Drifting With Style: Final Bout Special Stage West
During Memorial Day weekend, Oregon played host to Final Bout Special Stage West, the Western regional event of the invitation only, team tandem drift competition known as Final Bout.
Select teams were invited from California, Washington, Idaho, Illinois and Canada to gather at Pat’s Acres Racing Complex, located 30 minutes outside of Portland, to battle it out in a one-of-a-kind drifting competition, described by some as a rolling car show.
What once started as an annual grassroots drift event themed in the spirit of '90s Japanese drifting (originally held in Wisconsin of all places) has grown into one of the most highly anticipated drifting events in the U.S., spreading coast-to-coast as a three-region team tandem competition with the best of the best invited to the 2017 Final Bout.
In recent years, competition drifting has become more and more function over form. Mismatched body panels, broken body kits and functional height have become the norm, with power and skill levels increasing tenfold.
Final Bout takes things back to the days where a car's appearance was equally as important as the driver's skill. Though the driving is far from Formula Drift level of competition, that’s not what Final Bout is all about. Where Final Bout lacks in skill, it makes up for in style. Cars that compete in Final Bout are still street legal for the most part.
Competitors came slammed to the ground; wheels perfectly tucked under wide body kits, rare JDM parts, matching paint jobs and vivid graphics. From your standard 240sx and RX-7s to rare and forgotten models like the Toyota Cressida, Crown, R32 Skyline with team names as colorful as their cars: Animal Style, Auto Factory Realize, Daring Partners, Risky Devil, Riot Factory, Villains and Sneaky Kids to name a few.
If you come out to these kinds of events and only learn one thing, it better be to remember to tighten your lug nuts, folks. This Lambo door-equipped 240SX came all the way from Chicago only to have his rear wheel fall off early in the competition. He may not have won the competition, but he did win the Internet, at least for a little while.
Unlike most drift events, V8 swaps were far and few. 1J and 2JZ swaps were found in everything from IS300s, RX-7s and S-chassis cars.
Local favorites Sha Dynasty had home court advantage, sliding their old school Toyotas closely though the tight turns of the go-kart track.
Auto Factory Realize from Los Angeles made their second appearance at Final Bout. Last year, they had their cars transported to the Wisconsin event. This year, they towed their cars 15+ hours from LA to Special Stage West.
Teddy Danh of Auto Factory Realize’s R32 was one of the most highly anticipated debuts at Special Stage West. Teddy had recently gotten his car running after 5 years of #finalboutprep. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get the car properly tuned in time for competition.
"Yo Dawg, I heard you like monitors...So we put a monitor in your sideview mirror so you can watch stuff while you watch out for stuff."
