After a long season of planning, fabricating, testing, and competing, it was finally time for a bit of relaxation with Rick and the RA Motorsports team. Of course, we accomplished this by doing even more drifting. Towards the end of the season we look forward to Strato Bash, a two day drift free-for-all hosted by Spec-D at Stratotech Park. It’s always a hell of a time, and with 104 drivers signed up for this year’s event, it was going to be an exciting weekend for sure.

We were out to help support Rick yet again which is also why majority of the pictures in this post are of his car, but we were also just enjoying ourselves and hanging out in the pits; after all, our season of competition was over, so it was time to let loose! That being said, there was still a friendly “Big Entry” contest which Rick wanted to participate in, which is what the opening photo is from. Each driver had two runs to do the most exciting entry into turn one, a turn which we all know is capable of being entered at high speeds and at more than 90 degree angles thanks to a certain member from Animal Style. Rick’s first run wasn’t bad, but it didn’t put us into first place at the time either, so after a bit of advice which Rick seemed to completely understand, I instructed the rest of the crew to stand their ground and don’t duck whatever happens. Yes, “don’t duck whatever happens” because Rick was about to 110% go wild on his second run and as you can see from the blurry photo, that is exactly what happened when he kung foo kicked some fresh dirt into the crowd. We ended up taking second place in the contest despite some friendly protests, but we were still pleased with the result.

After that, we continued drifting for the day, giving the rest of the RA team some ride-alongs. Everyone who either has never been drifting or ridden with Rick got a turn and was having a blast, just like the transmission which was also having a literal blast and exploded. Yup, the car broke yet again, but just like in Mission, it was towards the end of the event anyways, so thankfully we won’t be suffering any important downtime. If anything, it’s time to rest for a bit and slowly get the car ready for next season.

Until next time.

-brandon.