LZ World Tour Stop One
I’m not sure if I had a good idea of what to expect going into the LZ World Tour but as I had recently also shot Hotpit Autofest, I figured the feeling would be the same and that at least I’d already have a pretty good understanding of the flow of a multi-day professional drift event. Indeed, I had already had a moment of being a bit awestruck at Irwindale Speedway to be standing on a NASCAR track which might seem a bit weird as we weren’t a NASCAR watching family growing up but I do have family ties to the sport way back to 1955. I didn’t expect to be fazed when under a month later I had the opportunity to be shooting at another, however, there’s just something about that moment of getting to drive through the tunnel at Kern Raceway that is really unmatched.
Seeing the giant color coordinated trailers, tow rigs and pit set-ups, as soon as you hit the infield, it’s easy to feel the difference between these professional events and smaller grassroots drifting events but gratefully lots of aspects are still the same. That aspect of community we all love was no less present at LZ World than I’ve come to expect from regularly attending events at a grassroots level. People were rooting each other on, helping each other with issues, loaning cars so runs could be completed, etc. When Dave (Driftgames) spoke at the drivers meeting, he acknowledged the competition aspect of the weekend but also wanted the spirit of the whole thing to be fun, and for everyone to remember why they love doing this. Judging from what I could see everyone took the competition and fun having equally as seriously.
As media we were supplied a generously sized media box right in the center of the action as well as another smaller box a little further to one side. The funniest part of the main box was that we couldn’t actually hear the livestream announcing whatsoever so had no idea who would win battles until the two drivers rolled up in front of us and we saw the interaction between them, the audience, and Cerise.
In spite of the weather shifting and experiencing some significant rain delays, we were treated to a lot of great battles, hard driving and exciting moments. One of the most memorable, obviously, is Adam LZ catching his car on fire. After a battle he was doing a donut and roasting tires when they caught, all of us in the media box were screaming fire at him and waving frantically while he continued roasting tires. Thankfully he finally became aware, brought the car to a stop and hopped out to put the fire out. He later stood in the burned up trunk and posed for pics, definitely a lighthearted reaction to what could’ve been a big issue.
This event was also T-Pain’s foray into competition drifting with Nappy Boy Automotive and I’ve gotta say he’s a certified ripper! Winning battles in your first ever comp against this level of drivers is pretty crazy, I’m happy I was there to witness it. I also give the team major props for the simplicity and cleanness of this livery giving cameras a lot of strong colors and lines to grab onto regardless of lighting conditions.
California was just the first stop of the tour, they’ve also had a stop in Montreal, stop three is upcoming at Mondello Park this September in Ireland and there’s an as of yet undisclosed 4th location is coming soon. It would be so much fun to be able to go to all 4 events just to witness how the driving and energy change track to track but also with different drivers. I’m sure regardless of location they maintain that spirit of a fun, lighthearted competition.
