Matsuri: Drifting for Beginners

Photos by Jon Karim, Chris Dawe and Ryan Flanagan

The fun and laid back drift environment of the seasonal Drift Matsuri held at Japan’s Ebisu circuit has been heavily reported online ever since drifting blew up on the world stage. As the seasons change and Autumn or Spring roll around, a veritable explosion of insane images flood the blogs that we drifters frequent and for those not fortunate enough to make the pilgrimage, they evoke feelings of longing and the ever present notion of ‘one day...’

While for many of us shoestring budget drifters such a journey seems well out of reach, the steady growth of the grass roots drifting scene in Australia over the last few years has offered numerous quality alternatives that might not completely quench the thirst but leave us anything but parched!

One of the more recent events to pop up on the calendar is the Stadium Drift Matsuri held by Raceline Events. This event not only shares the name of the iconic Japanese celebration of all things drift but also the social, care free atmosphere and after thoroughly enjoying myself when it was last held in November, I wasn’t going to miss it for the world!

After setting out from our Silverwater office to head for Wakefield Park Raceway, about 2 hours south of Sydney, I began to get that excited feeling that I get before any drift event, intensified by the memory of how much track time was made available at the last Matsuri. Keeping me company in my trusty R31 Skyline was my girlfriend Carly while behind followed my good friend Jon with camera in hand ferried along by Chris, one of the Performance Garage crew.

We stopped at the Pheasant’s Nest servo to meet up with my old man Steve who, because he’s a top dude, offered to drive my Beetle down filled to the brim with spare wheels/tyres and lend his services as crew chief for the weekend.

Jon snapped a couple of driving shots on the way down which I was stoked about. I’ve never seen my car in motion before and I’m really happy with the way they turned out.

The reason we had driven down on the Friday afternoon was so that I could have my car scrutineered early and not have to worry about the big queue in the morning.

After popping the bonnet and glaring fearfully at the unbridled beast that is a stock RB30E with a pod filter, the scrutineer gave it the all clear and we headed up to the cabins to get a good night’s sleep.

The cabins at Wakefield are pretty great and if I’m entered in an event there, I always try and grab a room if it’s available. There’s nothing better than waking up and just being able to cruise on down to the track. Plus it’s the only place you’ll see signs like the one above!

As the sun rose on Saturday morning, we were all up bright and early so we headed to the pits to check out what was going on.

It turned out to be a pretty good choice getting scrutineered the night before as the line was huge!

The queue even extended up the road, with a huge crowd keen to make an early start on a full weekend of drifting.

One of the people waiting patiently was Steve Pembrey, the editor of Drift Battle Magazine and wildcard entry into the 3rd round of the Repco Pro Drift Championship that would be run between Matsuri sessions.

Raceline Events were nice enough to provide both Steve and myself with garages right in pit lane which made life a whole heap easier, giving us a base to work out of right in the midst of the action.

It was fantastic being able to come off the track, quickly chuck on a new pair of tyres and head straight back out.

To be fair though, this was made possible by an awesome pit crew giving a helping hand i.e. my Dad.

The first order of business was to get the Pro guys out there for a bit of a warm up and they were given the first hour of track time.

As a lot of the competitors aren’t exactly locals they used this time wisely to familiarise themselves with the layout in preparation for the competition rounds. The judged section for the competition was what was referred to as ‘short track’, a layout I will explain a bit later on.

For Steve, this was the first time he had competed at Wakefield since completing a 2GR engine transplant into his Sprinter and early on the car was performing perfectly.

There are a lot of awesome cars in the Pro class and one that I really wanted to have a closer look at was the Monster 350Z, piloted by Rob Whyte.

I had read a lot about it but had never seen it in the flesh. The car didn’t disappoint either, with the whole Monster team rocking up as professional as an F1 team and Rob putting on a great show all weekend.

While it was fun watching the Pros do their thing, everyone was itching to get out there and before long the first Matsuri session began.

I went out there tentatively at first as I hadn’t been to Wakefield in a couple of months but after a lap or two I got back into the rhythm of the track and remembered why it is that I love this track so much. It has great elevation changes and a great variety of corners, with the layout being suited to absolutely any skill level.

I set myself two simple goals; to man up and start drifting in third gear and to learn how to shift down on the entry into a corner. I like to set myself a target for improvement for each event I go to and although I had done neither of these things before, they both seemed pretty achievable.

My favourite part about the Stadium Drift Matsuri is the way they utilise the Wakefield layout. Instead of the usual however-many minute sessions, drivers are sent out and made to line up on the main straight. If you line up on the inside of the track, you want to drift the short track and if you are on the outside, you drift long. In the photo above you can see the merge point between the two marked by the orange and white barriers.

This map gives you an idea of the layout. In theory the short track guys will be past the merging point before the long track train comes through but if not, short always has right of way. It sounds a bit complex but in practice it works really well and I found that having virtually unlimited back to back runs was a great way to refine your driving style.

At lunch time, the first Matsuri session finished and I already felt that I had improved. I spent the morning really focusing on my line through the short track and coming onto the back straight, I managed to grab third gear and pull a couple of high-speed manjis so I was pretty chuffed. The increased speed sideways did have its side effects though, with the rear tyres not lasting as long as they used to.

While munching down on a damned tasty burger from the Wakefield Kiosk, I intently watched the first qualifying session for the Pro competition and tried to pick up some pointers. It was great to see my colleague Steve out there giving it his all and he managed to qualify 8th which wasn’t too bad at all!

The Raceline guys are really track time oriented so as soon as qualifying was all sorted out, I was back out there and since it was after lunch, I was finally allowed to take passengers.

First into the passenger seat was Carly who before the weekend, had never been in a drift car! She was adamant on the way down that she wouldn’t be joining me out on the track but after a bit of sweet talking between myself and Dad, we managed to get her in the passenger seat.

At first she wasn’t too keen on the idea but while she was screaming into turn one, I had a huge smile on my face. On this run I happened to pop my first tyre of the weekend but before that happened, Carly’s screams changed into giggles of enjoyment and needless to say, it wasn’t her last passenger run!

I found myself lining up again and again, learning something from each run. The atmosphere in the line and in the pits was great and I spent a lot of my time talking to other drivers to get tips that I would put to the test on my next run.

That’s the great thing about Matsuri, everyone is just there to slide and have fun. It was interesting seeing little groups of friends lining up together and heading off in 3 or 4 car trains to get close and push each other to the limit. There was no politics or elitism here though, with everyone happy to pin another car or two on the back.

Everyone is courteous and gives you plenty of space although if you want to get close, there is a whole lot of that going on as well. This courtesy is inherent to the Australian grass roots drifting scene and is the reason I love being a part of it. In many other motorsports, the simple concept of a merge point wouldn’t have worked but at Matsuri, drivers were happy to give way because there was an abundance of track time.

Of course, this track time had to come to an end at some point and by 5pm I was absolutely pooped. After parking the beast in its garage and heading into town for a quick feed, the whole crew hit the cabins and tucked in, ready for another big day.

The layout of Sunday was basically the same as Saturday, with the Pro guys getting the first crack at the track. Competition was thick in the air and they seemed to be going a lot harder than the day before.

Steve was sliding strong as always and after qualifying 8th, his hopes were high. Unfortunately, an oil starvation issue he has been battling for a while saw him spin a bearing early on and he was out of the practice session.

This got us all a bit bummed but fortunately fellow Pro Drifter Calhen Owen offered to let Steve drive his Beaurepairs-sponsored R33 Skyline, news that raised our spirits pretty quickly.

After learning so much on the Saturday, I was champing at the bit to get back out there and I hit the Sunday morning session hard. After practicing my third gear slides I built up some confidence and hit the kink at the end of the straight at the top of third, about 120km/h. With a big clutch kick and a strong throw in, I flicked left to right a couple of times before getting hard on the brakes, shifting back to second gear and blazing out of the corner. It felt great and I was rapt!

With my heart still pumping, the morning Matsuri session ended and it was time for the Round 3 final. Steve tried his best but considering he was behind the wheel of an unfamiliar car, I reckon he did pretty well to make it into the top 15.

The competitive tree was whittled down until at the top sat Tony Harrison in his LS-powered, Hi-Torque Performance S13 and Dan Kenneally in the Hogster S13 ute. The battle was close but it was eventually Harrison who came away with the crown, with the torquey LS13 absolutely billowing tyresmoke on each run.

With the competition run and won, it was time for the last Matsuri session of the weekend and everyone was keen to make the most of it.

You could see every driver out there (including myself) pushing themselves to their absolute limit as we all knew that a great weekend was about to come to an end.

Even though track time was quickly running out, the courtesy and laid back attitude remained right to the end. Man I love drifting!

Two of the R33 4-doors from the Marvel Drifters crew got a bit close and hit each other pretty severely.

This is a drift event though so it was smiles all round as they gave the cars a couple of hits with a hammer and chucked them on their trailers, happy with the time they had.

I had filled up with petrol in Goulburn on Friday night and by 4pm, my tank had finally run dry. Out of habit, I zeroed my trip meter when I filled up and looking down I realised that it was telling me I had gotten 179kms out of a tank, with the majority of those kilometres being on the track!

Sure, with the rear wheels spinning this reading isn’t exactly accurate but still, it stands testament to the amount of track time made available to me and everyone else by Raceline Events.

I probably said the same thing after the last Matsuri but this would have had to be one of the best weekends of my life.

The car took a beating and lived to tell the tale and I learnt more than I think I have from any other event.

With the trailer hooked on filled with blown tyres, I couldn’t even bring myself to feel sad that it was over on the drive home as I was just content to have been a part of such a fun event.

The next Matsuri will be in November and I can confidently say that I will be there with bells on. If you like drifting or have ever wanted to give it a crack, I’d suggest you do the same. Keep an eye on the Raceline Events website for details closer to the time.