“Sir, get back in your vehicle!” The U.S. Border Patrol Officer scowled at me, and I scurried back to my car and frantically seated myself. The motor that powers my passenger window died last year and my car is right-hand drive, and since I didn’t have Ryan Benoit to assist me this year, I was a ‘one-camera band.’ After being scolded, I was allowed to carry on through scot-free. So I hightailed it out of there with the biggest grin on my face — probably because I felt like I was inches away from being detained. Welcome to America, indeed.
I was on my way to Monroe, Washington: home to Evergreen Speedway, the track that sees regular amateur drift events and of course, holds one of the rounds of the Formula Drift series.
It was raining; this is the Pacific Northwest so it’s often raining. I was feeling optimistic about how the day was going to go. But when I arrived at the track I met up with a fellow media friend, Wes Barber, who came down from B.C.’s interior to take photos. It was good to be around ‘car friends’ once again, and regardless of the rain I knew it was going to be a great day.
I won’t dive into the nitty, gritty details; now it’s your turn to investigate what went on. I hope you get a feel for what it was like to be there and remember, this video was made possible by good ol’ fashioned American freedom.
Here’s a fun fact: Don’t put a Pedo Bear decal on your window. An Border Official had never questioned me about that decal until that day, so maybe the time has finally come to take it down.