This year’s Final Bout Special Stage West event seemingly came outta nowhere for me. I knew they were doing an event out here on the West Coast this year but didn’t realize it was happening in July until I saw that their event in Oregon was going on the week before! It was a bit of a bummer for me personally because I’ve always wanted to shoot at PARC since it is such a scenic location. Just the idea of cars shredding through this beautiful forest-looking environment seems really cool to me. That and I’ve never been to Oregon before so it would have been a perfect time to get away for a weekend. Of course, I didn’t know the actual date of it so I missed it. That just happens sometimes when I’m just stuck in the shop working on a myriad of things. I wanted to make sure not to miss the California stop of Final Bout so I contacted Simba to see if he could squeeze me and Der in last minute for some media passes. Normally this would probably not be a good idea to bother someone during the week of an event, but I’ve shot a couple of Final Bout events in the past that have worked out pretty well so I’m sure there is some mutual appreciation there, lol. I wasn’t sure he’d respond but he was actually pretty prompt and was more than willing to accommodate us…

I wasn’t sure who was going to be driving or who would even be attending, but it’s Final Bout after all and there is usually a pretty good turnout of cool builds so there’s really no going wrong with attending. The event itself, no matter what city it is in, always seems to give off this really chill vibe that I enjoy as well and everyone just has a good time generally. I’m sure it’s stressful for the organizers of the event but even they get to drive their own events most of the time and it’s an entertaining time for all. It’s not lost on me that I’m not exactly the guy to go to when it comes to looking at drifting content but I still like covering these types of events because I think it’s cool as fuck—and at the end of the day, that’s really all that matters to me. Of course there are friends that drive that I go to support but that’s just an added incentive. Most of the guys that I have become friends with that are into drifting are people that I met through attending Final Bout events. The first one I went to was all the way in Wisconsin and I think I only knew like four other people there…

Currently, I’m right in the middle of creating my third book so my work-rate is crazy. Like, my mind is at an insanely creative place right now so it was actually nice to get out of the office to shoot more stuff. Just imagine a musician who is in the midst of putting an album together. Their mind is likely in a very creative space so everything they see and hear has to do with music. For me, I’m DEEP in book-mode so it couldn’t be a better time for me to go photograph more cars and experiment with post-processing. There are a couple photos in this set that could probably go right into the book I’m working on now but I doubt they’ll make it in because I’m already packed with too much content. I find myself having to take stuff out now and I’d say the book is about 75% done unless I decide to start-over again. Being that I am currently in this ‘state’, I wouldn’t say the photos you’re going to see are going to necessarily fit the mold of ‘in-depth coverage’. There were about 65 cars driving that day at Final Bout SSW but I’d say I probably captured photos of about one-third of them. So if you’re here looking for photos of your car, allow me to apologize in advance because I probably didn’t shoot it. It was 103-degrees that day so I had to conserve and muster whatever energy I had to go on track to shoot and also get photos in the pit area. I was so focused on photos this time around that I didn’t even bother to shoot any video for YouTube. There were a couple cars that I wanted to focus on specifically because I don’t get too many opportunities to see these cars in-person or they were new and I’d just never come across them at prior events…

The event was inundated with people with cameras and media badges that I’m sure that someone will have captured photos of your car at Final Bout SSW. I’d say maybe there were a little too many people granted access to the track but that has everything to do with people sneaking onto the track and not the people responsible for organizing the event. In the future I’m sure they’ll keep a closer eye on things because there were definitely people out there who should not have been just shooting stuff on their phones. Anyways, this will be a two-part series with each set being around 60+ photos each. I hope you guys enjoy it and see something you like… 

Huge thank you to Ilia, Simba, and the rest of the people from Final Bout for providing me with a space to capture their event…

Chuck from REALIZE is actually one of the guys that I originally met through attending Final Bout events. He’s always lived out here in Southern California but I never crossed paths with him until we were both in Shawano, Wisconsin together. Weird right? He actually offered to give me a ridealong at that Final Bout event and we’ve been friends since…

The cool thing about Final Bout events is that you never know what you’re going to see. There were so many JZXs that weekend where I can’t even recall seeing so many since I was in Japan…

Another great thing about Final Bout is you get to encounter some legendary drift cars from year’s past like Youichi Imamura’s APEXi Stage-D RX-7. It made an appearance last year as well but there were rumblings from APEXi that the car had recently been re-tuned so it could actually do a few laps this time around…

The Bay Area boys from BLVCKMOON made an appearance once again for this year’s Special Stage West event…

Palmer Sanderson’s Bomex-kitted E36 BMW from ANIMAL STYLE…

Jaime Gonzalez’s BN Sports JZX100 Mark II…

Looks like it’s been a pretty good year so far for Jaime <3 <3 <3

This RPS13 240SX was one of the best-looking cars I ran into that hot ass day. The ride height, the Sexy Style aero, and all the little details made it hard not to look at…

I hear these things go for quite a premium nowadays because of certain YouTubers but personally, I’ve always loved the classic Blitz Type 03 wheel. This set looked fantastic in this high-polished finish with gold hardware to match the caps…

Bride seats, matching Bride interior panels, a glimpse of the cage, and Ganador mirrors on the 240SX…

If you just saw this car cruising around on the street you’d never think it was a drift car…

I bet a few of you are probably tired of constantly seeing TE37 or other Rays wheels all the time on my site but Final Bout presented a plethora of 3-piece polished wheels like the Blitz Type 03 or SSR Agle Minerva, which has an odd cult-like following for drift guys…

Jaime constantly rotates between different sets of wheels, TEs included, but he showed-up to Final Bout SSW on a set of his own Blitz wheels (Technospeed Z2) but drove most of the afternoon on Minervas…

Kazuya Taguchi, who is currently competing in this year’s Formula Drift series, brought out his RPS13 180SX for some fun…

Chuck heading out onto the track for some tandem runs…

Teddy managed to get his car back together in time for the event as well after recently blowing-up his rear differential…

Sam Molakides’ Kouki S14 was looking spectacular for Special Stage West fully-adorned in GP Sports aero with a traditional J-style visual aesthetic…

Jason Kim from Rival Auto Works was tasked with driving the APEXi FD that weekend and protecting it at all costs…

I attempted to ‘thread the needle’ here to get the sun on the rear of the FD just as it cruised through the pit area between two cars…

After I cropped this photo to use as a two-photo spread for a carousel for Instagram, I somehow got a ‘accidental renaissance photo’ vibe. Go see for yourself…

Whenever you get the rare opportunity to see this RX-7 out in the daylight, please make sure to get as many photos of it as humanly possible…

…because you just never know when you’ll see it again…

…and honestly, there’s just no possible way anyone can take a bad photo of this car because it just looks so good. Friendly reminder that this car competed in D1 and Formula Drift over a decade ago and its styling is still very relevant…

Another car that can’t seemingly photograph-poorly is Matt Panic’s Toyota Celica from ShaDynasty…

This is another one of those cars that I first encountered out in Wisconsin a few years back. I’m glad the car is still around but Matt Panic still doesn’t have an Instagram account so he’ll never know I shot these photos…

Aaron Parker brought his BN Sports BLS RX-7 out to Horsethief for a few laps even though the car is currently up for auction on eBay…

Being an “IS300/Altezza” guy, I always appreciate beautiful examples of them whether it be at a show or track, so I had to get plenty of photos of Nic Michuda’s IS…

He’s from RUN UP! which is a group of guys from the Bay Area with super clean, very well-built, drift cars. They’re the type of guys that drive the shit out of their cars and then can pull-up to a car show or meet and fit right in…

Being that I’m regularly in Osaka, I can also appreciate the aero package on Nic’s IS which is from Elixir out in the Kansai area. It was one of the first kits I ever got to see in photos on an Altezza when I first fell in love with the SXE/JCE chassis. I thought about getting the kit when I picked-up my wagon but I’m so worried that I’m going to destroy it just driving regularly. So much respect goes out to Nic for drifting with it, lol. I could never because I’m fucking POOR….

Ilia from Final Bout is now a resident of Southern California so he was able to drive his FD all afternoon at Special Stage West…

I’m telling you, you CAN’T take a bad photo of this thing…

Even though it was 1000 degrees at Willow Springs, I still tried to get super artsy by squatting behind this dead bush to provide some foreground aesthetic for this particular shot. I think I died from heat stroke after this photo but at least you’ll have this photo to remember me by…

I decided the dead bushes would just be regularly featured in all of my photos so things got a little fancy after that…

Such bush, so aesthetic…

Nevermind that I have little experience capturing motorsports, admire the dead brush of Rosamund, California…

At one point it became a bush photo with a car getting in the shot…

Not only did Nic Michuda’s IS look fantastic, it also sounded amazing with the 1JZ-GTE and surging Garrett G25-660 turbo flutter…

Andrew Chval’s S13 coupe was recently completed in time for Final Bout SSW and looked great with the new Origin Labo livery…

Crazy to see a set of 18×9 +0 Do-Luck Double Six wheels in 2021. They sit nice and snug under the fenders of Taylor Shinobu’s M-Sports S14…

A few more practice sessions with Jason Kim behind the wheel so he could get comfortable with not destroying the APEXi FD too much…

You see a lot of photos of Matt Panic’s Celica from me because I absolutely love this thing…

Such a cool looking Kouki S14. Yet another example of a drift car that can look great without a wild livery or crazy angle kit with the wheels bulging out past the fenders….

This looks like some sort of political statement but he was honestly just telling everyone to stop because the session had been red-flagged since someone went off…

Here’s a larger version of the shot that I posted on Instagram the other day…

One of the most photogenic elements of the APEXi Stage-D FD is the chrome ‘splash’ which reflects the horizon as the car is in motion…

This thing just sits and looks fantastic. Just look at that wheel-tuck…

Chval and his PS13 in action, this time I used the Final Bout flag as a foreground element. I think it kinda works…

Anyone notice that Turn14 is onboard now supporting Final Bout. That’s a nice little flex, huh? Glad to see this event growing and getting noticed…

Austin Norman’s recently-completed Onevia looking solid with the new livery and all. From looking at his IG, it seems he had quite a bit of work to put-in on the days leading up to the event. Glad he got it all together and was able to drive all afternoon at Final Bout…

Some more ANIMAL STYLE action for you guys as they tandemed throughout the day…

Ilia looked like he was having a pretty great day in his FD…

And we wrap-up Part 1 of this series with some more rotary-powered goodness. There’s still more photos to come so stay tuned! Thanks for looking as always!!…