JB Goes to Vegas! - AKA Rally 2008

Almost forgot!

jb1830 — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:27:25 +0000

Yesterday I had the oportunity to drive the Team JDM Envy’s Nissan GTR and I have to say it is simply amazing. Even though I didn’t make it out of the parking lot I can say that I really really want one I’ll post pictures soon

Crazy Utah Nights!

jb1830 — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:23:26 +0000

So we are in Moab, Utah still and leaving to Salt Lake City in a few hours. Last night was indeed a crazy one. Mike Spock got ran over by some lady inside the hotel parking lot while he was filming the scenery. The worst part is she didn’t even apologize and in fact blamed it on him! Even though he’d been standing at the same spot for 10 minutes in the hotel parking lot filming the scenery. He wasn’t even in the middle of the way yet she still managed to hit him. Luckily after a trip to the hospital he is alright, can’t say the same about his camera which was basically destroyed.

The nightime weather here was awesome. Just over 60 degrees and some of the clearest skies you could possibly find. It was amazing seeing all the stars out at night. Sadly my camera ran out of battery last night and I left the charger back home So you’ll have to do with some pics of me shooting video from the truck again and some pics Spocknasty took of Jack driving the Volvo and a mini group shot at the hotel in Nebraska. See you guys soon!

Dont forget to check the links to the other blogs at the bottom of this page. Visit verveakarally.com for more updates and pictures of what we’re up to

Utah Utah Utah

jb1830 — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:41:23 +0000

We arrived in Utah today. We will be spending 2 day here. So far the only bad thing out here is that it is hot hot hot. We are staying in the town of Moab at the awesome Red Cliffs Lodge.

Our drive here today was by far the best one. We started out the morning cruising together as a pack. That went on for the first 30 miles of the trip and then slowly got separated as people started making fuel and food stops. The scenery on the ride here was pretty awesome.

Spocknasty will be doing an update later with some of his pics of the ride here. Lucky him got to go on the Ferrari as they took the back roads all the way to the lodge

Today

jb1830 — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:05:52 +0000

Guest commentation by Spock.

Truckers don’t care about happy meals. Nebraska = corn. Bad, bad M3. Mmm steak. Camera gear is heavy. The further away from home you are, the faster your batteries die. I will never look at a school bus the same way again

Pictures courtesy of Spocknasty.

First day at the hotel.

jb1830 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:48:08 +0000

It’s been a few crazy days. Thanks to the crappy wifi connections at the hotels I was not able to update this until today. I will slowly try to catch up tonight!!

Pre-launch:
We arrived at the hotel in New York sometime around 3am on Monday. We were greeted by a huge line of parked cars and a couple cases of cold beer as we walked into the hotel lobby. Fifteen minutes after our arrival I was fast asleep.

That morning I was up and running around 8:30am. Made sure I had all my gear and headed out to see what was going on. I talked with a few of the drivers I hadn’t met yet and checked out some of the cars.

Later that morning Spock went out to grab the rest of the equipment while I stayed back covering pre-rally events and getting something to eat cause I was starving.

Sometime after 12pm Spock returned from the rental place in Manhattan and we got a chance to check the equipment as well as meet with the rest of the video crew that had arrived by that time. I’ll post pics of the crew doing their thing as we go along

Throughout the rest of the afternoon we just talked and hung out trying to get acquainted with the drivers and their cars. Around 6pm we all started scrambling around to gather our designated equipment and getting ready for the night.

Here are some pics that I snapped Monday morning of some cars and our hotel room. Sadly we didn’t have a chance to go swimming in the pool. But it looked cool from our room so I took a pic as well.

Ready, set, go!!…Well kinda…

jb1830 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:42:31 +0000

Its that time of day! Since I have no wish of getting stuck in NYC peak hour traffic tomorrow morning Mike Spock and I will begin our journey tonight. In about an hour we will be heading up to a hotel in NY where we’ll be spending the night and meeting with the rest of the drivers. We will be getting all our equipment ready for the rally during the day and begin shooting in the afternoon. Look forward to the next update for some pics and news from the launch party! Good night!

Also for those checking my blog from tristatetuners.com thanks for taking the time to check this out!

Formula Drift Videos

jb1830 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:06:33 +0000

I figured while I was posting I’d put up the videos from Formula Drift: Round 3 I shot earlier earlier this year with my buddy Mike Spock who did all the editing while I made the intro graphics. He will also be covering the AKA Rally with me throughout the week.

The videos were made for a 0-60 magazine feature (0-60mag.com) and were also featured on Autoblog.com and Streetfire.net. Enjoy!

Samuel Hubinette Exclusive:

Formula Drift: Round 3 The Gauntlet:

Last day home!

jb1830 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:26:36 +0000

Today is my last day home as tomorrow morning I head up to NYC in preparation for the rally. I’m both excited and nervous since there are a lot of people counting on the awesome video crew to capture the best of the best during the event. I guess this is good though as it’ll keep me sharp and making sure I don’t miss anything.

Yesterday I went up to Krazy House Customs on RT1 where I met with a few of the local participants. Very nice bunch indeed. The majority of the cars there were BMWs: 2 M5s, a 135 and an Z4 M coupe. Then there was the lovely Godzilla with about 600 miles on the clock and the shop owner’s massive diesel Ram pickup.

We spent most of the day chatting about cars and looking forward to the rally. I mainly walked around and took some pics and shot some of the action as the day went on. Overall it was a pretty chill day. Enjoy the pics:

Blogging, Day 2

jb1830 — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:40:29 +0000

OK so this is day 2 of the blog. Woohoo I’ve made it this far! Usually I start these things one day and forget them the next so the fact that I’m looking forward to filling this sucker up with internet worthy goodness is a good sign. As some of you might’ve noticed I changed from the basic wordpress layout to something a bit nicer and sleeker looking. I think for now I’ll stick with this layout until I have time to get more stuff done.

In other news, later today I will be meeting up with a few of the participants undergoing some last minute repairs and tuneups at a local shop. I’ll probably record some of the drama if we have any. I was also told that I’d get to see this beast:

Anyways, I’ll probably have an update later today after the meet. See you then!

Welcome to my Blog!

jb1830 — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:14:33 +0000

As some of you may know I was asked to be a cameraman for this years AKA Rally (akarally.com) Starting next week I will be in a car traveling westbound at an average of over 600 miles a day and hitting speeds in the triple digits. The rally is set to start in NYC and end in Las Vegas. I have created this blog in order to keep all those that wonder into my little piece of the internet informed of my exploits as well as updated as the rally carries on. I will be putting some effort into the design of the blog over the next few days as I get into gear! Wish me luck!!!