Photos by Nick & Melissa Poirier, Ryan Cutuli, TK Akiyama, Robert Bishop, and Andrew Fukuyama
Article by Matt Haugness.
One thing that you can never be certain of in Washington is the weather. June is typically a month filled with warmer weather and the occasional heat wave. For June 23rd, many news networks were predicting a 50% chance of rain throughout the day. When we arrived around 8am in the morning, many of us were optimistic. The skies were attempting to clear and it was fairly warm outside.
I've been to multiple events at Pacific Raceways in the last few years and Forum Fest was by far the most organized and coordinated entrance. Approximately 10-12 of us drove up from Bellingham that had entered the show. NWMotiv checked us in and placed us in a line until all of our group was with us. After we were all together, they let us pull forward and park as a group. According to NWMotiv, 350 cars were present for the show. Having organized multiple small car shows in the region, I was impressed with how well their team worked together for an event this size. They communicated effectively and parking appeared to go off without a hitch.
Once 9am rolled around, the event had officially started. The drift cars had pulled in with their trailers and the drag racers were anxiously waiting for the track to become dry enough to race. Drifting started around 10am with the amateur drifters starting on the beginning section of the track. Many amateur drifters struggled to stay on the pavement and there were a few crashes. Melissa managed to capture this Cressida going off the track. Luckily, there were no injuries but the car had to be taken off the track on a flatbed.
At approximately 11am, the drag strip was open and we began to hear cars racing down the strip. This didn't last long since the weather began to take a turn for the worse. What started out as a sprinkle quickly became a downpour. It was raining so hard that many car show participants decided to leave early, which meant that they gave up their chance to win an award. The amount of rain was rare for this time of year in Washington and from what we heard, it broke records.
The show organizers did the best they could to keep the show going smoothly but the rain would not let up. The NOS girls kept a large crowd entertained for a portion of the storm by dancing in the rain. After a few hours, the judges came around and quickly judged the remaining cars. This created quite the controversy on NWMotiv's Facebook page after the show. A few people complained that they weren't judged or that they were bypassed during the final awards. Given the circumstances, I don't blame NWMotiv for trying to wrap things up quickly.
They did they best they could with what they had. It would have been impossible to effectively judge the remaining cars.
We appreciate the organizers doing all that they could to make the show a success despite the horrible weather. It will definitely be a show that will go down in history as one of the wettest in the northwest. We look forward to NWMotiv's next show in September. Thankfully, their inMotion car show will be indoors…
Check out the list of car show winners on NWMotiv's official coverage.
[Sources: NWMotiv.com]
Photo Gallery
(See pages 2 and 3 for more photos)
10 Comments
Definitely a pity about the rain, there was so much more I wanted to check out, but I really didn’t come ready for a monsoon, lol
For next year I’m thinking… pack a wet suit, and one of those litlte umbrellas that sit on a hat so you don’t have to hold them
Did you not see the tents blowing around? I don’t think an umbrella on a hat would be a good idea. 😉
I really wanted to spend some serious time at the car show portion. Next year, me and Melissa will split up, just incase.
I was expecting to see more canoes in the pictures!
What a fun experience though! never in my life would i have thought i would be holding at tent from falling on a mustang while trying to take pictures at a car show with a group of awesome guys and gals! my most unique moment so far in 2012, that and watching a Miata fly
It was such a shame it started raining like that. I really wanted to see the remaining cars and the drag racing!
I had a terrible time getting all the water out of my car. Was not thinking it would be so bad.
Fingers crossed for next year!
that was crazy. deff lookin forward to septembers event!
It was a interesting day with the rain. But it was still fun regardless. Just a bummer it had to rain soo hard. Hope the weather is better next time.
I was curious who’s Fc Rx-7 that was with the Orange rims and the army inspiriaton?