Street Driven Tour: The Vegas Finale
What a crazy ride it’s been. With only four events to each season, Street Driven Tour 2016 nevertheless feels like a full year of experiences in hindsight. Inviting pro and amateur drivers alike out for bash-style, non-competitive drifting in four different regions across the U.S. (Mid-Atlantic at Virginia International Raceway on Hyperfest weekend; Midwest at St. Louis’s Gateway Motorsports Park; South at Atlanta Motor Speedway), the response at each stop has been distinct and impressive.
And for their final event of year, they’ve chosen to wrap it up at one of the most unique and exciting regions of the country: the Southwest, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS).
In case you missed our previous coverage, Street Driven Tour’s recipe is simple: rent out a track, bring along some of the world’s best professional drifters, invite any amateur with a qualifying drift machine, team up with a show partner and local vendors and let the good times ensue for a day full of fun. It’s a recipe that’s proven itself eight times over (2015 and 2016) and has culminated here in its biggest and final event... thus far.
THE DRIFTERS
Home to Vegas Drift and Southwest Drift Series pro-am competition; influential drift/tuning shops like Get Nuts Lab, Virtual Works Racing, KL Racing Development and more; and in close proximity to SoCal and the birthplace of drifting in the States... the Southwest has it made.
Pro Drivers
Joining the Street Driven fray this time around were pros Matt Powers, roasting ungodly amounts of Nitto NT555 G2 rubber in his S14...
...Forrest Wang, manning his S14 and S15 FD competition cars...
...“Rad Dan” Burkett in his crowd-favorite Supra...
...and Juha Rintanen and his Zombie S15.
Pro-Am Drivers
The pros were accompanied by Top Drift and Southwest Drift Series pro-am drivers like Sean Abellana (1,000+hp 2JZ S14)...
...George Kiriakopoulos (S13 Coupe)...
...Bear Rzesnowiecky (S13.5 fastback)...
...and Alex Grimm (240Z).
There was a broad assortment of ams from SoCal, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and—in the case of TJ Fry—even as far away as Montana.
THE SHOW
Providing a break from the drift action throughout the day was StanceWars and their show/vendor portion effort, bringing a huge selection of slammed, stanced, restomod and performance-built rides of every variation to the show floor (or in this case, the LVMS parking lot).
New to the Vegas event was a collaboration with Supras Invade Las Vegas (SILV), which brought their own showgoers, keeping the Vegas strip (the ¼-mile strip) filled with smoke and quick/fast passes into the night.
THE DRIFT MINI GAMES
A unique and fun aspect to Street Driven events are the Drift Mini Games, a collection of challenges such as “Drift Soccer”...
...“Hard Park Challenge"...
...and of course, the traditional event-ending “Tire Massacre.”
ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END... FOR NOW
After putting on another year of drifting and automotive amusement to fans across the U.S., Street Driven Tour put the wraps on its latest season in the best way possible, leaving us only wanting more. Here’s to 2017!
For more drift, visit DRIVINGLINE.com/DRIFT, and see the rest of our coverage from Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the gallery below.
