Since the site has been inactive for so many months, I thought I’d fill you in on my 2009 so far. It all started with an AE86 owners day at Mondello Park …

The track day was organised by the staff & members of www.ae86irl.com, an Irish based owners club of all things Toyota which primarily concerns itself with the AE86. The above Kp61 is owned by Mark Walsh, a Dublin guy with a lust for retro Toyota. The car has been rebuilt with a TRD speclist as long as my arm.

Prodrift regular Dennis Healy was on hand to thrash the life out of his BEAMs engined coupe.

Current Formula Drift championship leader Darren McNamara debuted his spectacular carbon clad Trueno.

This red Levin is a daily driver and is currently apart being rebuilt with a 20v 4-AGE by D.K. Developments.

The ’86 day was followed by an epic road trip across to the U.K. for the first round of the 2009 JDM Allstars series with Martin Ffrench from Wexican Motorsport.

We sailed into Fishguard before driving south to Devon, to collect the infamous Dragon Performance RX7. Then it was northbound to Newcastle.

The Dragon and Wexican crew taking a well earned rest stop en route to the event.

The Angel of the North let us know that our destination wasn’t too far away.

Ffrench was on fire all weekend, despatching the opposition seemingly at ease. It wasn’t until his Top 4 battle against Driftworks driver Dan Chapman where the car ran out of fuel that he would be stopped.

The first round of JDM also allowed me to shoot my first ever FMX shots. The riders looked awesome against the blue sky.

Newcastle City as a backdrop was simply spectacular. Perhaps the best backdrop I’ve seen for a drift event.



In Part II, I’ll show you through another epic roadtrip and the wettest event I’ve ever covered. For anyone interested in more on the above, I covered them for Speedhunters, here are the links !

AE86 Ireland Trackday Here

The Road To Newcastle, JDM Allstars Part I, Part II & Part III