Blog Heroes :: Low Key Fun

Grant — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 07:27:06 +0000

We’ve all seen the saying “Keep drifting fun” thrown around the net over the years. We certainly have some great national and state competitions in Australia, however outside of some casual drift matsuri style events, there really hasn’t been many track days that nail the brief. Unfortunately over the years many matsuri events have become synonyms with heavy contact driving between beaten up missile spec drift cars.
If you have a clean car and want to get out and burn some tyres with other like minded individuals where do you go? Enter Blog Heroes. The invitational event from the mind of Oliver Parkinson.

Oliver has been around the drift scene for years, in recent years he has been in the spotlight thanks to his stunning creation and arguably the lowest drift car in Australia. This black RB26 swapped S13.

Oliver set out to create his perfect drift car with just as much attention to the aesthetics as the mechanical side of the build. The car was never built with competitions in mind so that left Oliver with little to no events on his calendar to drive the car. The answer? Run your own track day and invite drivers from all over Australia who’ve proven themselves to be great drivers with the right attitude.

The best venue for such an event? Wilby Park Raceway, a great little secret near the Victorian/New South Wales border. The track originally started life as dirt course with an oiled surface. Due to council complaints the track was given a sealed surface. Now it hosts only a handful of events each year. With the event capped at 40 drivers it was the perfect laid back day for both amateur and professional level drifters.

The cars ranged from jaw dropping high dollar builds to low cost, high thrill drift cars. No matter the car, there were no bad attitudes or fake parts in sight. With a very opinionated view on replica parts drivers were encouraged to leave the fakes at home.

John Dreyer a local driver climbing the ranks of the 2016 VIC Drift Club competition was out in force with his incredible Bluebird.

This car started out as a very clean club registered cruiser eventually becoming the SR20 swapped competition ready drift car you see here. Despite the few badges of honor you see around the body, it is still surprisingly clean after it’s fair share of door to door battles.

Another regular of the Vic Drift scene is Mat Russell and his in instantly recognizable AE86.

Matt is not only known for being able to steer the pant’s off this little 86 he is also rather well known for owning every set of Impul Hosino’s in the world!

It’s always a pleasure to see the JVN Garage KE70 Corolla out on track, this car seems most comfortable flying towards a corner while completely facing the wrong direction.

If you’re in need of some GSS stickers make sure you head to our online store. Here.

Easily one of the cleanest drift cars in Australia and it’s street registered!! Gerald’s R33 sedan is always a sight for sore eye’s at local track days.

The most unique car of the day had to be this KE20 Corolla. While it wasn’t exactly setup to slide the owner looked like he was having a ball throwing the little car into each corner.

Another strange sight was this AW11 MR2. The owner brought it along to give the tiny coupe a shakedown. It was there purely for grip laps although that didn’t stop Matt Russel from getting behind the wheel and giving it a flick or two.

By 9am most drivers had finished unloading and then it was time for one of the most relaxed drivers briefings I’ve ever attended!

Oliver ran through the 4 rules of Blog Heroes.

“1. No dirt drops, 2. No spin & pin, 3. No statics, 4. Don’t be a d$#khead!” Easy right?!

Most people seemed to pay attention during the short briefing.

After the meeting the last handful of cars went through scrutineering and it was time to hit the track.

There didn’t seem to much of a warm up to the action, most drivers took to the track like a duck to water. Many of which had never driven here before.

The overgrown fields surrounding the track proved to be treacherous thanks to the heavy rainfall. In some places the standing water was well over ankle deep.

The track also claimed it’s fair share of aero parts early in the morning.

There was also plenty of drift train action between friends.

Despite the relatively low speed course, tyres were being destroyed left right and center!…

Many coming completely off the rim!

One of my favorite pairs to watch, The JVN KE70 and Michael’s R32. These guys had smiles all day long while getting nice and close in the corners.

The tiny MR2 actually became a crowd favorite as it constantly locked up the front brakes while screaming around the small track. It looked incredibly fast out there.

Even after coming off track a few times Gerald managed to keep his R33 sedan super straight although it did pick up a lot of mud by the end of the day.

The smoke kings, John Dreyer and Matt Russell made for an exciting couple of laps with huge thick walls of smoke behind them throughout the entire track from start to finish.

The action was some of the most consistent I’ve seen, there was never more than a couple of quiet minutes on track.

It was good to see a couple of Nissan Cefiro’s hitting the track, a much rarer sight here in Australia compared to our friends across the ditch in NZ who seem to have imported every A31 available from Japan.

Denis’ 1JZ swapped E30 BMW was having some braking issues during the day which meant we didn’t get to see the usual aggressive driving we’re used to from him. Nether the less the car looked and sounded amazing!

After a quick lunch break the cars once again filled the track.

The man himself and the host of the party, Oliver got strapped in ready to finally unleash the RB26 over the afternoon.

After a few reserved laps Oliver turned the volume up to 11.

The speed this car maintains mid drift is ungodly. Oliver was cracking a very large smile even while the rear tyres separated the quarter panel from the chassis.

A man happy to finally be playing with his toy!

I actually kind of dug the “cut away” style look. Maybe this will become a new trend?

By the late afternoon most drivers were really finding their groove.

Even the mighty little Corolla was getting in some impressive lines.

The relaxed nature of the track was an amazing experience for drivers and photographers alike.

This meant the action was super close and the energy from the drivers pushing harder and harder to nail a perfect drift in front of my camera lens was truly surreal.

John Dreyer spent the afternoon mastering backwards entries, many of which defied everything we know about physics. A true mad man!

With the sun soon fading it was time to end what was one of the radest track days I’ve personally been to.

Even with the wet shoes I cannot wait to get back out to Wilby and check out another invite only event.
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.

street car – Gripshiftslide

Blog Heroes :: Low Key Fun