My First Matsuri!

"Pav" (pav) 11/17/2014 at 07:47 • Filed to: Ebisu, Matsuri, Drift, Japan

1

0

So I went to Ebisu Circuit in Fukushima, Japan this past weekend for the fall version of Drift Heaven and Matsuri. This was the second ever drift event I've attended, so forgive me if I miss some details and get some things wrong. That being said, let's get on with it!

We had four people going on this trip: My friend Alex, his wife, Courtney, our friend Dave and myself. Alex would be the one drifting, so I couldn't pass up this opportunity to experience one of the most famous drifting events Japan has to offer, so I tagged along as part of the rag-tag pit crew. We had a little Toyota van that was packed with all the necessities for a weekend at the track: Tires, tools, spare parts, a plethora of snacks, cheap beer. We were ready for the tollroad trip down south.

A bit of backstory on how Alex got a car for the weekend. After few years of drifting at our local track, and by being a pretty generous person, Alex had gained the respect of Masanori Kohashi. Masanori used to race for the famed Team Orange. Masanori had loaned Alex his R33 for the weekend, all we had to do was get to the track and pick it up. This R33 had a RB25 equipped with what was only explained as a "little big turbo" so we weren't quite sure how it would look.

We got to the track early Saturday morning, and I had immediately fallen in love. Not just with the sheer amount of cars and people that were there, but the scenery too. Ebisu is essentially built on the side of a mountain, overlooking a hilly valley. It's comprised of six main tracks: North, East, West, Togue, the smaller School track and the famous Minami D1 track.

The Drift Heaven itself goes on for a whole week with Matsuri happening from Saturday morning nonstop to Sunday evening. Foreigners from all corners of the world attend, Finland, the UK, Australia and New Zealand just to name a few. With the crazy amount of people in attendance, anywhere becomes a parking lot, a garage, a campground or a bar.

Saturday morning was pretty cold and wet, which made things a bit interesting. We headed out to get the Skyline, which wasn't in the best shape but it made drifting a bit less nerve wracking not having to worry about thrashing around a clean car.

It had a pretty innovative catch can too:

Saturday filled with wet and wild drifting at all of the tracks, and we only used one pair of tires! We first stopped by Touge course for a few laps, with the wet conditions making any sort of speed or grip nearly impossible.

The only bad part about touge, from a spectator's point of view, is that you only see about 10 seconds of car until it disappears back into the forest:

After Touge, we headed over to North Course which has only one access point: A nearly inaccessible tunnel that pops up in the middle of the track. It rendered many front bumpers useless.

A wet, oil spattered first corner made for some interesting incidents.

The action in the various paddock areas was just as interesting as what was happening on any of the tracks.

As the sun began to set on Saturday, the drifting kept on going. Unfortunately, only being equipped with a camera phone, most of my night time pictures turned out like this:

As problem free Saturday was for the Skyline, Sunday was not as nice. Alex bent both tie rods within an hour of each other, and after a small coming together with a stray dirt embankment, had busted an intercooler coupling.

After that, this became a regular sight every few laps, as the newly pieced coupling struggled to keep itself attached to the intercooler.

Then more fun was had at Miniami!

As the day drew to a close, we were all exhausted, out of gas and out of daylight. I couldn't help but develop the utmost respect for the form of motorsport that I used to mock almost as much as NASCAR. It's not as easy as it looks in videos. Last weekend was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Most importantly, I've walked away from this weekend with even more respect for the crazy people that push it that much closer to the edge.

Many thanks to Alex and Courtney Smith and Masanori Kohashi for making this weekend happen!