When the birds fly south, so do the drifters

It’s said that the winter can only last so long. But when it seems never-ending, the only thing to do is go where it’s warm – and Chris Gonzalez did just that. The Gonzo Drift Bash was held in Apple Valley, California at the end of March.

Crossing the border into the US, the Border Patrol looked at me as if I was crazy for driving down to Apple Valley and home again in a six-day span, “just for drifting.” The 24-30 hour drive took us two days to do, the event was two days and then the drive home was a treacherous two days that involved closed roads and white-out blizzards. But for myself and the two other drifters who planned this last-minute adventure, it was an amazing trip.

The first day of the event we arrived late to the track as my vehicle’s GPS had taken us to the wrong location. We eventually made our way to the track, which was located in the middle of the desert with nothing around it for miles.

Upon arrival we were greeted by familiar faces including the Odd Man Out team, made up of Jesse-Joe Curtis, Matty Reed and Mike Palynchuk, as well as Prairie Street Performance, comprised of Lucas Bardutz, Kyle Zimmer and Chase Karchewski.

There were 15 drivers in total, meaning that almost half of the drivers were from Canada (which is amazing!). Chris Gonzalez made up the 7th Canadian driver.

The American drivers were made up of the D-Spare team, as well as the BPDK (Broken Parts Drift Krew) and a few locals.

At first glance, the track may have seemed like ‘only’ a go-kart track. But just because it was a go-kart track didn’t mean it wasn’t any fun. The technicality to the track made it that much more difficult for the drivers and once they got comfortable, the speeds amped up.

Day two started with being woken from the tent by someone drifting the track, but you can’t wake up angry with squealing tires. As the day carried on, a couple competitions were held. First was the big entry competition, followed by the best run.