Terra Crew Speed Metal

Memorial Day weekend kicked off in southern California with Speed Metal, a multi-discipline event hosted by Terra Crew which featured truck racing, drifting (hosted by Loose Socks Daisuki), a mini moto race and more. I’ll be the first to admit, that I don’t know a lot about trophy trucks. Coming from the tuning car world, and being a real noob “overlander,” it was pretty foreign but a lot of fun to watch and shoot.

Rodney’s KA powered ER34 is a car that I greatly admire. It takes guts to throw caution to the wind in a car like that where replacement parts are likely a pain in the ass to come by. It takes even more guts to put a KA in it. I’m always a fan of people who do things different. This wins in my book.

In addition to the course built on the stadium grounds, the event included an offroad race through an adjacent section of desert. Unfortunately most of the course was not shootable without running the course yourself. My Ranger with the heavy bed rack and roof top tent probably isn’t cut out for that. Maybe next time.

Overall it was a pretty fun event, despite being pretty hot. I’m not one to bash people for not knowing things(like I said, I don’t know much about trophy trucks, but I don’t pretend to either), but it was hilarious overhearing non-drifting desert/truck people trying to explain the intricacies of drifting to one another, and hearing drunk dudes shouting “do a burnout” or “hit the two-step” at the drift cars as they waited on grid. Hopefully other events will come along that blend the two very dissimilar cultures and spread the love for all things motorsports.

More images in the gallery below. Until next time. -DP