How’s everyone holding up lately? Experiencing a little bit of cabin fever perhaps? Well, trust me when I tell you that you are definitely not alone. It’d be great if I could jump on here and give you guys some good news but the best piece of information I can offer you right now is that what you’re feeling right now is exactly how most people are feeling. I genuinely hope that you’re making the most of your time though. Maybe you’re finding new hobbies, rediscovering old ones, finding a way to educate yourself or doing something to make you happy. Whatever it may be, take advantage of these moments to stimulate yourself…

I’ve been busy remodeling the restroom here at my office and discovered that I’m actually not terrible at it. As it turns out, I’m quite handy. The restroom has just been a hot fucking mess since I moved into this spot some years ago and since I have some free time, I figured I’d do some of the things I always thought I never had time for. I suppose that means remodeling my restroom. I’d show you guys but I’m sure you’re not interested. Instead, we’re going to get back to the Final Bout Special Stage West coverage that I shot nearly a month ago. As mentioned, there are a total of four different parts consisting of about 50 photos each which I’m presenting to you mostly in chronological order. Part 2 features much of the action from the early morning during the practice sessions when teams were still trying to get organized and figure out which order to drive in. Being that there weren’t any spectators permitted on the premises, it made it fairly easy to get around the track. For guys like me who were doing media, most of the morning was just spent trying to understand Horse Thief Mile and where we could shoot the action without putting our lives in danger. One of the things I enjoy the most about Final Bout is how “grassroots” it feels. There aren’t any crazy rules to follow or heavy restrictions placed on what we could do or where we could go. I mean, there are rules of course, but most of those guidelines are based more on common sense. Most of the media representatives that were there had shot the Final Bout events before so they have a good understanding of where to stand and what not to do. I personally have been to Willow Springs Raceway plenty of times over the years but I can’t really say that I’ve ever been to the Horse Thief Mile section of the course. It actually was pretty cool because I was experiencing this part of the course for the first time like a many of the drivers who were competing…

You’re going to see a lot of the same cars repeatedly captured in this post. I really tried to get as much as I could of every car and every competitor but there were just times when I was also filming and trying to cover what the guys from Auto Factory Realize were doing for my Vlog. During this particular chunk of time, I was also still getting acquainted with the course so I was looking for sweet spots to shoot without getting in other people’s way. This was a good time to get to know the lay-out and how to shoot it because the competitors were still practicing. The other two posts that are coming later are a bit more diverse and will show more of the other cars at Final Bout SSW. The photos also get better later as well because I also don’t have much confidence shooting drifting events or motorsports stuff in general so it takes me a while to warm-up. It gradually sucks less and less is what I’m trying to tell you, lol.

I guess that goes with the theme of things lately in the world. Let’s just all try to get things to suck less and less as we experience this pandemic together. Be safe out there folks, things will get better eventually…

Enjoy Part 2…

Kicking off Part 2 of this series with some photos of Simba Nyemba’s PS13 from PROCEED…

Of all the cars at the competition, I think I’ve seen Simba’s car the most through the years. I first saw it in Chicago, Illinois, and then out in Wisconsin for the second Final Bout event, Georgia at Road Atlanta for Gridlife a few years back, and now out in California…

His URAS Type 4-equipped 240SX is also the last remaining car from PROCEED with the rose livery that they all once wore on all their cars…

Tandems with two of the other PROCEED members, Eric’s 2GS and Josh’s RPS13…

Auto Factory Realize with Teddy leading the way in his R32 Skyline sedan…

Gary from Realize with his Toyota Aristo 2JZ-GTE VVTi powered S13…

Jason Bostrom from ANIMAL STYLE and his Origin Aggressive S13 powered by an S14 SR20DET with a Tomei-built head and Garrett GT3760R turbo…

Palmer Sanderson’s Toyota 1JZ-GTE VVTi swapped BMW E36 coupe wearing full Bomex aero…

Brandon Strong from ANIMAL STYLE‘s SR-powered RPS13 wearing Origin Lab Attack Line aero…

Absolutely loved how Chrisitan Santos’s IS300 from BLVCKMOON looked with the TRD Neo V2 front. If you look closely you can spot the front-mount intercooler from the 1JZ-GTE VVTi swap…

PROCEED boys in action with Simba sliding out of frame as Eric approaches…

Teddy Danh from Realize ripping through the straights of Horse Thief Mile…

The huge chunk missing from Teddy’s BN Sports front actually went missing at another drift event long before Special Stage West but he decided to re-use the bumper because he had no other aero…

Another shot of Gary’s 2JZ-powered 240SX…

I know that many would consider Bomex to be a long-forgotten aero company of year’s past but the kit looks absolutely wicked on Palmer’s E36…

The BLVCKMOON GS400 propelled by a 1UZ-FE paired with a retrofitted Ford intake plenum and supercharger…

Tomoya Suzuki from SEXY KNIGHTS had so much fun at Final Bout last year that he went back to Japan, worked on his FC RX-7, and shipped it back to the U.S. to drive again this year at Final Bout Special Stage West…

I should mention that despite its similarities, this is actually a completely different FC3S RX-7 than the one Tomoya drove last year. That car was actually raffled off by the guys from Final Bout and it is now owned by someone here in the U.S.

Adam Levi from Circuit Spirit was doing pretty well in his S14 Kouki during the practice sessions of Final Bout SSW and his car looked fantastic but I didn’t actually see him during competition time. I wonder if something happened with the car or one of the other Circuit Spirit cars that prevented them from finishing the day…

Tandems with Julian and Jason from ANIMAL STYLE…

Handsome Boys with the action…

Chuck and Teddy took a break from making fun of one another to actually go drive…

…and they looked pretty damn good while doing it…

I took a ton of photos of the Realize cars all weekend because I just enjoy the idea of team drifting with cars that wear matching liveries…

Also because I probably know and interact with them the most out of all the competitors at Final Bout…

The sacrifices that come with competitive driving…

A bit of controlled chaos with drift team ANIMAL STYLE…

Cool to see Youichi Imamura’s legendary APEXi RX-7 on the track again after all these years even if it was just a simple parade lap around Horse Thief Mile…

With Formula D Long Beach all but cancelled and all future events on hold for the rest of the year, Ken Gushi had to get his fill of competitive drifting at Final Bout Special Stage West…

Gushi’s IS300 is actually one of his daily drivers sporting a Toyota 1JZ-GTE VVTi swap with some GReddy upgrades…

To compete at Special Stage West, you were required to be in a team, since it was a team driving competition after all so Gushi teamed-up with Rodney Moenadi and John Ruiz to form the trio known as the “Handsome Boys”…

A couple more of Gushi’s 1JZ IS300…

Rodney’s Cressida with a JDM Mark II facelift and 1JZ-GTE swap…

Sam Molakides’s S14 from BLVCKMOON…

One of my personal favorite photos from Final Bout SSW featuring Julian Jacobs and his Origin Labo S13 with one of their “Combat Eye” headlight replacements installed…

Tight proximity tandem with Brandon and Julian from ANIMAL STYLE…

From this angle you can get a good look at the Bomex rear bumper and how long it hangs. Also note how large the sideskirts are. The straight lines and bulky appearance actually flow quite well with the boxy E36…

Gonna stop here for today with a shot of three FC RX-7s teaming up to compete at Final Bout SSW. Wish I had gotten more shots of these cars together since they drove so well together that day…

Still plenty more to go from this fantastic event. Stick around to catch the rest in the coming days! Might host a little chat on Twitch as well so keep an eye out for that! Thanks for looking!!…