Clues and Cookie Crumbs: Connecting the Dots in Drifting.

A while back some of you may remember that I took some photos of a crisp old Toyota Corolla in a parking lot in Waldport Oregon.. I found this tattered and beaten corolla in the parking lot of the local market parked next to the recycling shed. I had recently got a new camera, which I was eager to use and couldn't resist the urge to take some photos of this iconic drift car. It turns out there is more of a story to the missile I found that day then I initially thought..

 This here corolla, I thought was just some lovingly neglected corolla never given the time of day to have a spirited drive. I thought this little feller was simply a leftover from a once well used and enjoyed driver who liked to slap some stickers on his car, and play drift slut with his battered and under powered little import. But boy was I wrong.

Some of you readers may know of a quaint little place in Oregon just south of Portland called Pat Acres Racing Complex, better known as "PARC." Now this place called PARC is much more than just a run of the mill racing complex. This has recently become the holy mecca of Northwestern American drift. This place is the off season.. and on-season training, tuning, and stomping grounds of greats like Ryan Tuerck Matt Powers and other Formula Drift greats, not to mention the home track for a little known drift team ShaDynasty.

But back to the topic at hand, as you more attentive viewers hopefully noticed, the photo above is of a picture of the corolla that I found on vacation in Waldport, and the photo was taken on turn six of the track called PARC. What a thing! This neglected little blue coupe is no neglected has been, but a well used and enjoyed, and daily driven corolla. That not only could have a good time on a world class drift track but also could be daily'd by some fine well refined and dignified gentleman.

As can be seen in this fine photo taken by a Mr. C Campbell, this corolla and the corolla seen in Waldport are one and the same! I found this and other photos I will post below while doing some deep internet searches of early PARC drifting, a time when drifting in the states was at its purest, when people came to a track to have some fun with their buddies and slide around their under powed Japanese gems.

I found these particular ones on flicker, way at the bottom of a photo group called "PARC Drift" taken way back in the 2013's. When PARC wasn't overpopulated and people there always wore a smile.

These pictures capture a time when the heavenly dream of drifting was fully lived and undoubtedly realized by the owner of this corolla and gentlemen like him.

In retrospect it is pretty incredible that I found this little feller that day in Waldport. I mean what are the odds that the interest of the man behind this camera would echo those of a once known Chris Campbell at a magical place called Pat's Acres. A place I would never fully appreciate until a much later date.

This has been the first in hopefully more "Clues and Cookie Crumbs" where I take you, the reader, on a mystical journey back into the yore olden days of drift and connect those to a more recent and tangible time, showing that the past isn't dead... in fact, it isn't even past at all...

Joshua Sewell
Instagram: josh_sewell_photo

Stateline Drift Day

 Stateline is a town in norther Idaho between Spokane and Coure d'alene. This little town happens to have a pretty cool speedway in it... among other entertainment outlets. This past weekend I headed up to the speedway to shoot some photos of the locals shredding the track at an open drift hosted by Stateline Drift.

 This was the second open drift and third event on their events calendar. If it wasn't for a busy first half of the year I would have been at more of their events but life happens... even to the best of them.

 My main goal in going up was to get some guys stoked on pictures of their cars and as always stretch myself as a photographer. Both of these goals I think I accomplished. One because most of the photos turned out, or at least enough of them and second, I finally got a shutter speed slower than an eighth of a second to be in focus. This one above was shot at 1/5th. If your any kind of a photography buff I hope you know those aren't easy to pull off. I was more than pleased with how this one turned out.

 I was absolutely loving the looks of this old corolla. He had a lot of understeer at some times, but when he did get some oversteer you could count on my camera capturing all it could of it. 

 One thing I think is so awesome about Statline Speedway is how beginner friendly it is. As long as you follow the basic safety spec rules for your car and have a full faced helmet you are set to take any rear wheel drive car out there you like. Aside from the stock Corolla there was this lightly modified 240sx along with some other pretty low budget pumps out there and they were having just as much fun as the rest of them.

 Some of the cars that show up at Stateline are pretty mint too.. This 240sx is now far from stock and was, in my opinion the best looking at the event. Consequently, I took the most photos of this red beauty... I mean when a photographer has an eye for pretty things he takes more pictures of those pretty things. In this case the pretty thing was this red 240..

 This is another slow shutter speed shot. 1/8th. The funny thing about this one is it was almost an accident. I just kinda shot from the hip and followed the car.. the three or four shots surrounding this shot were extremely blurry though, sometimes it works.. most times it doesn't.

 This was another pretty good looking Pumper of Air out on track that day. Unfortunately it didn't have front fenders or a hood... or a front bumper, so I kindly framed this photo to leave out that fact. I mean I understand not having a hood on if you need to keep the engine cooler, but side skirts, fenders, and a bumper kinda go without saying. And at this track there is very little to bust up your kit besides another car or like.. a wall. And if your car looks mint it will get more pictures taken of it.

This last shot gets me pretty excited. This is a shot of one of the locals who has been with Stateline for a while now. The reason I'm stoked is that not only does this guy know how to drift but he also just set up this car for this season after retiring (I hope) his old 240... The first three photos of the post in that link are of his old car.. Its great to see someone with the talent to slide a car go from something which looks that munched to something that looks pretty awesome in comparison. I wonder if he is planning to paint this one.. Austin are you there? Either way I'm hoping to see it at the Independence Matsuri and I'm banking on some other rad rides to show up there too.

Joshua Sewell

Instagram: josh_sewell_photo