Final Bout 8: Back to The Summit

Final Bout 8 brought the traditions that have been built and loved over the last 10 years of this event but with a few twists in its 11th year. This year they brought four drivers and their iconic drift cars from New Zealand to compete, rather than traditionally from Japan as they have in past years. The other big change is that for the first time, they closed off the pits to spectators, except for a limited time on Saturday. Also, with a recent boom in popularity for R/C drifting, local R/C groups had a course set up of their own by the parking lot for the full weekend. Many spectators brought their own cars to drive with their friends, day and night. And you can’t miss the car show that seems to grow every year, in both quantity and quality. The rare opportunity and Final Bout tradition to drift USair at night remained Saturday evening. 

Saturday is the day of the team competition and the rare opportunity to drift at night at USAir. Half of the teams score is based on the teams visual styling of their cars, the other half is the team driving competition. C’s Garage took first in the car show portion with their iconic clash of yellow and red with vibrant graphics. RPS Works followed with their bright green S-Chassis’s representing the Northwest and Front Street Drift Club out of New York takes third with their classically JDM styled S-chassis in matching liveries. C’s Garage may have been visiting from New Zealand, but it looked like they’ve been driving at USAir for years. So much so that they became the first international team to win at Final Bout. Front Street Drift Club was close to taking the victory until the judges announced a tie between them and C’s Garage. Each team was given two additional runs to battle it out. In Front Street’s second lap there was some contact at the very end of the run causing a spin out and possibly the top spot. Coming in third was team Good Feeling, from Texas. 

All of the teams drove with everything they had. So much so that there were quite a few wrecks, which are just part of drifting, especially when driving at this level. Turn one of the “Advanced” course took out its fair share of body kits this weekend, with its high speed entry over the blind crest of a hill. Many teams were also fighting mechanical issues throughout the event. Thanks to the help of the local USair community sourcing parts; a minimum of two transmissions, three turbos and at least one radiator were replaced throughout the course of this event, at the track, along with a lot of tuning help from Jimmy Oakes throughout the paddock. It’s this level of passion and drive that makes the drift community proud, anyone that has been around grassroots drifting knows, it’s the people that keep the spirit of this motorsport not only alive but thriving.

Even with over 20 teams competing, it didn’t seem like there were as many teams as there have been in past years, but the teams seemed larger. Like Team Chrome, Real Dream, Fool’s Errand and Night Style for example all had teams of four or more drivers. It’s great for making sure there's always the three drivers required to be able to compete in case someone breaks, but the Final Bout competition layout is an extremely difficult layout for four or more cars to run both closely in tandem and consistently. Which makes it even more entertaining when those large teams can bring it all together. Could this also be part of not often seeing those larger teams place higher at the summit? It seems the judges reward consistency over a single great lap.