Ebisu Circuit: Spring Matsuri Day One

Well it has been a very long and brutal weekend. It its now Monday night and I am just starting to recover from what has been an epic Spring Matsuri at Ebisu Circuit. What’s this Spring Matsuri thing you ask? Well.. To put it simply, it’s a drift party that starts in the wee hours of Saturday morning and doesn’t stop or sleep until Sunday night.

Speaking of sleep, Drift Matsuri is one place where you maybe don’t get a chance to get much. After leaving Tokyo late friday night, we hoped to arrive on the scene by around two or three A.M. but being Golden Week, a week long holiday for the whole of Japan, our plan went right out of the window. What is usually a three hour drive turned into an eight hour ordeal. I mean who gets stuck in a traffic jam on the high way at two A.M. in the morning?! Well, luckily this was all forgotten when we arrived and set up. It was six A.M., we had just found a pit to park in and there were some guys already itching to get out! The tracks weren’t even open yet?!

It wasn’t long before things started to hot up though. Our first point of call was the Nishi/West Course. We ran into a few friends here and one of them, Goto-san, was out and about is his Hachi giving it it hell. He honestly must be the fastest out there on the West track ! Here he is dropping in to the first corner at full speed! I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else get that close on the entry at Nishi and still make it to the first corner.

After catching up with Goto-san, we quickly made for Kita. Kita is the North Course at Ebisu and its one of the courses that not many people know about. It’s a little hard to access but the bumpy drive up the hill towards it is worth it! We caught up with some more guys we knew, Ritsu and Keita, who were also up there and quickly got into the drift of things. Time check: Not even eleven A.M.

Floating around up there was this, which has to be one of the nicest looking 34′s..

And with it one of the fattest S15′s.. I didn’t think they came this wide!?

There must have been something in the walls because we just couldn’t get away from them and neither could the drivers. This 180SX was one that was constantly coming around and kissing the concrete.

The next track we went to check out was the School Course and it was buzzing with action too. It also seemed to have a magnet like object in the wall which kept pulling cars into it.

Of course it’s safety first at these events too.. Bicycle Helmets are a must!

Our base for the weekend was the infamous D1 Course, Minami/South. This was a mistake. Whilst the action through out the day was great..

The action literally didn’t stop. When things got dark, the lights went on and the drifting didn’t stop. Sleeping in one of the nearby pits proved noisy and I don’t recall ever being woken up by a screaming Missile car at four A.M. in the morning.

Others though, had the right idea, parking away in much quieter areas.

Guys, to be honest theres so many pictures so stay tuned for a few more parts! For now though, check the rest of this gallery! See you tomorrow!

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