The older you get, the more responsibilities tend to stack up. As a result, making it out to all the events you want to go to gets more and more difficult. With that being said, when Final Bout comes to USAIR I make it a point to attend. It’s the best events at, hands-down, the best drift track in the US. With COVID shutting things down last year, I was excited to make way back up to USAIR for Gallery. Needless to say, I wasn’t disappointed. The day was filled with great cars, and great driving. Everyone seemed relieved to be back on track after such a long “hiatus”.

After scrolling through all the pictures I took I realized one post wasn’t going to cut it. So expect a number of posts related to Gallery. With that being said, why don’t we start with a walk through the pits.

The first spots in pit row were taken up by the cars from Team Breaking, based out of Ft. Wayne, Indiana and one of the elder statesman of drifting in the US at this point.

Josh Vetter’s FC was looking pretty mean. He also may have been the only RX-7 in attendance NOT running a rotary. He chose to swap in a non-VVTi 1JZGTE.

It was exciting to see the brothers Bianski finally on the track together for the first time in 5 years with their amazing FDs. Stay tuned for a post covering this reunion of sorts.

The extremely active Jordan Tippman was also in attendance. His C33 Laurel sporting a freshly “chromed” set of Buddy Club P1s.

NO MIND brought out two flashy, silver S14s. You have to appreciate guys that drive hard with expensive aero. It’s nice seeing a complete Wonder kit.

ROUGH BREAK had a nice selection of well-sorted cars. Yellow can be a hard color to pull off, but their 180SX wore it well. They also had a couple of cars you don’t normally see drifting including the white GS300 above.

They also had an S15 Silvia in attendance. I’m not sure if it was a Spec-R, but it did have an SR20DET under the hood. I was happy to see a few cars running Buddy Club P1s.

But, it was their Fairlady that stood out to me the most. I’ve always though the Z32 was the best looking car Nissan ever produced. All they need is a nice set of wheels and a bit of lowering and they look amazing. The only draw back was a the pain in the ass to work on VG30DE(TT) they came with. I never caught the Rough Break Z with it’s hood up, but I think it was SR20 swapped.

Tony and Paul Zepka from GLEAM were holding fort for the Onevia community. I always dug how both cars were silvier, but featured styling from different eras. Tony’s has a very D1SL or MSC look.

Paul’s looked like it was straight out of a late 90s Ikaten with SSR Mesh wheels and wangan wing. Both cars are running SR20s under the hood.

GLEAM is quickly becoming one of the most well-known teams in the US thanks to their stylish cars and frequent driving. Despite being based in Chicago they’ve driven events at Grange in California and more recently Knuckle-Up in Texas.

Mike “Burstspeed” Hahnen brought his SR20 powered R32 Skyline out. It has become a pretty well-known car at this point. I’m sure the wild pink paint with a ton of flake contributed to that. Fun fact, he originally bought this when he lived in Japan and drifted it at a number of track and ran touge in it. It’s running Uras aero and Blitz ‘03s, which is a brave thing to do these days considering their value has skyrocketed.

He also had a nice lineup of Burstspeed goods for sale in the GLEAM pit area including shirts, stickers, reservoir covers, and air-fresheners. They’re all available on his website here.

Mike Jones brought out his Uras Type-II equipped S14 sporting a rare Garage-S hood. He also has a very nice 180SX he’s been putting together, which might be done in time for Final Bout 4.

Out of all the cars at Gallery I don’t think any of them garnered as much attention and excitement as Trace Butow’s new JZX90 Mark-II. Not only was it slammed, he drove it all the way from Chicago to Shawano that low. I was a big fan of his R32 Skyline and this is definitely a worthy successor. Stay tuned for a closer look this machine in a future post.

Photographer extraordinaire, Ryan Lopez brought out his newly finished 180SX. With the full Break Ito Style aero kit and bright red paint it looked like it fell out of a GT-1 Motorsports catalog.

I caught Josh from ProceeD pulling a cheap knock-off wheel out of his 180 as he got prepped to make his way out onto the track.

His cars have gone through a number of looks over the years and I’m really digging this one. The color matched CE28s are a good choice.

It wouldn’t be a Final Bout without Simba’s iconic S13. I didn’t get a chance to see it out on track, but I’m sure he was pretty busy running things behind-the-scenes.

Pitted next to ProceeD was a trio of very clean and dare I say classy S-Chassis. Melvin Del Rosario’s 180 above is running Origin streamline aero and SSR Professors. I definitely prefer the older Origin kits over their new “GT-Style” stuff.

Jake Staab’s S13 Silvia may have been my favorite car of the day. Great aero, nice paint, brick headlights, perfect ride-height and Equips is a combo that’s hard to beat. These are the kinds of cars that someone who knows nothing about drifting will look at, not know what it is, but think , “that’s a really nice car…”

Rounding out the trio was Josh Buado’s 180SX. He’s gone through a variety of looks with this car, but this is my favorite. You don’t see many 180s running G-Corporation aero or Blitz ‘03s.

OOO DANG brought out an S2000 and an NB Miata. You rarely see an S2000 drifting or a Miata this clean. Both were nailing it in the wheel department with a set of Buddy Club P1s and Advan RGs respectively.

I’ve always liked all the different styles that are represented at Final Bout events. Even within teams you’ll see plenty of variety. From DARK SQUAD’s S13 with bolt on flares, B-Wave spoiler and small and wide Work Meister CR01s…

To their S13 with full Final Konnexion aero, 18” Advan wheels, and a big GT-Wing. I’ve always been a big fan of the Final Konnexion kits and am surprised no one has knocked them off yet.

Dave Guerra was also in attendance with his bight blue 180SX. It has a great combination of aero with an M-Sport front bumper, D-Max hood, Koguchi Power fenders and GT-Wing. You have to love the Craft Square mirrors as well.

BAYSIDE definitely nailed it in the livery department. They really pulled off the early D1 Street Legal / MSC look everyone loves so much.

I’m not even sure what to call this color? Light pink metallic? Like most of the other RX-7s in attendance, this one was still running a rotary. I appreciated the MWB Work Emotion XT-7s and color matched GT-wing.

I was a big fan of Matt DeGroot’s Uras kitted Toyota 86, which he has followed up with this very stylish 180SX. I’m sure this one is way easier to drift.

I was pleasantly surprised to see another full Wonder kitted S14. It was running an interesting wing which I didn’t recognize. It looked like a combination of a kouki S14 and a GT-wing.

SAIKOU brought a nice variety of cars out for Gallery including a Cefiro, BMW E30, 180SX and Z33. The Cefiro had some interesting bodywork as well. It was running Uras aero and a D-Max hood along with, what I assume to be, custom front fenders. It looks like a pair of FRP fronts from another chassis were modified and riveted to the factory fenders. They looked very cool in person.

I’m going to wrap up this post with the GHOST RX-7. It may have been the loudest car of the day. I’m not sure if it was running anti-lag or what, but it was definitely an eardrum breaker. Joel was driving aggressively which was a load of fun to watch.

Stay tuned for plenty more coverage from Final Bout Gallery. I have some track action, car spotlights and a family reunion of sorts in the works.