The Saturday of Formula Drift Long Beach 2017 was an interesting one. Tiffanie was off shooting a wedding so she couldn’t make it to the second day of FD. That meant that she needed the camera gear to shoot the wedding, and that’s way more important than FD, so I just going to hang out at the event and not shoot. I had the itch to cover the event since I was already there hanging out so the night before, I walked over to my neighbors at Light Capturers to see if I could borrow some lenses. Clifford is a super helpful dude and offered me his entire set-up, which was a Nikon D800. I was surprised he was so willing to just let me use his gear but was a bit reluctant to actually take it because I just don’t know how to shoot with a Nikon. I had done it one other time, maybe 5 years ago, and the interface just completely confused the shit out of me. I am a Canon guy through and through so I just never learned how to operate a Nikon. A camera is a camera on paper but there are so many intricacies that need to be figured-out before you can actually operate one, no matter what name brand it is. Going from Canon to Nikon is like say, going from a Honda to a Toyota. They are both cars but things are just dramatically different. I couldn’t even figure out how to change some of the settings on the camera without having to download a full PDF of a owner’s manual the night before. Like I actually had to Google how to format a memory card on the fucking thing. In any case, I left my Canon body at home since there wasn’t a proper lens for me to use and toughed-out the day with the Nikon. Clifford also gave me his 24-300mm lens to use which was perfect for FD because I could zoom-in quite a bit and if I need a wide shot, I could get that all in one lens. I spent the day at FD with Der and we just walked around and shot random photos. He’s learning photography now as well but he’s shooting with Sony gear so he wasn’t very familiar with Nikon stuff either. I think I eventually got the hang of it even though I felt like a fucking idiot not being able to operate even the simplest of functions on this D800. It felt like alien technology, I swear. When I got home, the photos weren’t too shabby and I honestly appreciated Nikon gear a lot more after spending the day with it. I doubt I’ll ever jump ship and shoot Nikon but I appreciate it for what it is. My 5DMKII Canon is so old that I think I should probably upgrade to a newer Canon body anyway. I think that if anything influenced me more to try something new instead of Nikon gear being amazing, which it might actually be, haha.

Anyways, here are the photos that I captured. The first small chunk is from Day 1, which was shot with my Canon 5D, and the rest is all Nikon D800…

Formula D Round 1: Long Beach 2017

Photos & Words by StickyDilJoe

Nate Hamilton’s RPS13 240SX from Enjuku Racing getting worked-out in the pits during the qualifying round of FD Long Beach…

Hamilton’s turbocharged GM LSX engine swap…

Georgy Chivchyan’s NGK-sponsored Nissan S15 Silvia with 650HP GM LSX engine swap…

Interesting to see how the rear end of Matt Field’s S14 just comes apart and the crew can work on the car without obstructions. These drift cars are like toys now that you can deconstruct on the fly, it’s crazy…

Dai Yoshihara’s Subaru BRZ, sponsored by Falken Tire and Turn14 Distribution…

Dai Yoshihara’s own personal wheel stuffed under TRA Kyoto Pandem aero…

The rear quarter of Yoshihara’s BRZ with the chassis-mounted rear wing…

ER32 Skyline sedan at the GReddy/Boost Brigade booth…

Battle damaged rear-end of Ryan Tuerck’s 2JZ FT86…

Okay the following photos are from Day 2 of Formula Drift Long Beach 2017 (Saturday), this is where I shot the entire event that afternoon with a Nikon D800 and 24-300mm Nikor lens…

Ryan Tuerck’s Gumout GT4586…

Rich’s widebody S30Z rocking a signature Gulf livery parked at the Takata Racing booth…

This year, Autocon took over the reigns of hosting the car show for Formula D, and I believe they will be accompanying them throughout the season…

Liberty Walk R35 GTR on bags…

I don’t know if some of you guys recognize this Ferrari but it previously had a full Rotiform graphical livery on it. Now the entire car has been stripped of the livery and honestly looks much better. You can actually see the lines of the kit now that the car is in white…

Liberty Walk Ferrari 360 looking pretty great, I must say. The 360 is one of those cars that actually looks better with the Liberty Walk kit because it actually follows the lines of the car…

Sprintex-supercharged Scion FR-S with full Vlene widebody aero kit…

Nice to see a fully-painted TRA Kyoto Pandem R32 GTR. The original one that debuted this year at Tokyo Auto Salon was done in a flat vinyl wrap and I don’t think it really did the car any justice. Despite what people might say or the fact that there aren’t enough people on this side of the Earth willing to do this kit on their hard-to-come-by R32 Skyline, I actually quite like this kit. The box flares work great with the squarish body of the BNR32 and even the front is subtle enough where everything just sort of flows together…

Huge rear over-fenders with a custom BBS LM wheel built to spec to fit under them…

Central Pine’s Lexus GS showing-off how it sits on full T-Demand suspension and SSR Executor wheels…

Sarto Racing Mercedes CLK on Work Meister L1 wearing a custom ‘AMG’-themed livery…

This FD3S RX-7 looked fantastic parked next to the Autocon stage wearing a full TCP Magic aero kit and Volk Racing wheels…

Vented front wide fender and TE37SL wrapped in Toyo Proxes R888…

Side profile of the aggressive widebody kit and chassis-mounted rear wing…

Chris Forsberg battling it out with one of the new Worthouse S15 Silvias…

Fredric Aasbo in his new Toyota iM battling with Alex Heilbrunn and his Whipple-charged GM LSX BMW E46…

Chase/lead swap for Heilbrunn and Aasbo…

Ryan Tuerck taking control in his Gumout FT86 eventually landing a podium spot at #3…

Residents in the surrounding buildings around the streets of Long Beach where greeted to a free show at FD Long Beach…

Vinyl-wrapped AMG GT S…

This Mitsubishi Evolution didn’t have much in terms of aero like most Evos out here, but the turbo set-up with the aggressive dump pumps got a lot of people’s attention…

Toyota Cressida with a JZx100 Chaser front-end retrofit…

Ken Gushi’s FT86 had a brand new look for 2017. TRA Kyoto Pandem aero has been added along with a new GReddy livery…

Wisefab suspension arms push the front Rays wheels outward exposing the battled tire tread on the Nexen rubber…

The cut rear-end of Gushi’s FT86…

Gushi was eventually knocked-out by Chris Forsberg but I wish him the best throughout this season…

One of the more interesting new competitors in Formula D this season is this BN Sports 86 piloted by Cameron Moore. Moore isn’t new to FD but they have high expectations for their new 86 with its 950HP 2JZ-GTE set-up…

Moore’s 86 also has Wisefab suspension arms and Nexen rubber, exposed visually by the BN Sports wide fenders…

With the trunk popped, you can see the rear-mounted cooling system set-up and vented trunk lid…

I don’t know how she knows but Courtney Riggs always seems to know when there is a camera pointed at her, even when her back is completely turned…

Harry King and the Nitto Tire crew look like a lot of fun. Here they are hanging-out on top of their rig before the finals…

Hankook umbrella girls waiting for the podium festivities to begin as the sun set in Long Beach…

A better look at Gushi’s engine bay set-up with the hood propped-open…

1000+ horsepower 2JZ-GTE set-up prepared by the GReddy Performance team…

The rear-end of Justin Pawlak’s Roush Mustang as it was getting loaded into it’s trailer…

Caught a couple of candid shots of Odi Bakchis and his child after the finals commenced…

The cut-out hood of Bakchis’ new S14 revealing a hint of supercharger…

As mentioned before, Cameron Moore’s 86 is one of five BN Sports FT86 kits in the entire world. The second of the five was this 86 owned by Chris Soehren…

Chris is not only a driver, but he’s also a paint and body guy and did all the paintwork on his 86…

Some spectators taking in Rich’s S30Z from Autoconcept Elite…

The menacing front end of Dai’s BRZ…

Happy birthday to Jaycray. Victor gave him the greatest gift of all for his bday by allowing random strangers to sit inside his Rocket Bunny Lexus RC coupe…

Closing out this series with one more shot of Moore’s BN Sports 2JZ 86…

That’s a wrap on this one. Thanks for looking and I hope you liked the photos!…