Picking up from where we left off in Portland, coverage in V2 will review the remaining teams that were competing over the weekend. I gotta say though, the first article on Final Bout was so wordy that I really don’t have much to say for the follow up; I kind of broke the dam gates on that one. For those who missed it, to get an overview of the event check out the first article published last week. If you’ve done that already, I won’t put you through it again – so let’s jump right into some photos.
My good friend Derek Slyter, who drives for Rival, chose Final Bout to bring his S14 out of retirement. Moving around the West coast for the past few years, Derek’s car had been sitting in a garage in his home state of Idaho. He went back to retrieve it and get it in running shape the week before Final Bout SSW. The four man team was formed when one of the members, Cody Fowler, was trying to sell a car in Washington. Cody drove across from Idaho and hung out for a few days around the same time SSW was announced. You can imagine where it went from there.
Derrik and Roland with a tight tandem headed into the back of the course.
Hailing from Walla Walla, Washington (yeah that’s a real place), Villains was not only a trio that personified the spirit of a team, but also one that capitalizes on the sport. Like many of us who want parts that may or may not be on the market, we go out of our way to develop them ourselves. I wanted an affordable carbon plug for my car, so we developed and made one; turns out many other people want them as well. As is the case with the parts that Villain develop – they had a demand, so they met it themselves. The team was driving very well together nearly all day. Three car tandems early in the day, faded more or less to two; as the day wore on, more and more cars were breaking. You can check out their Facebook page for more pictures, and vids. I’m all for matching liveries, but man, that brown base color is just too pretty to cover up.
The twin-charged, 2JZ powered FD was making some really unique noises out on track. Pretty great engineering.
Goldstar was on-hand from Northern California with a partial amount of their team. A group of guys who put style above nearly everything, you won’t find a bad looking car among them. In fact, the engine in Dom’s Z32 is almost completely stock.
Henchman was another local-ish team from Washington, that participated in SSW. It’s cool to see a lot of these other teams that weren’t necessarily able to make it out to the Midwest event the last few years. I think we’ll see a similar local turnout during the East event. The Altezza in this team was so low, I could hear the aero pieces scraping before I heard the car coming most of the time – looked great! Was also really digging the LED headlights on one of the black coupes. Unfortunately the third car was broken for most of the event – I didn’t see it out on track much.
Another team that made the trek from Southern California was one I am very familiar with; in fact I share a shop with one of the members. Sneeky arrived to Portland mid-Saturday with 3 of it’s 4 members. Despite the team being around since 2009, this is actually the first time they’ve driven together. Kam, Evan, and Darryl were able to drive together for about the first lap until Evan’s motor started knocking pretty bad. Which is a bummer because he just got done putting the new motor together for this event in particular.
Daring Partners were out in full force tearing up the entirety of the track. I caught this shot of Eric Mayfield headed in to the back 90 degree left; it’s one of my favorite shots of the day. Shooting with the 16mm was a lot of fun, but I had to get a little too close to the track for my comfort.
The 6 member team, Destroy, was founded in Washington in 2012. The 3 cars that were driving most certainly lived up to their name. There was a good amount of body panels left in their wake. The 1JZ powered S13’s were pretty wild – definitely not under powered!
Street Magic USA had a good looking livery made by Super Wow Factory – they were among the teams that got in a lot of tandem runs. It didn’t take but a few hours to figure out what teams have been driving together for awhile. I feel like these three guys have been doing this together for some time.
There were a couple of other teams running that day that I wasn’t able to get too much coverage of. Tandem of Die, Diplomats, Midnighters and Riot Factory were in attendance and looked like they were having a good time driving at PARC.
AJ was there as well, not unusual to see him all over the US.
The cars are cool, the driving is awesome, but the best part of traveling to any motor sport event is always going to be the friends you see; especially an event with a draw like Final Bout. Dinner at Montage in Downtown Portland was a highlight for me – any time I have a handful of friends from all walks of life congregate together because of cars it brings a smile to my face. Again, thanks to everyone who came out!
Cliche group shot ~