foothills driftoberfest - who knew hickory had events like this???
As someone who is not a native of Hickory, NC, I wouldn't necessarily call it a motorsports town like Charlotte or Concord, NC. However, situated on the outskirts of the city center sits a little piece of heaven (for motorsports individuals) called Hickory Motor Speedway. According to their website, the speedway is the "Birthplace of the Nascar Stars - America's Most Famous Short Track", and I'll have to take their word for it, but I've never heard of this place. It's very much a short track with a very...interesting infield layout. There are buildings, a tech shed of sorts, and just a lot of randomness going on, but the owners of the track have managed to host a few drift events here. The organizers of Foothills Drift Club have managed to design drift layouts that use just about every square inch of track surface...and it's a tight layout. The layout as Broc Wilhelm described it as, is a "reverse Meihan layout" - whatever that means (sorry I am not Drifting savvy, even after looking up what it is).
The event started off with a driver's meeting, as per any type of motorsports event. The organizers went over the do's and dont's and then asked a very silly question, "Who wants to run Run Groups" to which me and one other person in the crowd raised their hands. I have learned my lesson and will not do that again.... I am sorry LOL. The turnout was pretty legit and offered a lot of different types of cars. You had your BMW's and Nissan S chassis cars, and then you had.... different build.
As a photographer, these types of events come with some risk, and while a lot of us are professionals or have some experience, your head must be on a swivel at all times. Right before the rainy weather moved in, a big body Lexus LS had tried to run me over at least 3 times in the same corner spot, and during the rain, a handful of others nearly managed to. For the most part, this event is very safe. For me however, I don't think I will shoot another event here...it's just not my style of event.
