About a day after I got back home from my trip to the East Coast, Yuta comes casually strolling into my office and asks me if I was going “tomorrow”. I was like “What’s tomorrow?” and Yuta responds “FF Battle”. And then I looked at my calendar and realized I had no idea what day, month, or even what year it was. Let’s face it, I’ve been all over the fucking place this year, both physically and mentally, so I can’t even be surprised I didn’t know something was happening. It’s gotten so bad that I have to remind myself every day when the Japanese Classic Car Show was…I just literally checked again right now, it hasn’t happened yet…but I’m not even sure I want to go! I just keep checking to make sure I don’t miss it. If you want to schedule something with me, like say, uhh… dinner… dude, just text me like every three hours to make sure I am even in the same fucking dimension. Because I don’t know anymore. Anyways, FF Battle. Okay… Willow Springs, dead middle of summer, on a fucking Wednesday, shit…why not? Let’s go. I was already jetlagged anyway so chances are I’d wake up at 6 am not realizing it was 6 and not 9 or 12 or whatever so I’d be up anyway. Yuta has been up late helping some friends prep for the event so he was most likely going to be tired so I might as well drive too. FF Battle is always entertaining. I get to see a lot of friends, many who I already see normally now but just in a different geographic location. That sounds way more fun than the last geographic location we were at together. So I charged my camera gear, packed it up, and we set off early the next morning to Rosamond, California where Willow Springs International Raceway was. Its about an hour and a half drive, add an extra hour because Yuta decided he wanted to sleep-in without letting anyone else know so we eventually got there and it was about 11 am. And the event was over already. No, I’m just kidding, but it was pretty close to lunch time. Yuta immediately went to work and served as track support while I just held on to anything firmly planted to the ground so the wind didn’t blow me away, because it was definitely fucking windy. At one point we even walked away for lunch and our three canopies instantly blew away, almost landing on the track itself. Luckily, some kind people came in to help us grab the tents and some random stranger even hung out with us all day and held our tent down. We didn’t speak or acknowledge one another’s existence but we both served a great purpose in each other’s lives that day. I think back on that day and am grateful. Thank you canopy man. Thank you.

I decided to hold onto the heaviest thing in my possession to keep me from getting blown away by the desert heat and that turned out to be my dSLR camera. I figured I might as well use it too so I started shooting stuff that I saw. Here’s the stuff I captured that day. It’s just a small batch of photos so it won’t take up too much of your time. Enjoy!…

We knew a couple of people competing that day at the annual time attack event, but we were mainly there for track support for both Muoi Tran’s white Civic as well as our friend Sassy with the red hatchback. Some day the world will know why we call him “Sassy”. It isn’t nearly as exciting as you think it sounds…

Sassy is a particularly great driver known for his canyon-running exploits through the famed Glendora Mountain Road (GMR). He’s now transitioned over to driving on an actual road course and we’re all excited to see how he will do…

Most of you know Muoi Tran by now, as she’s appeared on some Vlogs before and you’ve also seen her driving this same Civic at last year’s FF Battle competition. The cars been going through some steady changes and her skills are improving consistently so course, I just stood around and made fun of her for about four hours while Yuta was trying to be serious…

Muoi and her Civic with the signature Battlecraft vinyl display…

She actually has a bunch of new exterior parts she has yet to install but for this event, they were able to add the new Exceed/Mode Parfume rear wing…

Jonathan Posadas and his red EF hatch…

This is what happens when you leak oil all over the paddock area. Mysterious men show up with bags of kitty litter and a broom to clean-up your mess…

The silver Civic is a new addition to Duane Bada’s vehicle fleet, recently purchased from another owner and repackaged to his liking. The black EM1 coupe is actually Sean Lucas from Narita Dogfight’s long-term build…

The K-series engine inside Duane’s Civic, minus a whole lot of oil which is now all over the track…

Another angle so you can get a better look at Sean’s Civic since we never see it. He’s been working on this thing forever and it was nice to see him pull it out of the shop for a change so it could see some sunlight…

The rear windshield has been replaced with a piece of carbon fiber shaped to the original glass, the rear quarter glasses have also been removed and in its place are carbon replacements, the driver’s window is now acrylic with a sliding window, and the doors themselves are fiberglass replacements. There’s a C-West front bumper and sides added, widened, vented, and spaced-out front fenders to house concave TEs, and there’s also a Battlecraft hood with additional vents integrated to each side….

Another angle of the hood with the two additional vents…

Driving the R-Compound USA silver Civic was Billy Jang, skilled driver and engineer. Here he is getting interviewed by the team from BOWLS FILMS…

When asked about the oil trail he left on the track, Billy reminded us that “winning is winning”…

What really happened was that the Civic was just too stylishly-low and after a few sessions, the Moroso oil pan had scrapped on the pavement enough to wear a hole into the pan and thus the flash-flood of motor oil…

949Racing 6UL wheels were the wheel of choice for this event, since the 15×9 wheel was able to hold a pretty sizable tire…

Yuta and Muoi going over some things after she came back from one of the mid-day sessions…

After lunch, it was time for Muoi to get her interview with the BOWLS team…

Who knew track data could be so entertaining and bring so much joy to people’s lives?…

Sean staying out of the sun so he doesn’t catch on fire…

For whatever reason, the much-publicized Italdesign GTR50 made an appearance at the track after its presentation and debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. This is actually a custom GTR created by Italdesign to celebrate 50-years of both the GTR and Italdesign. Under the sleek hood is a 710-horsepower upgraded Nismo 3.8L engine. They are available in limited production numbers for the price of just about $1.05 million… So yes, you are looking at a million-dollar GTR…

I love the taillight treatment and the custom lines that give the GTR a much more futuristic appeal. This is something you’d normally only see inside a showroom or museum event and it was just chillin’ at Willow Springs that day…

Custom headlights and front face of the GTR50…

During lunch time they even took it around the track…

I don’t know what kind of insurance policy they have for a million dollar GTR, but they let Sam drive it and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him not break a car…lol… Luckily all went well and the car came back in one-piece…

Amir and his short-shorts after a brief chat with Muoi…

A few more action shots I captured while I was hiding behind a Port-A-Potty for shade…

This Civic coupe looked pretty cool from Track Mafia with a C-West front…

Nice silver Integra running a Special Projects P1 front lip/splitter, along with PCI aluminum sides and APR wing…

I tried to make the last three photos look like they were shot in sequence but the cars are obviously in different places so I failed miserably….

Duane’s Civic after it came back from the Bonneville Salt Flats…of kitty litter….

Hopefully you guys have watched the Vlog covering this event and know about JT’s wild accident on the 5 freeway days before FF Battle 10 took place…

If not, I invite you to check it out for the full story on just what happened straight from his own mouth…

As you can see from this angle, there actually is the rear of the Civic still attached since the front angle makes it appear as if the car was ripped in half…

Here you get a peek at the oil pan and engine which was freshly assembled and luckily survived the wreck. Also check-out how well that TE held up after impact…

Nice to see JT have a bit of a smile on his face after this crazy ordeal. I felt really bad for the guy but he definitely has some good friends on his side and after taking a break from it all, he’ll be back better than ever in a new shell with the same powerplant..

Sometimes you just gotta take a step back and appreciate the fact that you’re still alive…

That’s all folks. Have a good one and thanks for looking…