This album has been sitting in my drafts folder for nearly a year waiting for some words to go along with the images. Today I had a phone call with a friend making some plans for drift events in 2023 and the impact of this event came up in our conversation. To be honest, I don’t think I recognized the impact and scale of this event while it was happening. But looking back at the weekend, the crowd it drew and the drivers that were a part of it I think it deserves its own post.
The LZ Drift Party was a one off event to be held at one of my usual haunts, Englishtown Raceway Park. The event took place in the ‘Drift Coliseum’, the converted drag strip paved into a smooth figure 8 style course. This is the same area FD events are held along with some of the gambler events put on by Englishtown. I first shot an event on this track back in 2020 for the Bloodmasters Invitational, a set of photos that has been partially released on instagram over the years but never got a dedicated write up, maybe one day who knows.
The drivers list was filled with popular YouTubers, professional drivers and some locals coming out to drive with their friends. A great mix of talent was there to put on a show for the packed grandstands of people who came out to watch. The size of the crowd was larger than I ever would have expected, even rivaling the turnout of FD events held in the same location.
Throughout the event there was great commentary courtesy of Dave Egan from Drift Games who flew out to be the MC for the day. With some time set aside for drift games and individual call out battles. The format of the event made for a great day on the track, and the crowd in the stands for sure confirmed that drifting was alive and well from a spectator interest level.
I think this event was a great one off but has the potential to become something larger down the road. Adam LZ has had some great success using his influence to pull a crowd and put on a great show. This was only further highlighted by the success of the LZ Festival held at Mondello Park in Ireland. Who knows what this will grow to, but I would wager this isn’t the last large scale event to hit the US hosted by Adam.
