DriftCon 2021 EVD ProAm Round 3 Event Coverage

We pulled off an epic season opener back in April and by June things were starting to seem as normal as they could in these times. 2021 has still been a weird year to host events with ever-changing guidelines and special hurdles at venues. Despite these challenges and rain in the weather forecast we had a full car show and a solid list of drifters signed up to have some fun at our first peak season event of the year.

Photos by Nick Foskette, Michael Ericson, and Kenny B. Text by Matt Haugness.

The first round of 5/8 competition at Evergreen Speedway is always light in turnout. This was our lowest turnout ProAm competition in years with COVID still preventing Canadians from coming down to compete. The safety requirements and power needed to properly drift the big bank also make it harder for newer ProAm competitors to step up. Rain played a factor in the total number of drivers that qualified. A total of 7 drivers qualified with Tyler Mayer being the top qualifier.

Even with such a small bracket, competition started late and ran longer than anticipated. Overall, there were some great battles that were fun to watch with the changing weather conditions. Chase Schmidt bested Tyler Mayer in the finals and took first overall. This meant Tyler Mayer took second and Nate Snyder third. This higher finish allowed Tyler to become the points leader and after this event only 8 points separate him and Nate. See the current standings here.

Towards the end of ProAm, we had all five of the Hoon-Off Burnout Competition cars lined up and ready to go destroy tires. The track had dried out and this would have been possible. Literally 5 minutes before the end of ProAm finished the clouds let go and a downpour soaked the track. This meant we had to cancel the Hoon-Off at the last minute…

After this we moved onto the ever-popular Team Tandem Competition with a totally wet track. This slowed down competition and the speed in which the cars were sliding. A total of 13 teams showed up which meant a $1650 prize and the Team Tandem Cup were up for grabs for the top team. The teams were encouraged to come up with creative names for the competition to emphasize their unique styles.

The following teams showed up to compete in our Team Tandem Competition:

IGNANT
Bone Apple Tea
Three Six Mafia
Fuster Cluck
Goon Squad
TANDEM * KNIGHTS
Ratchet Slayers
At Least We Made It
Razzle Dazzle
MISFITS
IntroVerticle
Suislide Girls
I.S. Motorsports

Three teams went into this competition with an advantage due to their high placing at the DriftCon Season Opener Team Tandem event. Three Six Mafia, Ratchet Slayers, and Fuster Cluck all automatically advanced into the Great 8. This proved to be a large advantage when the brackets were created as Three Six Mafia and Rachet Slayers both managed to end up on the podium. They took second and third respectively. A new team for this event, Goon Squad, took first place overall and the largest cash prize ever. These guys have always performed very well at past events and even won our special 2020 event with no spectators.

The Great 75 Car Show was held alongside the track like as always. It was great to be back in our normal spot compared to the Season Opener where the StanceWars show was held in our traditional VIP lot. Having the show next to the track always makes for a better event overall and we look forward to doing the same at DriftCon Afterdark on September 11.

Some awards were determined by our traditional voting method but Best of Show, Best Import, Best Domestic, Best European, and Best Make awards were judged by our judging staff (Andrew Vun and Matt Nelson – two top tier winners of the past). We also made some tweaks to the voted awards to allow for some interesting changes in who won. See the full list of award winners and gallery below.