East Coast Bash was my second trip out to Englishtown this year, I am still putting together some shots from the LZ Drift Party event that was held a few weeks back. I have been making the trip out to these events nearly every year since 2015, and I can say without a doubt that this years ECB was one for the record books.
I am sure I have mentioned this in past articles but I grew up about an hour and a half from Englishtown, which meant it was at one point my home track. In 2014 when I started actually going to drift events (instead of just stalking instagram accounts of drivers and photographers) Englishtown was one of my first tracks to visit. This place feels familiar and it’s almost like a small reunion each time I go back. I am still learning names and faces every time I come around, but there are more ‘hey how are you doing’ encounters each time I am there. The familiar faces and great driving usually pairs for a killer weekend not only visiting family and friends at my hometown, but also making new memories with my friends at the track.
This year I arrived a bit later than I normally would and immediately started catching up with drivers in the pits while the start of the afternoon sessions continued in the background. After some introductions, small talk and laughs I headed down to tree turn to start catching some of B group.
On my walk down to tree turn I couldn’t help but notice the massive cherry-picker that was sitting along the track entry road. This surprise element ended up being the most exciting part of my day shooting. Getting hoisted up and over the bank would allow for me to shoot in a way that only drone operators typically get to experience. I wish I could have had more time in that lift dangling over A group, but I snapped off as many frames as I could to make the most of it.
Kevin Johnsrud & Robert Goodwin accompanied me on my lift up over the bank. At one point me and Kevin looked at each other disappointed the widest lens we had was a 35mm. Thankfully the boom had some more room to lift us resulting in the below image. I am not sure how high up we were but I am glad that my excitement for the photos I was getting outweighed my fear of heights.
Once I was back on the ground I did a few more laps around the pits and checked in on the car that rolled over at the beginning of the A group session. To my surprise, the driver was hard at work getting the car prepped for a new windshield and getting ready to start it for the first time after the rollover. Unbelievably the car fired up on the first crank and filled the area with an expected plume of smoke. After a few revs it was back to sounding and looking as healthy as it arrived. I wasn’t around to see the car run on Sunday but from what I can tell it was back on track and turning laps as if nothing happened.
As the day closed out I hopped in Greg McCauley’s S13 to ride along for the final A group session of the day. We had a blast chasing down Eric Wilhelm in his BRZ which I featured on the blog a few posts back. Once we were wrapped up on track, the group made its way to have some food and head over to Sneaky Pete’s to cap off the night.
This weekend was a blast and for sure will go down as one of my favorite ECB experiences so far. I hope you all enjoy the photos below. I stuck to just using my x100V for this set and am pretty happy with how they turned out. Hopefully I’ll see some of you around at future events this year ✌️
-Dax
