It’s only right to stay the full weekend to maximise the Matsuri experience. Before heading 15 miles eastbound over to Pentraeth to check-in at my Airbnb, I decided to stay stationed at the circuit so that I wouldn’t miss Saturday’s night-runs like I nearly did in 2019.
LowOrigin’s Alekzandr James had a sadtym halfway through Saturday after a foreign object entered his SR20’s combustion chamber. Looked a bit lonely and neglected in the pit garage, but all is well as the engine is on its way to being operational once again… eventually.
The grassy perimeter at Anglesey gets boggy, so don’t do what I did and wear some weak-ass walking trainers, come equipped with boots if you don’t fancy clenching everytime you risk making the wrong step and landing ass-first in a swamp.
Lee Barker and his R34 Skyline pulling into turn 1 with the LIT setting on 100.
Ant Thompson sending plumes out the back of his IS XE10.
I didn’t capture much during the night run, so let’s fast forward to Sunday morning.
A boat and the sea…
This 190E was like a phantom or some shit. I only saw it out on track for a couple or so laps, and then never came across it in the pits. After speaking with the owner online, the steering set-up and lack of lock were giving him a bit of a hard time when trying to keep the chassis balanced mid-drift. Nevertheless, I have to give him all the props for attempting to slide about in one of the most underrated – yet gangsta – Benz’ of all time.
Delica Star Wagon looking like a Japanese version of the Mystery Machine. Looks so tippy-toey with its narrow track and high roof-line – atleast you’d get the best view out the house perched on the roof-rack. Mind you, with the wind speeds that day, it’s no surprise that chance wasn’t taken.
Black on chrome, greatest of combinations.
Mark Webb was at it all day Saturday, and didn’t let off Sunday. The rowdy two-seater sounded as nice as it looked!
A bit of a wildcard, but I guess its about time someone put the M140i and its rear-driven axle to good use. I wonder if it’s a proper LSD or just the stock open-diff welded up. Performed as well as the usual suspekts to be fair.
Roy Britton’s E46 M3 is that wild, it sent its occupants onto the grass after coming over the hill on the touge course. But damn, those Weds Kranze Cerberus wheels suit the car so well.
Aggressive stance on this NB MX-5 in the carpark, but no slidey-slides were executed on the track. Maybe next year?
To be honest, for most of the Sunday, I manned the photoprint stall which was definitely busier than the day prior. I suppose less people were out on track (either by choice or by circumstance) that day, giving them time to just chill and check out what was going on in each of the pit garages.
I did run back and forth to the “big track”, which is turn 1 past the pits, to shoot cars for drivers whom requested photos. Adam’s S15 is easily one of those cars you could Photoshop onto Ebisu Circuit and not question the legitimacy of the image.
Same goes for this final-gen Silvia.
Dan Joyce of Low Origin goes hard in the paint AND the vinyl, too.
That tuck is the embodiment of true drifting spirit.
Pretty sure this is driven by a man with a handicap, but from how he was driving his Soarer, it was obvious the “disadvantage” has little-to-no effect on the skill and technique demonstrated.
Blurple S14 with some Ganador looking things getting shown a good time, as was the passenger from the looks of it.
Jay Wilding absolutely rinsing the tyres of their tread in his S14 comp car.
Alexander Graff and his JZX110 Mark II doing bits with maximum airflow cooling his front-mount.
Andy came across from Ireland, bringing his Swedish barge with him. Jokes aside, seeing this floating by on full-lock was both entertaining and impressive to see happen in real-time. It makes no sense but makes complete sense, at the same time.
Like I said earlier, I shot less footage on day 2, but I hope you enjoyed what I managed to catch! The turn out this year felt like it had amped up noticeably. More guys and gals must have had the time and resource to build a drift toy over the lockdown period, which made for a properly busy Matsuri weekend.
I was there till the very end, like, the paddock are was deserted. It was a sick event, met some cool people, some awkward folk thinking they could get a framed print for a few pennies, but overall the festival was an enjoyable one. This coming year is looking good in terms of events back up and running on schedule [fingers crossed] so I’m going to make sure not to slack on uploading coverage for you lot.
In the meantime, go follow @soulfokus on IG and FB for regular-ish media uploads.
Bye-bye, for now.
志向 