Vibes is an event I look forward to every year… What started as a team event held at Shenandoah Speedway has grown and headed north to Lake Erie Speedway. If you dig in my facebook archives you can find coverage of the old events from 2018 and 2019. Those have their own great stories which might make it onto the blog in future Deep Cut features. Vibes is the perfect recipe for a killer weekend of drifting, the ingredients are pretty simple. Gather great drivers from all around the country, find a venue that can fit everyone and beat down the track like it owes you three months rent.
Community is the name of the game at most drift events, very rarely have I been at a track day where there hasn’t been a set of helping hands within a 10 foot radius. Vibes is the ultimate experience of this. Everyone, and I mean every single person in the pits, is there for the love of drifting and the style and expression their team brings to the event. Egos are put on hold and everyone is an equal, it’s a weekend to have fun, push your cars and connect with friends you only see so many times a year.
Outside of the great community, I am usually most excited to see all of the cars freshened up and looking their best as they prepare to battle the circuit for the weekend. It’s always a treat to see your friends putting in work on a fresh paint job or a new livery counting down the days to an event like this. Then you finally get to see the cars in person and out on track doing what they are intended to. I’ve never been on the build side of things but capturing the cars in this state knowing how much work has gone into them in the weeks leading is something special. I like to think that events like this are where people will look back and remember all the fun they had making these machines…
2021s venue change brought Vibes closer to home and back to a track I have shot at many times before. For this event we ran a layout that to my knowledge has never been ran before at Erie and was perfect for running grid stupid hot. I never bothered to keep count but there are plenty of facebook stories quoting 25+ car trains nearly wrapping the entire track. I wish I had some photos to share but when something that wild is happening I’m quick to lower my camera and just enjoy the moment. I was posted up near the track entry for most of the late night shenanigans just taking it all in and appreciating the fact that I got to be apart of the event.
The event spanned 3 days, each paired with a night of partying, losing money shooting dice and trying to figure out when the right time to call it a night was. Turns out I chose wrong every night and was running on fumes by day 3. The drivers meeting Sunday morning confirmed my suspicions and told the story that most of the drivers were in the same boat as me. The driving on days one and two was ferocious and endless, the track ran hot for nearly 12 hours a day and I don’t think a moment passed where I couldn’t hear tires being converted into smoke.
I’ll always remember weekends like these and look forward to many more to come. If you are new to drifting and want to experience the best the community has to offer, look to events like this. Even if you just go out to spectate, or help turn wrenches for a friend, make the jump and go experience it for yourself. I’d wager an event like Vibes would be enough to get you hooked and always come back looking for what’s next.
If you liked this write up and want to experience the event in 2022 come check it out June 24th-26th at Lake Erie Speedway. As always the full set of photos can be seen below and is available to download in full resolution. I’ll see you all at the next one ✌️ -Dax
