WOW! The first post in ages.
Back in April, I discovered TandemRC and quickly had PTSD flashbacks to the days of being so into RC Drift when no one else I knew out here in Arizona was into it at the level I was enamored with it. So after selling my previous, OverDose'd Yokomo Doripake, it took all of about 1 hour being at the shop before I knew I was buying another chassis and delving back into the hobby.
Fast-forward a few months and competitions later, many new friends made and constant good vibes - I'm consistently finding myself making my way over to TandemRC as frequently as I can possibly get there. Lucky for me, it's just a few miles down the street from home and father-son shop owner duo, Rob & Shane, always help set the stage for folks to have a good time and are more than happy to dive-in and help out their customers.
Which brings us to today's post: Round 6 of the Arizona Region SuperDrift Competition, which is a recognized series for Super-G's SuperDrift USA Championship. Round 6 is the final battle of the season for AZ Region, and following this round, many drivers plan on attending the USA Finals hosted at Super-G out in L.A, yours truly included.
QUALIFYING
The morning begins with tech-in, some discussion from judges around what they expect to see during qualifying and competition, followed by driver qualifying in order of which early bird got the worm.
BODY COMPETITION
This is a fun aspect to the comp which doesn't involve driver skill, but rather challenges everyone's creativity. Body shells get set out to be displayed by all, and attendees are welcomed to vote for their favorite body. In the four comp's I've attended this season, I've already seen hobbyists getting more and more innovative with some wild stuff.
Club Pogi driver Kalai's insanely customized S15 won many over, and swept the votes.
Seth paid homage to the almighty Haraguchi and his timeless BN FC3S RX-7, accompanied by iPad playing old school Option video in case you live under a rock.
PRE-COMP
Now's the time that everyone takes to make last-second tweaks to their setups, and get in more practice laps before we all patiently await to see who we got paired up with for battles.
Looks like a typical Club Pogi meeting!
BATTLES
Per usual format, battles begin with the novice drivers, known as Sportsman class. I admittedly did not get many photos of the Sportsman battles as I myself was also making some last minute preparations before battle. Cool to see the younger ones getting really into it though! This was both Aidan and Chase's first comp.
Sportsman class is quickly followed by the Expert class. Club Pogi drivers Lani and Adriano kicked off the first Expert battle of the day.
Adriano took the win and moved onto the next round of battles.
Followed by Seth vs Shane. Shane actually took first place in Sportsman, immediately bumping him up to Expert, and was proving some skills throughout the day, taking the win against Seth.
Nostalgic Drift Team driver Alec vs. Club Pogi driver Adriano. Alec takes the win!
Both rocking Drift Pigeon chassis', this was a sick battle to watch between Club Pogi driver, Austin vs. last year's overall winner, Ron.
Scanlon vs. Nostalgic Drift Team driver Juan.
Club Pogi drivers Markus vs Juvani. This had to be one of their 666th One More Time battles.
Ron vs. Nostalgic Drift Team driver Alec. Alec takes the win (again)!
Friendly battle between Nostalgic Drift Team drivers Adam vs. Juan.
Close battle between Nostalgic Drift team driver Austin Barnes vs. Club Pogi driver Kalai.
Quite possibly my favorite photo of the day!
Good battle between Jasmine vs. Juvani
Another friendly team battle between Nostalgic Drift Team drivers Alec vs. Juan.
Quick snap of the battle between Austin Barnes vs. Jasmine.
Since Austin won the previous battle and moved onto final comp, that left an incredibly exciting boyfriend girlfriend battle for 3rd place between Alec vs. Jasmine!
Final battle between Nostalgic Drift Team drivers Austin vs. Juan!
COMP RESULTS
It was a Nostalgic Drift Team sweep, taking 1, 2 & 3!
Congrats to Round 6 winners:
First Place - Juan Gonzalez
Second Place - Austin Barnes
Third Place - Alec Donaldson
I chipped-in to this round's prizes and offered up a WORK Wheels Assembly Bolt Keychain and Bushido stickers to the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place drivers. Glad to see they were pretty pumped about their loot!
Austin not only placed in the Round 6 battle, but after Shane computed the season scores, proved that he also took 1st place overall in the AZ Region SuperDrift series. So he was rightfully turned over the crown from previous year's overall winner, Ron.
Stoked to see Austin already displaying his keychain as a charm on his radio!
POST-COMP aka BACK TO FUN!
Club Pogi & Friends Car Meet on the infield grass!
Baden being Baden.
And how 'bout closing it out with a backie GIF of Markus just being disrespectful!
I just really want to throw out a huge thank you to Rob & Shane at TandemRC! A huge thank you to all the new friends and memories made with good folks who've found their way into this hobby that I've met over the past several months! And thanks to these comp days getting more and more fun each and every time. I'm looking forward to the off-season, but also can't wait until 2022 season begins already! Who's ready to come out swinging hard next year!?
Lastly, I grabbed about 2000 photos throughout the day, so if you don't see yourself in this post, feel free to message me and I'll poke through what I've got and see if I can get anything your way! No one wants to see 2000 photos :)
武士道 - B U S H I D O!
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