa, and me. Got to see these two at every race this year<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9139_1\"<\/p>\n

Had to get a shot with Arley. It’s funny how you can know someone because of so many mutual friends\/etc but not meet them for the longest time<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9140_1\"<\/p>\n

Caught up to Vaughn as I was walking out so I got a shot with him, too<\/p>\n

\"JRX_9149_1\"<\/p>\n

Sarah and I were laughing and joking as we were leaving the track and she stopped, posed, and said “this is my ‘I live in Hollywood’ pose, John. Don’t forget it”. hahaha! She’s the best<\/p>\n

Overall I had a great day shooting the finals. It would have been great it the race went a little better for our team. And a little more wind to help push out the smoke from all the tires wouldn’t have hurt, either. But all in all, a good end to the season.<\/p>\n

Hope to see some of these guys next year.
\nWe’ll see how things turn out.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend was the 2013 Formula Drift Finals in Irwindale. I was out shooting for Falken Tire unexpectedly, which is always a great thing. They’re a fun to team to shoot for and work around. Unfortunately though we didn’t have a strong weekend. All three drivers qualified Top 32, however both Justin and Dai were knocked out before top 16. Saturday was my only actual day there to shoot. However I showed up on Friday to get my media vest early. The biggest problem with the Drift Finals is that there are a TON of people that apply for media passes. And I’ll be completely honest, most of them have no business being there. They’re un-experienced and represent no major company, no team, nor driver. There are people that I’ve met at these events that simply have their own auto blog and were able to get credentialed in. To be clear, I’m all for people learning and working hard to advance in a competitive industry…. <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[321,242],"tags":[363,1141,1247,1079,1177,362,948,1080,971,420,1211,951,1178,1212,1186,1248,1249,955,325,1182],"class_list":["post-9236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drift-racing","category-racing","tag-aem","tag-aem-intakes","tag-dai","tag-dai-yoshihara","tag-darren-mcnamara","tag-drift","tag-falken","tag-falken-girls","tag-falken-tire","tag-irwindale","tag-julianna-danielle","tag-julie-galindo","tag-justin-pawlak","tag-katie-carnes","tag-matt-field","tag-nitto","tag-patrick-mordaunt","tag-randyl-dawn","tag-vaughn-gittin-jr","tag-yokohama","is-cat-link-border-bottom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9236"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21150,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9236\/revisions\/21150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}