Ayala: So yeah, Formula Drift Long Beach was awesome! Aside from getting a ton of car footage and photos, I got to mess around a take some photos of the colorful media personnel. Here, dead center, are world famous Andrew Bohan & Geoff Pitts.
Ayala: Shreeve and I walked around to meet up with Andrew & Geoff, but these damn fences are everywhere! It’s almost a maze!
Pitts: Seriously, I wish there was a media entrance to the hairpin closer to the end of the grandstands, having to walk all the way from the bridge was kind of a pain. Killer event though! It was nice to be reunited with all the cool people who hang around at FD.
Pitts: Walking out to the point was worth it though, killer shooting spot!
Pitts: I think Jose is part terminator. Super nice when you talk to him, but walking around at events, he’s like a robot on a mission! I mean seriously, who could resist Linhbergh? Jose can.
Ayala: Although this years most anticipated rookie Luke Lonberger ripped it up during practice runs, he was unable to make the top 32, but we still expect huge things to come from this driver. I actually like how his car looks though. It may be the weight transferring over, but it looks extremely low in this photo. A really photogenic car.
Ayala: All the hype seems to be Walker Wilkerson after he made top 16! This dude’s an animal!
Pitts: Walker threw down pretty hard at ProAm nats last year, but qualifying 7th out of 44 of the world’s best drifters is beyond any of our expectations! Excellent to see that a dude fresh from the grassroots who is still privateering can make a good showing amongst the greats. This season is going to be SO exciting!
Pitts: Hey Joe, next year… we need to shoot from up there!
Ayala: 😐
Ayala: Here is Drew Fishbein taking a photo of Conrad Grunewald as he rips through the hairpin. Ross Fairfield kinda just walked around with his camera and his sunglasses, and then smoked cigarettes, and then filmed for a second and then smoked.
Pitts: Fact!
Pitts: Here’s Drew watching Ross smoke. lol
Ayala: Sully knows more than anyone else that the negative camber, low offset, HellaFlush, Stance is absolutely EVERYTHING!
Ayala: You may not think so, but this photo is actually in perfect focus. I was taking a photo of the clouds and a bird flew by. ARTSY AS F**K!!!
Pitts: You want artsy? Frank from FAL photography decided to be totally awesome and let me try out his 1950s Petri 2.8 rangefinder camera. I love shooting 35mm film but I had never tried a rangefinder before, and after reading up on them recently I was really hot to try one out.
Pitts: Here ya go, this was actually the first shot I took and I guess I didn’t advance it far enough because I believe the cut on the bottom and the burn on the left is caused by the photo receptive part of the film just not starting yet. The flare on the bottom showed up in a few of the pics from that roll, I think it might have a light leak. HELLA artsy huh?
Pitts: Here’s Mike Kim of MotorMavens snapping at Dean Kearney’s Viper. Antonio introduced me and Drew to Mike at WekFest in SF, and I’ve been excited to see his pics ever since. Good stuff, Mike!
Pitts: NOS Energy Drink models will dance with your kids! Go to FD!
Pitts: Vaughn had a really rough weekend. He looked killer in practice, but somehow missed the top 32 by only one spot! If you didn’t know, he’s the defending champion. I’m sure this was hard on him, but Vaughn’s a swell guy and a true pro. I’m sure he’ll come back with some fury at round 2! What’s this I hear about Yoshi, Joe?
Ayala: Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Yoshi Shindo.
Ayala: If you know anything about Yoshi, you know that he is magically delicious. Ross Fairfield thought he’d give him a little taste.
Ayala: Everyone loves Yoshi Shindo.
Ayala: And Yoshi Shindo loves Leann McGlasson.
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-Geoff
-Joe Ayala
TANDEM OF DIE