Long and fun weekend spent across the bay in Chiba for the Tamashi drift day held at Mobara Twin. Over 100 amazing cars entered the event with some of the coolest driving I’ve seen in Japan x

Attempting Drift Tengoku style photographs at Mobara Twin Circuits entry. Team Illusion JZX 90 x

Composite Mobara Twin Circuit soukoukai day x

Shooting MSC was one of the happiest days of my life. The competition layout is so perfect for both shooting and spectating. In saying that, the track itself was mind blowing witnessing it all in real life, it was ever so surreal.

As the sun set over Mobara Twin Circuit, the final stages of the competition took place. At this time in the afternoon, I have to say perfect would be an understatement. Switching on the headlights made for even better images. I absolutely love this set of Mori-san which is the boss of Auto Service Mori, for his age he is an unbelievably talented driver.

Exiting the long, consistent 3rd gear left hander, there was a spot where the sun would light the car for about 1-2 seconds before it blasted back into the shadows.

Having some spare time on my hands over the Christmas break means I can now sort through my images from Japan. To be honest I haven’t even had the chance to look through even a quarter of the photos I captured.

The first event we had planned to watch was the final round of the MSC Challenge for 2010. For years and years I have dreamt about spectating a specific team that generally take part in MSC, which of course is Team Magician. Early in the morning during the practice sessions I setup my camera and positioned myself in a spot to which allowed me to shoot the entries. Looking through the viewfinder, tweaking settings to suit the conditions, the Team Magician R32 suddenly made it’s way into my frame.

I immediately swiveled my camera around and took this photo of him exiting the final corner, almost clipping the pit wall.

After the first practice session came to an end I made my way up to the pits to see what other cars were competing. The first car that I saw was the Team Magician JZX110. There is no other explanation other than that I was lost for words. I literally stood there swearing inside my head. It is just a completely different feeling seeing these machines in person.

I really do have a thing for stickers, I purchased quite a collection during the trip. Check out all the stickers on the rear window!

As I wondered around, I noticed the R32 had been driven off on a truck. I was really thankful I got some shots of it before it left. As one team car left, another entered. This S13 was now the second member representing Team Magician.

After paying 500Y and receiving my media vest I climbed 4 flights of stairs to the top of the office building. From here you have such an amazing view looking down onto the last corner. This is by far one of the most favourite shots I’ve ever taken.

After some Yakisoba, the Tripple Class began. One of my mates from Melbourne was off borrowing my big lens to shoot girls. At this point in time I was stressing as I only had my 24mm on me. I also noticed another Magician team member in the middle of the pack, being the ever so famous S14.

I eventually found him and my lens. Here is a shot with the 400mm of Team Magician showing how it’s done. I tried my best to achieve the ‘MSC’ style photograph. Bit of a higher shutter and tight in the frame, this image is pretty much straight off the camera.

In between sessions I ran across the track into the infield along with the official MSC photographer. I introduced myself and we chatted for a little while before the competition began. I couldn’t believe my eyes, I watched a couple of laps and just couldn’t get over how close I was to the action. I was standing on the inside of the competition corner. It was actually really scary, but it was all worth this shot!

Lap after lap, getting closer and closer.

Both silvias got knocked out quite early in the competition, which was unfortunate for them. On the other hand the JZX was powering on.

The sun had began setting behind me which gave me some really even lighting! Here is the JZX in one of the final battles of the afternoon. In my previous post I was talking about the Run Free AE86’s which did extremely well in the competition knocking out the JZX from Team Magician. This was the best battle of the day.

This would of have to be one of the best days of my life. Shooting a MSC round in Japan at Mobara Twin Circuit with teams such as Team Magician. It really doesn’t get much better than this.

Casey.

Now that I have completed my Behind The Scenes articles for Speedhunters, I can spend some time catching up on photos for the blog. Having a look through the MSC images, I found two photos of the Run Free Hachi-Roku’s engine bays. They both sounded unbelievable and gave the 400ps cars a run for there money around Mobara Twin.

My poor camera hasn’t been touched since I’ve been back from Japan. Next week there is a local bash on and I’m really looking forward to shooting again, although I seem to be lacking motivation of course, after Japan. Let’s see how I go!