Friday morning, the weekend of Matsuri had arrived and I was super excited to get going! Before we headed off we ran the trailer down to Hackett’s to pick up about 50+ tyres and crammed them into the trailer along with the generator, BBQ and anything else that could fit. Loaded up all our camping gear, met up with everyone else and got ready to hit the road!
After a few little hiccups on the drive there, like the 33’s speedo reading 190kph while doing 80, making that the fastest we could go due to the speed limiter kicking in, and losing 2 tyres off the roof of the car while driving along, we finally arrived. Surprised to be one of the first few people there, we quickly nabbed a camping spot and got to work setting up.
Since Friday night was Short Track comp, after getting settled in and scoffing down some dinner, everyone made their way over to the track to watch the pros do their thing. It’s always a good motivator to see the top guys go hard at it the night before you’re released on track!
Saturday morning came and I was wide awake well before the track opened at 7:00 am so I decided to take a walk and snap some shots while I waited for the missus to wake up. Even the cars were still defrosting.
The first track shot of Matsuri was snapped of this awesome S13!
Nigel getting some nice morning bake going.
Michael in his beasty ass R32! “eyes on the road rhonda!”
Why not throw some tandems in on your first runs out.
After scouting around the main track for half the morning I decided to move on over to Short Track and have a look.
On the way over I spotted Lachlan’s 180. Check out the rear fitment on this thing!!
Ever seen rust look so good? Loving the V8 engine and green P-plate :D
After having problem after problem, Grego finally got his KE going so jumped on short track and threw some gnarly reverse entries…only to end up blowing his engine anyway. Poor guy only got about 10 laps all weekend.
Grant Scott with some insane short track laps in his KE!
This guy should get the Gold for best and most wall runs of the weekend. He was this on point all the time, unbelievable!
JDM Garage had a strong appearance with there Zenki 14.
Arif having a ball for the first time on short track. His R33 4Door was loving it!
Massey-styles.
KMAK AERO <3 There were a lot of cars running their kits throughout Matsuri. I can tell you now, they are all as good as this one!
After the sun went down, I put the camera down and opened the beers. So did everyone else that wasn’t drifting. It had finally cooled off a bit after a long hot day of drifting but it hadn’t stopped there. The tracks didn’t close until 10pm, so more passenger laps it was!
Once the tracks closed, even more drinks were cracked and from then on it just got loose, with scooter skids, broken rear windows (don’t ask how -_-), fitting about 15 people into SKD55, one girl falling out of SKD55 and a lot of other blurry moments… just from our campsite! Everyone finally got to sleep in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The sun finally rose, but everyone was up a little later than the previous morning. Some with hangovers and some without, but everyone pounded the Red Bulls.
I missed the first part of the morning because I forgot to put the camera battery on charge while the generator was on and dump the memory card to the laptop and wipe it clean. But after a while I was back in action and headed straight to short track to snap some R33 4 door tandems from Arif and Dunbar!
This is a look of pure concentration!
Nigel Petrie had to be my favourite driver and car of the whole weekend. His 180 is pure awesomeness and his driving is crazy good. Was just completely entertaining whenever he was on track!
If you hadn’t broken anything on the Saturday, believe me, Sunday was your day. Here’s a shredded gearbox.
Plenty of NICE VIBE cars made it out.
Extremely clean 86 Trueno on track.
Who doesn’t love a little front tyre guard rub :P
Lucky for some they weren’t very strict about animals driving…
Finally Arif agreed to park up the 33 and take out SKD55, but with only 3 sets of tyres, that meant we would get a maximum of about 20 laps. So we made the most of it. We changed the tyres, nicely applied one of my Sirck Stickers and got baking!!
I couldn’t help myself and ended up making this :P
There were some unfortunate accidents though. Not everything ran smoothly. Example… BEFORE,
Annnnnnd AFTER.
The Dowling brothers, Morgan and Flynn ripping it up on the Short Track.
It’s not often you see a Volvo Wagon doing this. Zak from Streetkarnage absolutely frying!
All in all, Matsuri 2012 was probably the best weekend of the year and I know a lot of people that went agree! Plenty of action, plenty of grog and fun times had all round. I am already excited for next year! I can’t wait. Maybe next year I’ll even be on the other side of the camera sideways ;)