Final Bout 6
Friday
Sep 8th, 2023
At some point in 2023, the plans were made for Nick and I to fly out to Wisconsin in September to hang out with Juan and the Auto Real Dream guys at Final Bout 6.
For those who don’t know what Final Bout is, here is the quote directly from their website.
“Final Bout is an event that works to rekindle the excitement most long-time drift fans felt when they first discovered drifting in the 90's and early 2000's. We aim to organize grass roots level drivers into stronger, more connected organizations, inevitably helping every aspect of the sport of drifting as a result.”
It is essentially the pinnacle of all team-based grassroots drifting competitions in the US and has grown a large amount in popularity in the last several years. Final Bout is more importantly all about keeping cars stylish. Teams are judged based on how good their cars look, as well as how hard they can drive them. I was fortunate enough to be able to compete at Final Bout 5 with my team in 2022.
I would be bringing a Tamron 70-210 F3.5-4.5, Minolta 50mm f1.6, 4 rolls of Kodak Gold, 1 expired roll of Fuji (wish I knew), and 1 expired roll of Seattle Film Works.
After landing in Wisconsin, we met up with our friend Aaron in Green Bay who had recently moved back to Iowa. Here he is in his FD RX7 that was purchased in Japan and brought back home with him. Goober ass Y plater.
This is Juan, aka relaxamigo.com, aka migo, and his hilariously low S13 hatch. He spent the previous winter body dropping the car by raising the subframe and trans tunnel so that the drivetrain would be safer and the car would drive better. His dedication to this craft and working on the car is something I wish I had. I had the most fun taking photos of his car.
We showed up on Friday evening to meet up at load-in day. Always a great time getting to hang out and catch up with people on the relaxed first day of a Final Bout weekend. You get to catch up with everybody and see their cars up close without all of the extra people lurking around.
The ultimate street spec 86.
The ultimate seat time car.
It’s always great to catch up with Tom and Josh.
Friday came to a close and we all went to the state fair that night. Aaron and Nick cuddled to sleep. I think this was also the night we went to Culvers and Juan ordered chicken tenders…
Saturday
Sep 9th, 2023
Saturday was the big day for all teams. This would be the moment where all of the work they’ve done throughout the year goes up to the test for claiming the title of best team in the country.
This is Kazuya Bai and his S13 Silvia which flew out from Japan to drive in this event. Very first picture taken on Saturday, and one of the best for the whole weekend. It’s all downhill from here really. Shooting through the Tamron is so much fun though, it’s like having a movie play right in my eye.
This picture just gives the feeling of early 2000’s for some reason. The guy in the foreground wearing an Option shirt really sells it as well.
The cars look pretty wild all parked on the track. The elevation change at USAIR is really hard to grasp in photos.
It was hard to get the timing right in this spot. The light sensor on the Minolta was NOT happy shooting 200iso in the clouds at 210mm and focusing manually.
Juan height check
Favorite action photo I’ve taken to date. Considering getting a print of this just to hang in my house.
I love this photo. Something about it feels so raw like Juan is flying into battle here.
Car Shop Karoshi. Chad, Damien, Rich. 3rd place.
Team Front Street. Tom, Josh, Jimmy, Geoff. 2nd place.
Team Proceed. Chob, Josh, Leigh, Simba. 1st place.
After the competition ended, I had just finished my roll when the sun was setting. I figured it would be a good time to try out the expired Seattle Film Works 400 roll. Unfortunately the film was nuked, which sucks because I really liked the framing on just about every one of these photos.
Sunday
Sep 10th, 2023
Sunday started with slapping in the expired roll of Fujifilm 400 I brought. Wish I remembered what kind it was. The Seattle Works film was expired in 1998 and the Fuji roll was in the same bunch, so it’s a 90’s era Fuji stock for sure, probably just the Walmart brand of the time.
The competition today would be a 1v1 top 8 battle, where the top 8 teams would have a single driver selected to compete in the ladder.
All of the shots on Fuji were taken with the 50mm lens.
The morning was a little cloudy still.
Gotta sneak in pictures of your friends when you can
The sun came out during the competition and this expired roll of Fujifilm really held up.
Back to Kodak Gold and the 70-210mm.
I really like this photo. This is the top 3 lineup + Bai’s car. The photo includes a lot of important people to the world of Final Bout as well.
Caught in 35mm dooring a car that hadn’t been repainted in 20 years.
Juan’s grip-up and reinitiate technique in action, KA power!
Cap off the album with my favorite car of the weekend. This Chase Bays Civic was so sick.
After positioning ourselves in Nick’s piss, we have Diane take the last photo of the weekend for us while somebody cracks a cold one in the background. An incredible weekend of hanging out with friends, we say our goodbyes and go our separate ways. Except for Nick, he followed me to the airport for some reason.
Final thoughts.
Final Bout 6 was an incredible year to be at Final Bout. As much as I wish I could have been driving with the people there, I’m thankful for the company I had and the weekend of fun. I’m excited to see how much more they are able to accomplish in the coming years.
