TMF Opposition

Last Saturday, TMF once again took to the track to perform our second red, white, and blue smoke Drifting demo at Elko Speedway. We were accompanied by Adam Montonte of EP/DC and Derek King from Indiana.

The highlight of the night had to be Mike lighting three cars on fire that were stacked on top of each other, filled with hay, and dowsed in gasoline.

Special thanks to Kumho tires for supplying us with the red and blue smoking tires!

Roasting Tires & Lighting Fires from kaizophoto on Vimeo.

Welcome to Elko Speedway.  I think someone just botched our national anthem.  Off to a great start as usual.  Let’s get right into it.

TMF Opposition - Who needs Ziptied when we have this demographic?

Then the first of 2 demo’s got under way.  I usually get to run around on track with a wireless mic as these guys go at it.  This time was no exception.  The stands were filling up and the sun was just hanging on to the edge of the sky.  You know what they say… the freaks come out at night.

Scott had to show the crowd what INFINITI POWA sounds like.  The crowd definitely snapped to attention when they heard the familiar sound of a V8 coming from this little blue thing…

That…. just…. happened…….

Yours truly – on track announcing and getting the crowd into it.

The first demo of the day was fun but Mike had to leave the track early with E.T.S. (Exploded Tire Syndrome).  The crowd was definitely responding and we were supposed to put the cars back in the concourse between demo’s.  Time to sign some autographs and say hello to the kids.

You don’t know how many time I got asked “What does TMF stand for”?  Use your imagination.

and the sun sinks even futher into the horizon…

The shadows grow long enough that eventually, they all become one.  You can smell it in the air… what is it?  Oh yeah, lack of tire smoke?  We can fix that!  Round 2 opens up strongly as Mike tells me he’s game to try a bit of a stunt.  He’s going to get as close to the wall as he can in front of the grand stands.  There are several thousand people here and they all know what drifting is now.  Time to put on the real show.

As expected, the demo was a hit.  The crowd was loving Dennis and Scott playing around on the inner course and skid pad in front of the grand stands.  Kevin was rocking the inner course and tandeming with whoever he could.  Then Mike found the part of the wall he wanted to aim for and went for it.

High Five!

Inches – a foot – inches – 2 feet – inches – JACKPOT!  Mike did eventually find the wall after a bunch of intentionally close calls.  Just what the crowd has been waiting for.  His rear bumper tears off and hot damn, we’re getting kicked off the track because we’ve taken too long.  Oops.  Sorry Elko.  Wink-wink race fans.

Immediately back to the concourse for more hard parking fun;

Does it count as an Easter Bear sighting if you do it on purpose?  I dunno?  Scott, you should chime in here.  Does he get the Easter Bear sticker?

OK, all jokes aside.  This was serious fun.  Everyone that went made some amount of noise and everyone that looked at the cars got the picture.  Thanks Elko for having us once again.  We can’t wait for the 4th of July!

Next time!

Well well well…

It’s the first time this summer that TMF Opposition has been asked to come through and do a demo.  It’s hard to beleive that we have been doing this for FOUR YEARS now.  The crowd knows us but doesn’t understand.  All they know is that there will be smoke, there will be flame, there will be spins, and maybe, just maybe…. someone will smack a wall.  What they don’t know, is that it takes a few runs to get the kinks worked out.  Here’s a little coverage of the practice runs… The crappy pics are mine, the fancy ones that actually look appealing?  You can see more of those at http://www.kaizophoto.com/ as usual.

On our way to the track we all stopped and had some brunch at Chipotle.  Then it was off to the races. Literally…

Dennis on the way to Elko Speedway aka MASHTOWN^^^

Only waiting on Mike “Black Magic” Pollard to show up.  From top to bottom, this is Kevin Hilgers (our guest driver for the demo), Scott Elmgren, and Dennis Som.

First out of the gate was Kevin.  After just feeling out the bank at our last practice day, he was making it look easy for this quick session of practice the day of the demo.  It was nice to see him so pumped about how his car is behaving.  TMF hearts Kevin.  Aww…

Next up Scott got out there with his new VH45 swap.  This is the second motor in 2 months.  Will this one go pop?  I don’t have any photo’s of him running because I was taking video in case it did.  Here’s another one of Keiths amazing shots.   TMF Scott – you really have to hear this thing.

He says he was pussy footing it trying to feel out the new motor.  You wouldn’t have known it to watch him.  He was still banging of his rev limiter and trying new things.

Half the point of practice is getting everyone a chance to work out the details of how the demo will be co-ordinated and figuring out what you can do as a team.  Dennis and Scott talk it over…

Soon enough, Mike arrives.  He’s late but here to kill it as usual.  The crowd will no doubt be anticipating his high speeds in the bank and seemingly endless plumes of smoke.

As mike gets ready for a practice run of his own, Dennis gets off one of the smokiest runs I’ve seen him do in recent memory.  The running joke is that he produces invisible smoke.  See this…

Seeee???  Smoke!

Mike finally gets a run in before the figure 8 guys get to go out and do a shake down run.  Note the fashionable bungy chord holding down the hood.  I can dig it.

After everyone gets some runs in, we have to sit down and think about what we are actually doing for the demo.  Discussions begin about what stunts we can pull off, how we can highlight Kevin as the guest, how we can showcase Mike as the crazy of the bunch, etc.  Everyone is here. Clockwise from the far left – Dennis, Kevin, Keith, Leegro, and Ryan.  Off camera but nearby are Scott, Mike, Chris (that’s me), and Manie.

Then before you know it, the gates are set to open and the fans start pouring in.  We always pull our cars up onto the concourse so the fans can get close.  Kids usually wander off with wasted tires and maybe, just maybe, we can sell these fancy new stickers we just got….

This morning, Leegro and I have been trading text messages back and forth trying to figure out what rediculous shit we can pull of at demo’s next year.  He’s thinking about on track stuff.  I am thinking about what we can do off track too.   

I know that there are a few people who read this, so if you think you have some amazing idea for how we could kill it even harder, drop me a line. 

 
opposition.chris@gmail.com

Dennis and co. have done it again.  Another fresh video from Driftline.  Go fullscreen, it’s in HD. 

TMF Opposition Teaser Trailer from DLTV on Vimeo.

Last Saturday saw the final Eve of Destruction at Elko Speedway located in Elko, MN.  Aside from the usual racing and carnage that these nights are known for, TMF Opposition was back for another demo.  Working from a short week on the return from VIR, Mike Pollard managed to get his car back in running condition.  After suffering a pretty significant T-bone tandem accident, he had to replace a steering rack, coilover and some other linkages.

D Som debuted his new convertible which was very well received.  We’re all looking forward to seeing what he will do with it next year.

Bryce Workman was talked into bringing out the watermelon.  This car is inbetween something…we’re just not quite sure what that is.  Unfortunately it will undergo some more of whatever that is after an encounter with a tractor tire.

And lastly, Kevin Hilgers made a guest appearance in his squeaky clean kouki S14.  Kevin did a great job with his first performance in front of a large crowd, I’m sure he’ll want to be coming back for more.  We’re totally not letting him though.

Thanks to everyone that has came out to watch the rag tag bunch that we have fielded for the 2008 demos.  We’re all working hard on some new set ups, new cars and new attitudes.  Well….maybe not new attitudes.

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After the super sweet DriftDontYaKnow III took place at Elko Speedway, the TMFO dudes prepared for the demo by drinking a tasty beverage consiting of half sprite and half raspberry iced tea and sitting.

As the crowd was pouring in there were ominous clouds on the horizon.  A quick check on Bryce’s iPhone revealed a large cloud that was dropping a large amount of rain was heading right for us.

All we could do is hope it would not arrive until after our first demo, which was scheduled for 7:25 pm.

At a quarter after seven we headed to our cars and felt the first few drops of rain.

As we waited in line to head out on the track it began sprinkling lightly.  During our introductions it became apparent that it was only going to get worse .

Bryce, Chris on microphone, Ryan, Dennis and Mike ready to get to gettin'!

Mike followed Ryan into the bank for the opening of the demo.  They could immediately tell the track was pretty slick as they fought to keep the cars straight as they got up to speed for the first turn.  Even with a wet track they managed to put on a show as Mike was sticking very close to Ryan throughout the course.

Bryce and Dennis were running together and got the crowd going with some close calls and goofy antics.

The demo ended with all cars intact and pants uncrapped!  The night continued on and so did the rain.   Eventually the whole EOD was cancelled and we headed home with triumphant tales of glory.