Marc showed me this old video made by Andy Sapp. It’s his event coverage of the RS-R Drift Festival held at Joliet, IL. Orido was there and Alex Pfeiffer was lucky enough to do demo with him all day!

I finished in 2nd place, but to this day I’m still not really sure how that happened or if I really deserved it. It was the first time really driving Yellow Thing, the 3rd gear synchro died and would never get into gear straight out of 2nd, and 3rd gear seemed to pop out into neutral whenever it felt like it. I beat out Hiro and Taka who were driving crazy hard like they were possessed, whereas I would just put around the track. I lucked out because people kept making mistakes around me. I was driving super consistent (as much as the problematic car would allow) but just not all that great.

Here’s a picture of Yellow Thing in all it’s glory on the cover of Turbo Magazine:

This was also a significant day for me, because not only did I get to meet a lot of cool Chicago who I’m still friends with today, but also because I used the winnings as my first step towards saving for an engagement ring for Nadine. It was also the event I was very torn about attending, because Nadine’s grandfather was gravely ill when I left Los Angeles. I took the very first flight home the next morning, but he passed away while I was in the air.

RS*R Drift Festival. (2004) from Andy Sapp on Vimeo.