I met Byron and Alex down at Atlanta Motor Speedway to help promote the Motorsport Nationals at the ‘Friday Night Drags’. This was my first time at the weekly drag event… and it is safe to say that it will not be my last. There were a TON of people… and a lot of cool cars!We got to run a few ‘parade laps’ around the speedway which is ALWAYS fun. The embankment, especially between turn 3 and 4 is so intense! After the cruise laps, everyone just parks along the front straight and gets out… turning the track into a parking lot of cars to check out.
Alex rolled out in his killer s13 hatch.
The pictures don’t do it justice… but a lot of people come out for this every week. It was raining earlier in the day, so I can’t imagine how many people normally attend.
As we were getting ready to leave… Alex snapped this shot of our cars. Looks like something that should be on the cover of Rock Band.
Lieze and I joined my Mom and Dad for a trip north to Parkersburg, West Virginia… where my parents are originally from. A large part of my Dad’s family lives up there, including my awesome Grandmother. For her 75th birthday, she asked that we come up and run the annual 2-mile race with her. We started running this race with her back in 1995, and even though we can’t always make it… she runs it every year! I always love going to Parkersburg, because even though I didn’t live there very long… it brings back so many childhood memories.In the airport… we just happened to run into this guy! My badass brother Jamie was headed to Manhattan for a wedding.
This was our old house. I was very young when we lived here… but I remember learning to ride my bike in this very front yard.
My Dad is the man. We all ran the 2-miler… while my Dad took on the half-marathon. Peep his medal… so awesome!
My Grandmother won 1st place in her age division! She is 75… and no joke… passed Lieze and I during the race!
Here are her trophies from over the years.
We wound up on the front page of the paper for having the most family participating in the race at the same time. This race has sorta become a family reunion of sorts for us. You can kinda make out the t-shirts I designed for the race, which I posted about here.
I designed a quick t-shirt for my amazing Grandmother. My entire family will be wearing this shirt when we head to West Virginia to see her this weekend. The typeface is set in Salome, using the alternates. I wanted this design to be a bit more elaborate, but it got down to the wire on time. I can’t wait to see them!
With the help of the amazing photographers on the team – I put together a cool eighth-page flyer for MotorMavens. If you’re interested in promoting for us – drop me a line and I will send you some flyers!
The DriftMechaniks Chicago invasion for the 3rd round of the D1 Gran Prix was a riot. About 16-20 DriftMechaniks descended on this gorgeous waterfront city. Panda, Tyler, and I headed north in the Vitz. Byron and Greg were in the WRX… and Alex, Shawn, Hater Dan, and Wes were flossing a rental Mazda 5. We stopped outside of Nashville to rendezvous with Marlow, P. Haire, and Struka. A slew of folks from St. Louis came down… including Cankles and Koopa.
Northbound behind Marlow.
1st night in Chicago… we hit Geno’s East.
Genuine DEEP dish. We’re talking hella flush pizza here.
I’m stoked for good-offset pizza.
Saturday there was drift racing. Yay drift racing.
Sunday morning we hit some (amazing) breakfast a few blocks from Charlie’s place.
BEST. PANCAKES. EVER. Seriously. They are deep fried.
Atlanta College of Art (R.I.P) Crew. From left to right: Charlie Smith, Tyler Clayton, Myself… and Carlos “Panda” Richard behind the lens. All ACA grads.
There was a mass of sticker tagging along this trip. We did a rough count and figured Tyler bombed over 500 stickers by himself!rn.
Panda on the loose.
We hit the MOCA. Amazing works inside. I burnt my leg doing so many rail slides out front.
We had to rock out Sears Tower (sorry… Willis Tower just doesn’t sound right).
110 stories high… in a tiny li’l glass box.
That night we hit a local watering hole for more good times before we migrated back south.
Special thanks to Alex and Panda for the pics… and an even BIGGER thanks to Charlie for the amazing hospitality<3
