Awesomeboss: if the name sounds slightly familiar to you, it’s probably due to it being the amalgamation of Awesomefest and Finalboss, both of which were brilliant events that I have hadd the pleasure of attending in the past (Awesomefest in 2011 and Finalboss in 2014 and 2015). Set to be held at Driftland, the venue’s intentions were pretty clear right from the get go: an all-weekend drift event that was as much about the actual drifting as it was the social, much like the aforementioned Awesomefest and Finalboss events. So, did it pay off? Did it encapsulate the spirit of those weekends, leaving those that came to take part with something to talk about for years to come?
Yes and no would be my personal answer to that, although of course others may feel differently! Seeing as I wasn’t drifting at this particular event, I took the time to wander the pits and catch up with friends from all over the UK and enjoy the social aspect of a relaxed drift event. Dan Joyce’s S15 (above) and Marc Huxley’s HM Sports-kitted BMW E36 were both driven to and from the track, a round trip of well over 600 miles for both.
Huxley also brought his RA28 Celica, just to make sure he was never caught out without a car that wasn’t ready to hit the track.
Huxley’s old PS13 was also in attendance, although it was new owner Adam Galt who was behind the wheel.
Natalie Younger drove her PS13 (formerly of Dan Joyce-fame) up to Driftland. She had a few fueling issues that hampered her progression on Saturday but, on Sunday, she really got to grips with the car with it now fueling correctly.
I’ve seen Taylor Bloomfield’s SR20 powered E30 in the past but not since it’s received this stunning paint job. It might be a spectacularly clean looking car but that certainly didn’t stop Taylor from throwing it around all weekend and mixing it up in the trains with drivers in a wide array of cars.
I’m not sure who this Toyota pickup belonged to but fair play to them for trying something different!
It takes a decent amount of work to stand out with an S14 nowadays but it’s fair to say that Russell Ballantine’s Zenki received a lot of rightly deserved attention over the weekend. The 326Power 3DStar body kit and WORK VS-KF wheels made for a very strong look – stay tuned for more photos of this car.
Either side of Russel’s car were the DoriLabs S14 Zenkis belonging to Kyle and Daniel.
Both cars ran into technical difficulties during the weekend but it was great to see both of the guys pushing so hard when their cars were working.
Rob Cousens’ 1JZ powered FC3s was sporting its fresh livery, applied just before the event. Rob ended up leading a lot of the multi-car trains during the Saturday night demos and kept his cool when he had a number of aggressive local drivers breathing down his neck.
Freddie Sharvell is now the owner of David Knowle’s S15 and was not shy of throwing it around the Driftland circuit. He ran into a few issues at various stages of the weekend due to a number of reasons but it was great to see this car being used on track again.
Pete the Russian of Minty Fresh fame was also in attendance in his 1JZ powered IS200. It’s cool to see more people building SXE10s into serious drift cars rather than just treating them as cheap missile cars, and Pete has put a lot of work into fabricating parts and designing aero to push his car to the next level. It did look to be a bit of a handful on track at times though but I’m sure some fine tuning will see it only get better.
The Minty Fresh NA Roadster was parked up next to Pete’s IS, also rocking their trademark colour scheme.
The guys from Slipwheel had also driven their cars to the Lochgelly venue, a journey of around 400 miles each way.
This was their first time drifting on a proper track and, while at times it showed (it’s a steep learning curve moving from open space tracks marked out with cones to an actual circuit with walls and gravel traps), Tom Shaw in his Onevia in particular really got to grips with things by the end of Sunday. If you’re wondering where you might have seen this car before, here’s a photo I took of it many years ago when it was owned by Gutty and used to reside at Bolly.
Matt Kerr had a bit of a nightmare prior to the event, with his arranged transport failing to show up to take his car from Portsmouth to Scotland the day before the event. Some frantic phone calls and Facebook messages later and his car was on its way to Lochgelly on a different truck, albeit around 12 hours later than originally planned.
I thought I’d take a couple of photos of his car before he made it onto the track, as he has a tendency to make fibreglass look second hand very quickly!
Dougie’s 350Z looked a little heavy and under powered at times but he persevered and made the most of the fact that the car was at least reliable! I’ve got more photos of this Z33 that I’ll be posting in the near future.
Alex Law drove his S14 up from Manchester and, while he suffered some misfire issues during Saturday, he seemed to have it sorted on Sunday.
Glenn Lycett made it his mission to shorten his R32 4-door over the course of the weekend and, while deliberately driving like this is something I could never see myself doing, his R32 seemed utterly indestructible and he never stopped giving it death (much to the amusement of myself and the rest of the spectators!). Some of his entries were mind blowing too and he was rightly crowned driver of the weekend by a lot of people. Here’s a photo of it in a more respectable state on Saturday morning!
John Fallon turned up on Saturday morning in his stunning JZX100 Mark II for a bit of track time – unfortunately a family emergency meant I had to leave before drifting started on the Sunday so I didn’t get to see him in action.
Alan McIver (let’s call him Keeve) owns this stunning S13 and everytime I looked at it I couldn’t help but reminded of my old white S13 – you really can’t go wrong with a Pig Nose front bumper and slamming the car. The 17×9 and 17×9.5 WORK VS-XXs also help to finish everything off nicely, along with the subtle side skirts. It’s was great to see that Keeve wasn’t shy to throw his car around the Driftland circuit either, ragging every last ounce of power out of the CA18 powerplant.
I generally think it’s unfair to compare specific events to one-another as there’s often a whole host of factors that affect peoples’ opinions, with key points such as poor weather (for example) being completely out of control of the organisers. However, when you choose the name for your event by combining the names of two highly regarded past events then you’re inevitably going to draw comparisons from drivers and spectators alike.
All in all, Awesomeboss was a lot of fun and I had a great time with many of my friends that had made the trip to either take part or just spectate and enjoy the social aspect. The Saturday night drifting was hugely entertaining and I think it’d be fair to say that everyone involved thoroughly enjoyed Drifting Limbo (more on that in a future post) as well as the massive trains that were used to draw a close to the day. However, there were a few aspects that, despite being small issues, resulted in quite a few people having a somewhat sour taste in their mouths at times.
First off was the general price of tickets which, if you spectated on both days and camped for two nights, was £50 per person. I’m not sure if there were any discounts available for those that paid in advance but, compared to a lot of events, this seemed to be on the expensive side (especially when you consider the additional entertainment that events such as Awesomefest and Drift Matsuri have both put on in the past, with spectator and camping tickets also costing less than this if memory serves me right).
From a driver’s perspective, it also definitely felt like there was just too many cars taking part, with some reporting that queuing times were just less than an hour at one point. I can understand the need to have a wide variety of cars out on track to keep spectators entertained but, considering a number of drivers present would have classed themselves as beginners or amateurs, long waiting periods denied them the ability to build up any sort of flow or momentum and progress their skills quickly and efficiently.
There were a few other small things that were discussed in the pits (such as wondering why the the on-site cafe wasn’t open for breakfast on Sunday when the pits were full of hungover and hungry people who resorted to driving to the nearest McDonalds instead!? We would have literally thrown money at the cafe staff so we could eat!) but I don’t feel that these need discussing here.
Overall Awesomeboss was a lot of fun; the Driftland staff did a great job of keeping everything under control and there was a lot awesome drifting to watch (Saturday night in particular). Having a bar open was a great idea and the social on Saturday night was a great laugh with like-minded friends from around the country. Weekend-long drift events are always the most enjoyable and I’m really looking forward to heading back to Driftland for some more fun in the near future (although hopefully this time I’ll be back behind the wheel rather than behind the spectator’s fence!).