DriftCon Afterdark 2023 Official Event Coverage

DriftCon Afterdark was held on September 30 and it was an incredible end to the drift season in the NW. Perfect weather along with steadily growing events all season culminated in a MASSIVE turnout. The grandstands were packed most of the evening and the crowd energy during the Double 8 Showdown was awesome!

Photos by Michael Ericson and Brady Gunderson. Text by Matt Haugness.

Double 8 Showdown

The Double 8 Showdown was designed to be a 32 driver TWO LAYOUT bracketed competition held on cageless infield layouts. The biggest difference from a traditional drift competition is that instead of qualifying on track, we use a Drift Showcase (drift car show) to help determine the early brackets. All the competitors lined up on the midway for display in the morning to determine the best 8 cars of the field. The ranking was decided by our car show judges, Andrew Vun and Brandon Hale. Criteria was not published in advance but theme, build quality, and execution/cleanliness were the primary categories. These top 8 drivers then got to schoolyard pick their competitors.

Here was the final show ranking and their corresponding bracket. Some drivers seemed to randomly be picking while others had some strategy they were not disclosing to the rest of us.

1. Kory Keezer (Bracket A #1)
   2. Alex Lindsay (Bracket B #1)
   3. Casey Ferriss (Bracket C #1)
   4. Patrick Lee (Bracket D #1)
   5. Carlton McDonald (Bracket A #2)
   6. Tyler Mayer (Bracket B #2)
   7. Matt Rusiecki (Bracket C #2)
   8. John Danyal (Bracket D #2)

After the first brackets were determined as a group, all the drivers returned to the pits to prepare for practice on LAYOUT 1. For reference, see our 2023 competition page for layouts and breakdown of the other rules.

Just like last year, most drivers were able to attend practice on Friday and practice both layouts. Since the layout was only shared days prior to the event (to make sure we had an even playing field) the drivers who ran the layout the day before were driving the most consistently.

Day-of practice finished around 2pm and the main gates opened. Fan Fest made a return – this was an opportunity for all spectators at the venue to get up close and personal with their favorite drift cars and drivers on the track surface. Opening Ceremonies followed Fan Fest along with a special memorial for Matt Hamilton (an active drifter that passed away recently).

We started with Brackets A and B and alternated battles in each. Remember that these early battles were all done on LAYOUT 1 which had been practiced by many drivers on Friday. The drivers who did show up to practice had a huge advantage and many of them advanced to the Final 8. Only the 1st and 2nd place drivers from each bracket moved on and the rest were done for the day.

See the complete A-D brackets below.

Hoon-Off Burnout Competition

Once the sun started to set it was time to prepare the track for burnouts! We had strong interest in this part of the event this year and sold out of our available spots weeks before the event. Newcomer Rick Hurd put on a heck of a show with his 800 horsepower Malibu wagon but much of the show was blocked with tire smoke and couldn’t be seen from the grandstands. From the track side his burnout was incredible and made for some epic photos. Jesse Nelson returned with his El Camino and was the final competitor out of six. Ben Whyte was most impressed by Jesse’s ability to throw around the El Camino and put on a great show.

360 Drift Challenge

The track was getting dark and the underglow started to appear in the trackside show and in the staging areas. The first of our Drift Games was the 360 Drift Challenge. In this competition the drivers were encouraged to follow a rough path and then perform the smoothest single 360 while maintaining drift before and after. After losing in this competition last year to Jared Bradfield, Zach Farrar was back and wanted to see what he could do with this PROSPEC car. Many drivers are starting to “get” how to do the 360 but Zach was the smoothest according to our judges.

Big Entry Contest

After the 360 Drift Challenge was finished, we moved onto the Big Entry Contest. Last year this competition was cut short due to a crash, so we wanted to make sure that the drivers adjusted to the changing track conditions before laying their bumper against the wall/pool noodles. John Danyal won this competition in 2021 so he was back this year to show how it was done. On his best run he took off and initiated at a higher speed than most of his competitors and held it together back onto the bank. He ultimately took first place according to our judges and crowd reaction.

Team Tandem Showoff

After receiving some feedback last year that there were too many teams, and that it was a bit chaotic on track we opted for a maximum of 10 teams total in the Team Tandem Showoff. This gave the drivers more seat time and made the competition easier to manage. This year was on the traditional Figure 8 layout that most drivers are familiar with driving at night. Since there were 10 teams, we needed to qualify them. There were 2 battles of the lowest qualified 4 teams to get into the Great 8.

A change this year is that for qualifying “style” of the team would weigh heavier than how the teams drove in qualifying. This meant that lighting, liveries, and color coordination would come into play to determine the qualifying position. Our style judge for this event was Leon Ban – a well-known NW drifter that puts together some very stylish cars. The other two judges were OG Team Tandem competitors Jesse Hayes and Tyler Campbell.

As you may remember, GoonSquadNW took a break from competition at our June event to help us improve it with a custom layout and special judging criteria. For this event we allowed them to compete in the Team Tandem Showoff and they took the opportunity to wrap all their cars in fresh vinyl liveries. This landed them in P1 for the bracket. Ultimately their ability to pilot their 4 cars as a group could not be beaten and they took the top spot on the podium.

In second place was Ride The Wall – a team that also did well at our June event. In third place was IGNANT and Friends. Congratulations to all the team podium finishers. This part of the event was really fun to watch this year!

Trackside Car Show

The Trackside Car Show was held alongside the track as always. The number of lighting displays was even higher this year, which could be due in part to the Best Lighting award returning.

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 Vu and Brandon Hale – two top tier builders of the past). See the full list of award winners below.

Thank you to everyone that attended DriftCon Afterdark 2023!

Special thanks to all our vendors and the following sponsors for their support of this event:

Official Tire Supplier:
Tire Streets

Major Sponsors:
The Import Guys
ODF USA
Bardahl

Sponsors:
Nutbusters Design
Drift Enthusiast Magazine
Redstart Racing
VLEDS
Chasing Legends
OnlyCarFanz
Drift HQ

Vendors:
StanceWars
OUTXLOVE
Illum Industries
Urbn Panda / Stay UP GoGo
Kimoji Style
Reckless Diecast
Yumekaze.jp
Hiro’s Hotrods
Stateside Garage
KNIGHTSHIFTS

Car Show Gallery

Drifting Gallery

Drift Showcase / Pits Gallery