Drift Nirvana’s Season Opener
I rarely go out of state to attend an event, scratch that I never go out of state to attend an event. I mean why would I? Until now I had always had every type of event imaginable within state lines. Though after some questionable and shady actions by some people who put on events I had taken a break from photography. After a two month hiatus I was itching to get back into it, As fate would have it I had been seeing others mentioning Drift Nirvana and it’s first event of the year. I knew I wanted to go.
At 5Am February 27th, I was woken up by my usual alarm, 2 hours ahead of schedule, but this allotted time would be needed as I wanted to make double check all my gear that I had packed that night before. After checking I was quickly out the door and headed 3 hours away towards the mountains of West Virginia (Que John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads). After fueling up twice (in fear of not knowing where my next fueling would come from) and some questionable speeding I arrived at the gates as they had just opened. Entering the motorsports park I felt a tad overwhelmed for it being my first time. Multiple ways, courses and buildings and a vague understanding of finding a building for check-in. Though as I followed others and caressed over a bridge I saw a parking lot filled with trailers and an assortment of vastly different vehicles going through tech and gearing up for the day.
Everything from your typical D-machines to Foxbody mustangs and C5 corvettes were ready to rock-N-roll - and they did just that! After a brief drivers meeting and Media check-in we were set free to safely roam the grounds and the 3 tracks they would be using throughout the day. I had a blast getting to use my newly acquired nifty 50 and Sigma 75MM. I knew the day would present challenges as this would be a day of learning - and it was. To further add to the long day I found that navigating certain areas to get to access points for photos would become a bit impossible or just downright tough. Once track didn’t really have any areas where a barrier could be present to protect oneself so that track stayed mostly vacant of media coverage the other was a mud pit first thing in the morning and required constant flinging of feet to shake off the sticking clump of mud while the other was filled with thorn bushes that just seemed to attack your ankles and legs out of nowhere. But as life would prove, “the greater the effort, the greater the glory”. Yes it may have been hard to get to some of the spots and yes there was a theme of constantly walking up and down hills and hoping over barriers but the shots and viewing vantages as everyone shredded the courses was well worth it and will make me a repeat attendy for future events!
Location: Summit Raceway, WV
Date February 27th, 2022
