Donations are now being accepted by a number of organizations participating in the relief effort. If you would like to make a contribution, please follow one of the links below.

Network for Good (Multiple Charities Listed)

Japanese Red Cross through Google’s Crisis Response page

American Red Cross

I am not affiliated with any of these charities. This post is simply a way to help spread the word to others. Please re-post those links on your own blog or social network of choice if you feel it would help.

June 5, 2010. Wall, New Jersey. Vaughn Gittin Jr. battles Daijiro Yoshihara in the 2010 Formula Drift Round 3 final.

For this year’s Formula Drift race at Wall, NJ I was privileged to be shooting for two publications. After a lot of fun down in Atlanta, AutoImportCraze asked me to keep the streak alive and provide shots from the other East coast event on the calendar. You can check out the full gallery of shots here: http://www.autoimportcraze.com/coverage2.php?menu=3&Warn=0&ShowID=561&car=1.

June 5, 2010. Wall, New Jersey. Yoshihara, Gittin, and Foust (middle, left, right) made up this year's podium for the 2010 Formula Drift Round 3 event.

The other publication was Drifted.com. I was contacted by Alex Quail not long before the race, and asked to provide not only photos but also editorial coverage. I enjoy writing about motorsports almost as much as photographing it (hence this blog), so it was a no brainer to hop on board as a contributor.

I crafted six posts going over the whole weekend, and adding a few words of praise for APEX’i/Hankook driver Ryuji Miki. A link to each is below.

1. Welcome to Wall
2. Qualifying Results
3. Ryuji Miki’s Past Rides
4. Ryuji Miki’s New Lexus SC Drift Car
5. The Main Event
6. Crash Still-frame Video

Be sure to browse the rest of the site and show them some love in the comments. Alex and Jord have assembled a great crew of photographers and film makers from around the world. I am honored to add to the USA perspective.

Click past the jump for a few more of my favorites from the weekend.

June 4, 2010. Wall, New Jersey. Ryan Tuerck takes a practice run in his Pontiac Solstice GXP drift car.

June 4, 2010. Wall, New Jersey. Ken Gushi duels with Conrad Grunewald as the sun sets over the track at Wall.

June 5, 2010. Wall, New Jersey. Rhys Millen tries to keep up with Samuel Hubinette's Challenger around the figure eight Wall Speedway circuit.

June 5, 2010. Wall, New Jersey. Darren McNamara sliding the tail of his Falken Tires Saturn Sky drift car.

The new opening tiles for Andrew Jennings' Portfolio

I’m happy to announce that I recently completed a refresh of this humble website. I actually started showcasing my photography on the domain Andrew-Jennings.com back in the summer of 2005. The five year anniversary just passed, and I figured it was a good time to update it with a new look, some added content, and functionality.

The big news is new portfolios. As you can see from the image above, I have doubled the number of portfolios that are now showcased on the site from three to six, now accessed through a mouse-over menu on the top right. The automotive portion has been broken into four subgroups: Transportation, Motorsports, Drifting, and Auto Shows. To make each worth while, new images from some of my most recent work have also been added (some never before seen on the web!). The Entertainment and Travel portfolios are virtually unchanged, for now. I have plans for both of those in the future too, so keep an eye out for them to grow and evolve with my work.

The other news is a revamp to the blog. The old one had a more stand-alone feel. It was an adaptation of a pretty basic WordPress theme to tide me over as I got used to posting. The layout you see before you still uses the underpinnings of that original Plainscape theme, but has been heavily recoded to fit the overall brand feel that I want to convey. Mobile phone users should also be greeted to the new WPTouch app that I installed on here to make the experience simpler for small screens. There are still some things that I intend to clean up, such as the look of the menu on the right, but nothing that should impede your regularly scheduled programming.

If you’ve had a chance to familiarize yourself with the new site, I would be glad to hear any and all feedback in the comments here. For aspiring web designers, if you are interested in how I did it, let me know that too. If I get enough requests that may prompt me to write some detailed posts about my process, from conceptualizing, to coding and testing.

Thanks as always for visiting this site and viewing my work. Here’s to another five years of great fun and photos to come.

This week I wanted to share another monotone photograph that was taken back in college. At that time, there were active weekly contests on the AccessPhoto.com forums, each with a theme to guide the entries. The theme for that particular week was “patterns,” so I decided to head over to the library’s stacks to see what I could come up with. I brought along what was at the time my brand new Canon EF 85mm f1.8 lens to give it a thorough testing in different conditions also. Happily, both the lens and the photograph that it produced were well accepted. It is a lens that I continue to use often today, especially in low light conditions such as concerts.

The above image was originally shot in color, but like the sunset I felt it just worked better in this blue tone. All of the books were different colors, easily distracting ones eye to bounce around from place to place. In the singular tone, it is simplified into the light and dark contrasts, and helps the eye not get so lost with one single focal point in order to take in the whole image.

If you have not done so, give monotone colors like this a try on some of your own photographs. Save it as a different file name, and look at both back to back. You might be surprised what it can do to the feel of the image!

With all the work surrounding the recent Formula Drift event at Wall, NJ, I didn’t have time to post a ‘From the Archive’ yesterday as planned. So, a day belated, here is a shot from my time at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. I haven’t shot many sunsets with the intention of using them in black and white. Generally, sunsets have such vibrant colors that it seems like a shame to hide them. On this occasion, I set out to capture one, but the angle of the sun and the light just wasn’t cooperating as planned. I didn’t want to give up outright on the photograph though, and gave this monochrome look a try. I like the way that it brought out the texture of the clouds surrounding the sun as it descended, a texture that was otherwise invisible in the original image.

As I gear up for this coming weekend’s Formula Drift event at Wall, NJ I decided to take a look back at the first year that I shot the event in 2007. Not a lot has changed in terms of the track, but the driver lineup sure has. Anyone in attendance that year will recall the exciting battle between Chris Cook and Samuel Hubinette. Samuel was trying his luck in a Dodge Charger that had been fitted with a V10 V8 engine, while Chris Cook was still getting used to the V8 V10 power of a Viper. What unfolded was a tandem fight too close to call after just one round, and shockingly in the second runs, Cook sped away from the crazy Swede, something that not many can accomplish. It was one of the best races I have ever seen in the sport, so who knows what might happen this year.

Happy Memorial Day everyone.

This week I couldn’t help but post this second shot from the same morning. There are enough spots to park on the side of the canyon roads North of Malibu, C.A. that finding a good one with an overlooking view wasn’t an issue. Is it a landscape photograph, or one of a beautiful automobile? I would argue that it is both, when the location both compliments and interests the viewer.

I normally don’t have a chance to break out my 85mm fixed lens during motorsports events. Things are constantly moving, and switching lenses can lose valuable time down in the paddock. I decided to go for it during the Formula Drift event at Road Atlanta and came away with a few interesting portraits while the drivers were doing their autograph session. Have a look after the jump and let me know what you think.

Chris Forsberg putting on a proper smile this time.

Matt Whiddet

Joon Maeng

Ryan Tuerck

Ken Gushi with Tanner Foust in the foreground

Pat Mordaunt

Kyle Mohan

As mentioned in my From the Archive post a few weeks ago, I was recently down in Braselton for this year’s Formula Drift event at Road Atlanta. My coverage is up now at Auto Import Craze, so be sure to head over there to see the full set. Below are a few of my favorite shots from the weekend, but I plan to put up others in the coming days, including a behind the lens how-to post. As McNally would say, more tk…

Astute readers will recognize the angle used for this shot of Samuel Hubinette and Darren McNamara. Did I nail it like I planned?

I must confess, I’m a fan of RX-7s, and Ryuji Miki’s FD is no exception. The new-age Hankook livery is also very cool.

Later on, Miki got the car a little bit off track, and managed to rip off parts of his front splitter and rear bumper/quarter panel. In the shot below his rear fender conveniently caught some air and was lifted up, exposing the full tire so I could see the whole thing being cooked. Makes me wish some of these guys ran without fenders on purpose.

Speaking of burning Hankook rubber, Robbie Nishida debuted the team’s new Nissan GT-R in Atlanta. You may be wondering how a car that is normally all about grip with a stunning AWD system can pull off that kind of drift. Under its skin resides the same engine and drivetrain that he ran last year in a 350Z. Hankook has plans to keep tuning the car’s original motor and play with the diff in the AWD setup to put the power down in the rear, but for now Robbie looked right at home in the longer bodied Nissan.

Flames erupting from tailpipes are not a common sight in drifting the way they are in other forms of motorsport. That hasn’t stopped Matt Waldin from letting his 350Z run a bit rich though.

Ken Gushi is in his third season running a Scion tC that has been converted to RWD. It’s also his third livery, and probably my personal favorite to date – though I wish they had kept the fierce red halo headlights from last year. He put on a strong showing in Atlanta, and I expect bigger things from him in New Jersey where he placed 4th in 2009.

Normally I don’t photograph drifting with this slow of a shutter. It exaggerates the motion, and in reality the cars are not moving this fast. Every now and then it can be fun to mix things up though, so I’m glad that I experimented when Matt Powers was doing his final qualifying run.

Aside from the angle in the second shot above, this a view from my favorite area at Road Atlanta to photograph the tandem battles. It positions the cars close together in the frame (and in reality), while keeping a good view of the fans in the background. Below, Tyler McQuarrie puts pressure on Forrest Wang’s G35.

Having said that, there is another location from which I’ve always wanted to get shots in Atlanta. Below is an example of what happens when I can be in two places at once. I set up another camera in harms way only a few feet from the screeching racers. Luckily, my camera lived to tell the tale. I’ll share how it was done from the technical side of things later on.

Tanner Foust and Matt Waldin go at it in the first round of 32. Engine trouble caused Matt to retire, and allow Tanner to move on to the top 16…

…where he would face his Scion brother Ken Gushi. Gushi edged out the win in that round, so Tanner will have to wait another year before he challenge for a podium in Atlanta.

I won’t go through what happened in the entire main event’s battles (that’s what the Auto Import Craze coverage is for), but suffice to say that Dai Yoshihara in the Falken S13 was on a roll. In the top 8, he had contact with Darren McNamara’s Saturn Sky, and lost his whole rear bumper. This meant that the trunk and rear wing could no longer be supported, so his car was converted to something that more closely resembled an El Camino. The lack of rear downforce didn’t seem to make a different though as he continued to light up the tires nicely.

I enjoy photographing the podium for each race. I like the emotion that the drivers have built up and how they let it all out ceremoniously with the champagne spray. I wanted to do something different this time, so I went around to the side instead of straight on to photograph the uncorking. Unfortunately JR turned away from me, so I only got his back, but I still like the way the lights caught all of the liquid in mid-air as he and Forsberg doused the winner.

That’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed this set. Be sure to leave some comments after the fold to let me know what you think of them.

During my short time residing in sunny California, I was privileged enough to have a 350Z to drive for a weekend. The car was a fairly new 2006 model, with all the options one could ask for – including the navigation system. And, being new to the LA area, I decided to ask some friends where the good driving roads were. A few carefully placed taps on the navigation and I found myself in the spaghetti-like strings of tarmac that make up the hills just North of Pacific Coast highway. Somewhere between Stunt, Las Virgenes, and Mulholland I pulled off to admire the scenery, or more the billows of fog that were piping their way over the sides of the cliffs. It was there that I found the unique view for the shot above, and another that astute readers will recognize from my automotive portfolio. The shot was done originally in color as all of my work is, but the mood just seemed to work better in this monotone. It feels very still, with only the large highlight by the top of the headlamp drawing your eye closer, making you remember that this is a photograph of a car, and not a landscape. A car that was quite a lot of fun to stomp on through what are still the best curves I’ve ever experienced.

Oh, and a quick P.S. for this week. Make sure you tune into tonight’s season finale of House on Fox (preferably in HD). The whole episode was shot using a Canon 5D Mark II. Being a Canon user myself, I’ll be interested to see what they have been able to accomplish with this next step forward for the medium.

The 2010 Formula Drift event at Road Atlanta just wrapped up this past weekend, and as always I had a blast. The above photo is from 2008 (my last before we move into this year’s hard earned cheddar) and shows Kenji Yamanaka having a little fun during the driver introductions. At each event, the top 16 drivers that make it to the final bracket of competition are brought out in front of the crowd, and as each name is called, they give a wave or jump on their car. Kenji decided to take this to the next logical extreme, and instead jumped right up onto the barrier beside the fencing to snap a photo of himself with the fans. You rock, Kenji.

From the archive is a series that I plan to run every week on Mondays from here on out. It will help to fill the blog when there is some down time, and also allow me to reflect on past photos or events. I thought I would start things off with a short reflection on Formula Drift at Road Atlanta as I gear up for the upcoming 2010 event this weekend. Unlike ALMS style racing, you have to pick your vantage points wisely when it comes to drifting. If you are at the wrong spot, you’ll catch the car as it transitions, wheels facing forwards instead of slanted at full lock the way they are above. You want to look for the areas that give the car time to build speed, and with it a nice smoke trail. Drifting is all about style, and the courses are setup to allow the fans a clear view of each lap. As a photographer, we have to put ourselves as close as we can, exaggerating a still image into something that is mobile the way spectators and youtubers alike will relate.

The above, and below shots were taken at the 2007 FD event. The angle of Tanner Foust’s now retired 350Z car carried on entry into the horseshoe was always a sight to behold. To capture it like this took the longest focal length I had at 280mm (the EF 70-200mm f2.8L lens with 1.4x extender), and maybe a slight crop for good measure. The idea is to compress the car’s overall length, getting it pointing head on to really see how the front wheels are pointing. It’s an angle that is typical of the Long Beach Formula Drift event as the cars launch into the sweeping left-hander past the crowd. With any luck, and a little recollection of where I stood to take this, I should be able to edge out a few more on Friday.

The second shot below is one of my other favorite areas of Road Atlanta to photograph that the general public is not allowed to see. This is the staging area at the top of the hill which leads down to turn 10, where cars start and end each run. Here you can see Ken Gushi’s old Ford Mustang lining up for one of the last practice runs for the evening. This area is different from many of the other tracks on the calendar because of its seclusion. At Wall Speedway in NJ, fans can see the cars just to the left behind a barrier as they change tires or the driver grabs a drink of water before the battle. In Atlanta it’s private, a restricted space that breeds both excitement and tension. The only sounds are the rumblings of exhausts, and the periodic burn outs the cars do to break in a set of rubber.

Stay tuned for more from the track this weekend, and keep your feeds locked in here for future ramblings in the archive series.

The May, 2010 issue of RIDES magazine has just hit the stands, and a shoot that I did at the beginning of March is featured within. The car, a Lexus LS, was painted an amazing candy pink by Alps Auto Body in Memphis, TN, and is rolling on 24-inch chrome spinners. Click past the jump to see a few more photos from the shoot, and pick up a copy to see what else got featured along with this beauty.

Special thanks go to the owner of the car, and to Alps Auto Body for their support with the shoot. I’d also like to thank fellow Nashville photographer Corey Gibb who was kind enough to assist.

Strobist info: Alienbees B800 x4, triggered using RadioPopper JrX series.

As I mentioned in my live blog, after some funky cover music from a conveniently-named band called “The Rays,” Kia unveiled their Ray plug-in hybrid concept car at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show. But the story doesn’t end there. I’ve been to enough press conferences to know that generally they follow the same formula: a company executive comes on stage to wax poetic about the brand, then pull a cord from the ceiling to light fireworks and POOF! a car appears on stage for all to see. Kia decided to get a little bit more creative this time around. Follow me after the jump to find out how.

Before Michael Sprague, VP of Marketing for Kia Motors America, took the stage, they replayed their ad for the new Sorento that aired during the Super Bowl. Check it out below:

Catchy, no? As Mr. Sprague gets into his market share growth monologue, it was interrupted by a few hooligans on the left side of the stage. Who could they be?

Oh my, and they’re coming closer…

That’s right, Kia decided to crash its own press conference with the costumed ‘childrens toys’ from their latest ad.

How did they get to Chicago? Why, they drove all the way from Miami in the Sorento of course!

Naturally, they brought along a quick montage of their trip (similar to the commercial) with still photos from some famous locations, museums, etc.

But wait, said Mr. Sprague, where are the rest of the guys? All five of you need to be here to promote this shindig?

Whoops. Looks like the others decided to root for the wrong team this year, and they won’t be joining us anytime soon. Thanks for stopping by anyway guys! Now, off of the stage so Mr. Sprague can continue. You were saying? Ah yes, Kia has been very active in many forms of media, including motor racing. This year they’ll be fielding Forte Koups in the Grand Am’s Continental Sports Car Challenge series. The actual race car was on display next to the stage, and looked pretty good.

With that said, it was time to bring up the design team to introduce their new concept car. Massimo Frascella took to the podium with pad and pen to see if he could work his magic in front of a live audience.

As Chief Designer Tom Kearns narrated, Mr. Frascella went to work, crafting something that would encompass all of the eco-environmental elements that they were looking for.

While this was all scripted, it was still really cool to watch as he sketched the outline of the car, making you realize how much thought had gone into the project.

Is this the car you’re looking for?

This continued for a few minutes and sketches until they had mentioned each of the best features, including the flat underbody for smooth aerodynamics, and an extendable trunk lid to decrease drag at higher speeds. A lot of cool stuff in concept, but I’m not sure how much is actually going to make production (if any of it). Without further ado, bring out the car!

The headlights are one element of the styling that I would not be surprised to see on a future sedan or coupe from the automaker. They have a very nice outline, and their slanted appearance gives them a very aggressive personality.

Finally, they asked all of the designers in attendance to stand up and be recognized for their wonderful concept.

And that’s a wrap! No fireworks, but otherwise one of the more interesting and entertaining press conferences that you’ll find at an Auto Show. Thanks for following along, and be sure to share your thoughts of the presentation in the comments below.

Post updated with photos from each press event.

8:47am: I’m up in Chicago today for the first press previrew of the Chicago Auto Show. It should be a fun event, and I’ll try to update this live blog with my thoughts as the day goes on. Stay tuned!

10:20am: Toyota press conference just finished. New 2011 Avalon revealed, and will go on sale this Spring. Focus of the talk was on safety and the pedal fix. Avalon will have the fixed pedal already from the factory. Next up is Honda so we’ll soon see the what the new Odyssey mini-van will be like.

Below: Bob Carter, Toyota’s Group Vice President and General Manager, introduces the new Avalon

11:18am: Honda showed the Odyssey Concept, but pronised the production model would bow before the end of the year (my guess would be the LA Auto Show). Car looks good though with a much more curvy front and side. Photos to be uploaded later on from each press event. Next up is Chevy… not sure what is on for an unveiling this time. More to come.

Below: Vicki Poponi and designer Catalin Matei unveil the Honda Odyssey Concept (which seems to have a faulty fog light)

12:12pm: Time to break for lunch. At Chevy they had a new special edition Suburban and a new Silverado HD pickup. The Silverado looks pretty cool, and will have up to a 20,000lb towing capacity. No idea what you would tow that could be so big, but cool none the less. Later on is Kia and then Suzuki, along with other new stuff around the floor. I walked past the Corvette Gran Sport and it is wearing a very nice shade of blue. Definitely check that out if you come visit the show on a public day.

1:15pm: At the Kia stage waiting for things to get going. They have a cover band called “The Rays” playing stuff like Poker Face and Party in the USA. Guess it’s more hip than Toyota’s elevator music was.

4:28pm: Kia did a great job with their presentation. Suzuki was a bust so not much to say there. I’ll have to devote a whole other post to Kia, but suffice to say their new Ray concept car looks pretty neat. What may actually make production is a whole different story. More thoughts to come.

Below: Kia Ray Concept

5:42pm: A few more live notes before I make my way back to the airport again for my flight out tonight (and before my iPhone’s battery runs out!). In terms of new cars, there are a few others worth mentioning. Nissan and Infiniti made a reappearance at this auto show, after backing out of all but the NY show originally in 2009. They brought along the new 40th Anniversary 370Z and refreshed M sport sedan respectively. Both cars look even better in person than they did in the initial press photos. Mercedes also had the new SLS AMG gullwing on display – a car I’m still not quite sold on, but it is growing on me. Last but certainly not least, Ford unveiled the new Edge crossover in their presentation that occurred before the Toyota conference (I couldn’t see everything live). Sharing a lot with its sister Lincoln MKX, the Edge got a new front grille in line with the Fusion, and the new meters with MyTouch interface. It’s very slick, with almost no buttuns in the traditional sense. They don’t ‘press’, but rather a simple touch will activate the audio, climate, etc.

Nissan 370Z 40th Anniversary:

2011 Infiniti M:

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG:

2011 Ford Edge:

Thanks for following along with me today. Hit up the comments below to let me know if this type of live post is something you would like to see more of in the future.

While I was up in New Jersey covering the Formula Drift event for Performance Auto and Sound Magazine, I was also able to get the full scoop on Kyle Mohan‘s latest creation for the same publication. This past year was the debut of his new Mazda RX-8 drift car. It’s quite a beast, and the white/camo livery carries on the tradition from his previous FC nicely. Pick up the Dec. ’09 issue (cover above), or head on over to the website to get the full story. Follow me after the jump to see more photos from the shoot, including one that nearly cost me a camera!

The only time available to photograph the car was on Friday when things had been rained out. So, I strapped the rain sleeves on my cameras and decided to make the most of it.

And here is the man himself. He and his father were very accommodating during the shoot, and didn’t mind the car getting a little wet. Apparently it helped them find a leak or two on the interior!

But, that is not where this story ends. I had my rig with me, and was eager to use it since I had lugged it on the plane all the way from Tennessee. The result was a pretty neat shot, but I had to put my camera upside down beneath a dripping awning. By the time we got the shot, a few of the buttons on my 40D had stopped functioning. Luckily, I went at it with a blow drier as soon as I got home from the track, and everything was back to normal. Phew!

I mentioned in a prior post that my site allows me to track statistics about visitors. This is a fairly common feature for web hosts these days, and it is very useful information. It lets me know how many visitors I’ve had on the site, but not always how they got there. I’d like to recommend a new way to view this blog, especially for the smartphone users of the world. It’s called RSS, and while this is not meant as a ‘how to’ post, it should be enough to get the wheels turning.

There are many avenues for downloading an RSS feed, and they vary based on what device you use. For a personal computer, your website’s browser (read: Firefox), or Google Reader, are excellent ways. Simply clicking on the orange icon on the left side of my blog will pull up the feed, and your browser should let you add it right away. But what if you are on the go, and want to keep up with me? On the iPhone, there are many RSS readers available in the App Store. The one that I personally use (shown above) is called Free RSS Reader (link to App Store). Other applications also exist that include push alerts whenever a new post has been published. I do not not own a Blackberry, Palm, or Android device, but I’m sure that if you look around there is an RSS function available on those as well.

So why, if you have a smartphone with a web browser, would you want to use RSS anyway? For one, speed. The posts will download much more quickly this way, even on a basic 3G connection. Once they are downloaded, you will be able to read them even if you lose your connection. This is great for air travel, or other trips that you want something to do on but can’t access the internet. If you want to add a comment, or use a link within the post, there is a button that you can press that will send you quickly to the web browser for the full experience. It’s handy, and probably my favorite app to date on my own iPhone, so give it a try!

In an effort to reach out to more of you fans, I’ve finally gotten my act together and joined a few more of the social networks that grace our fine interwebs. As you can see from the little buttons on my side bar that popped up a week or so ago, I’m now a fleeting member of the twitterverse, and sport my own Facebook page. Clicking one of those will send you on over to the respective page, where you can add me to keep up with the latest happenings, and newest hot-off-the-digital-press photographs.

Also, my PBase galleries and flickr galleries are now more accessible than ever through the new links. Hop on over there when you’re through reading this blog to see even more of my work, and leave me a comment or two while you’re at it.

Last but very far from least is RSS. More to come on that in my next post.

Currently, I do a lot of my own advertising. I submit posts from this blog to stumbleupon, digg, etc., and I do some shameless promoting on the different social networking outlets (more on that later). But I was pleasantly surprised to see that others had stepped in for a change to show me, and my portfolio some love. MotorsportPhotographers.com is a website with the goal of spotlighting photographers that specialize in racing, tuner, or other general automotive subjects. It works on a submission only basis, and sites are reviewed by the administrator before making it to the limelight. I am honored to say that my portfolio was submitted, by an anonymous fan, to this site, and approved. If my stat tracker’s hit count is any indication, this probably happened around January 11th.

I encourage all of you this to give the site a look. There are many artists there whose work will simply make your jaw drop. Because I’m a generous guy who likes to spread the love too, I’ll even name a few personal pals to get you started: Brad Wood, Jeff Creech, Scott Chu, Steve Demmitt, Scott Dukes, Easton Chang, and Rick Dole. If you like their work, be sure to vote for it!

It’s time to close the book on 2009 as I look ahead to 2010. I was privileged to work with Performance Auto and Sound magazine on the Formula Drift Wall, NJ event, and the coverage went to print in the Oct. issue (shown above). I’ve noticed that some magazine racks run a little behind schedule, so be sure to check your local Borders or B&N just in case there’s a few of these still around.

Click past the fold to see some of my favorite shots from the weekend.

Friday’s practice session was cut short due to a large downpour that hit the whole NY/NJ area in the afternoon. I could see the clouds looming as I crossed the George Washington bridge in the morning on my way to the track. That didn’t stop a few drivers from putting on a show for the press photographers such as myself who braved the elements – the practice was not open to the public. I asked Robbie Nishida (below) afterwards what he thought of the conditions, and despite both his front and rear bumpers being torn off in the puddles, he thought it really wasn’t that bad.

NJ is home turf for Falken ace Vaughn Gittin Jr. and he was on fire the whole weekend.

Joon Maeng also had an outstanding weekend, beating out Ryan Tuerck in the round of 32. This ended up having huge implications on the overall points standings for the season, as Tuerck finished 2nd to Forsberg by only 6 points!

On Saturday during the early practice session there was still a little bit of standing water off-line on the track. This made for some cool reflections, as in the shot below of Kyle Mohan’s RX-8.

Tanner Foust didn’t have the best run in his Rockstar Scion tC, but it sure did look good when he had it sideways.

As the sun set in the afternoon, only one could stand atop the podium. That one was Irishman Darren McNamara in the Falken Saturn Sky. Gittin, and McQuarrie managed to make it a sweep for the tire sponsor in 2nd and 3rd places respectively.

Although I managed to catch a cold from standing in the rain all day Friday, the event was a blast and I look forward to attending again this coming summer.