I could have sworn that I had finished going through all the photos from this event and selected the ones I liked the most but it felt like something was missing. Perhaps it had to do a little with me looking at other people’s photos online from Final Bout SSW but I went back through my Lightroom program on my PC and definitely found more. I usually go through them after I get home from the event, highlight the ones I think are usable and then discard the rest. Thinking back now, I was probably a little overwhelmed from all the content I collected from Japan and didn’t give this set of photos the proper investment of time that it really deserved. Either that or I’m just really particular with my drifting photos because I’m not that confident in them quite yet. It’s important to go back and look at photos because its easy to miss some good ones in a batch of over 1,000 shots…

After I watermarked and uploaded this batch, I pulled about 11 more photos from the original and edited them for this set. I honestly think that there are probably a few more that I could use for the final set that I’m going to upload this coming week but I’ll get to it tomorrow afternoon. It’s not like we are short on time or anything with this COVID-19 pandemic going on. A part of me is slightly worried about what is to come next for this site because I’ve always been very good about going to events and shooting cars to post here. With no events in the foreseeable future, what am I going to do? I’m really gonna have to start getting creative in new ways to bring content to this site. There’s some old shoots that I had saved for print features that I never got around to completing that I could probably post here. After all, there aren’t any magazines to work for now so that stuff would be wasted otherwise. I don’t know, I’m sure I’ll come up with something…

Today, we’re gonna continue with my coverage from the Final Bout Special Stage West coverage. By this time, we were heading towards the team competition and the free run sessions that followed. The competition itself seemed like a means to an end to just having an event but it honestly didn’t feel like anyone was really concerned about winning. It just felt very obvious that the guys were out there to have fun and drive together. It was a bit of a stressful week leading up to Final Bout because no one was really sure if it would actually happen or not with so much emphasis being placed on trying to get everyone to not gather due to fear of the Coronavirus spreading. By the weekend, I think everyone was just happy that it was actually happening and people who came from far away didn’t feel like their trip was wasted. On the other hand, most of the Final Bout events that I’ve gone to in the past didn’t really seem to have that heavy of an emphasis on competition anyway. It all just seems like a gathering of car guys who are just out to have fun driving with one another. I think that’s why it is such an enjoyable event. There’s always just good vibes and cool cars to see. Even in the face of a pandemic, everyone seemed to have a fantastic time at Special Stage West…

Here are some more photos, enjoy… 

Jason Bostrom and his easily recognizable Origin Lab Aggressive S13 from ANIMAL STYLE…

Drift team ANIMAL STYLE tandem with Palmer and his E36 just out of frame…

Ken Gushi representing the Handsome Boys in his 1JZ VVTi swapped IS300…

Fellow Handsome Boy Rodney Moenadi in his BN 1JZ-powered MX83 Cressida…

JR’s RE Amemiya FC RX-7 from RUN UP! making a test lap through the Horse Thief Mile course…

During one of the runs, Chuck collided with a fellow Realize team member resulting in a bent arm in his rear suspension. Every the helping hand, Yuta Akaishi stepped-up and got under the car to repair it…

Yuta was actually responsible for much of the suspension alignment and set-up for the Realize cars for Final Bout Special Stage West…

Under the hood you can see that Chuck’s front-end is all custom tube-framed now with a Toyota 1JZ-GTE engine replacing the factory KA…

Chuck lending some assistance to align his S13, utilizing some tape measurers and plate to check suspension toe…

Thanks to Gary from Realize for allowing me to mount my GoPro Hero 8 onto his helmet mount to capture footage for my Vlog…

Teddy and whatever is left of his BN Sports front…

From this angle with the rest of the Realize boys, the Skyline doesn’t look any worse for wear…

Eventually we found out that we had to head back out to the track for a massive group photo with all the competitors and their cars. Jay was nice enough to give me a ride out there in his car while he was snacking on his burger…

The cars lining-up for their group photo-op…

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

One of the more unique looking S13 coupes in a roster full of them at Special Stage West was Josh’s PS13 coupe running a set of rarely-seen Uras Exsol wheels and a G-Corporation front bumper…

The foursome from Auto Factory Realize…

Jay Kubota finished his hamburger while self-isolating…

Gary was nowhere to be found when it came time to get the cars together for the group photo so Yuta hopped in and drove his car out to the track for him…

Love that Gary went the extra-mile to put his own take on the “Exceed Japan” logo on his painted taillight…

It looks great and really stands out, especially with the other side being a clear taillight…

Teddy on the other hand, will probably need a new taillight after breaking his passenger side light from impact with Chuck’s S13…

After the group photo, Chuck had some fun and did a burn-out for the Final Bout viewers who were enjoying the livestream…

Nothing like giving the viewers a smoke show during the break before competition…

Michael Vargas and the Angel Motorsports FC RX-7 looking good as it slid through the corner on polished Work Emotion XT7s…

A 1JZ-powered tandem with John Ruiz and Rodney Moenadi from the Handsome Boys crew…

The third 1JZ-powered Handsome Boy followed soon after…

RUN-UP! drift club made their way down from the Bay Area to compete together at Final Bout…

Simba’s Uras Type 4 PS13 from PROCEED taking a break from the action…

Couldn’t get enough of Richard Ribeiro’s BN Sports FC on Panasport G7 wheels so I snapped a photo whenever I looked in its general direction…

The Hammertime guys taking a break from absolutely dominating the competition at Final Bout SSW…

Rodney’s Cressida looked so good at Final Bout with the new dark purple wrap job, much better than the previous red and red/gray two-tone…

Ilia from PROCEED actually drove his RX-7 out to California all the way from Illinois, drove at Final Bout with everyone, and then drove all the way back to Chicago…

One more photo of this FC couldn’t hurt, right?…

Eric from PROCEED getting some good angle in his 2JZ-GTE powered GS sedan…

Flaggers stopping competition after someone went off course into the dirt…

Teddy and Chuck getting the hang of things as the day progressed…

John Ruiz’s BN Sports IS300 from Handsome Boys wearing a D-Magic livery…

Tomoya Suzuki from SEXY KNIGHTS checking Horse Thief Mile off his checklist of tracks to drive on worldwide…

Some more photos of Josh’s RPS13 from PROCEED…

I thought it’d be pretty cool to get a frame-by-frame shot of Rodney and Ken drifting through a corner…

Chuck with his second pair of tires mounted to Enkei RPF1 wheels…

A couple of sedans going at it with Ken Gushi and Eric Corvera leading the way…

Not long after the PROCEED GS went-off and collided with John Ruiz’s IS, causing significant damage to the IS while the front passenger-side of the GS saw impact which resulted in a broken oil cooler…

Auto Factory Realize looking real good towards the latter half of the day…

One of the obstacles they encountered was the arrangement of their cars and who would lead and follow. With Chuck up-front it looked like the boys were really getting the hang of things…

A bumper-less Rodney getting good angle as he lead the way for this free run session…

More Chuck and his 1JZ Onevia…

Chuck and friends playing in the dirt…

Julian Jacobs from ANIMAL STYLE…

Not sure what the team name of this trio of FC RX7s were but they looked great all day during their team runs…

I really wished that I had taken more photos of this particular RPS13 but I only had time to get video of it earlier in the day. This build was really well executed and looked like it had quite an investment of good parts on it including a Tomei KA turbo kit which is not exactly ‘affordable’…

Josh from MPAC and his S13 which you saw earlier on the Exsol wheels. From this angle you can see his collection of horns through the front opening of his G-Corp bumper…

On that note, I’m gonna end Part 3 right here. There is still one more set coming, so stick around for that one if you enjoy the Final Bout SSW coverage. After this, things are going to get interesting as I start to go a new path to find content for the site, considering we’ve all been self-quarantined with no new events happening for the foreseeable future. Who knows what will happen. I’ll do my best to keep everyone entertained though so please continue to support The Chronicles!…