Just before the current trip to Gatebil I realised that this would be my fifth time at the event. A small anniversary then.

So why do I keep coming back? Since I even didn’t like last year’s event that much.

Not to mention that I’m getting more and more introverted with age, so loud parties and 40 000 crowds are usually a no-no to me.

Heck, I even bought a pair of noise cancelling headphones recently, just to keep the outside world a bit more away.

I can’t really explain it, but every time the dates for next year’s main event are announced, I reach for my calendar, book flight tickets and arrange the trip. Aura or be it image, if you’re more realistic, of the event is really strong.

Let’s come back to my motivations a bit later on and speak about the 2016 edition of Gatebil Rudskogen festival:

Drivers’ range was a joy to look at

Team Drift should be honoured as the main attraction and replace that boring Powerslide contest. It’s a no brainer, three cars drifting is better than one. The End.

It was very hard for many teams to show a perfect harmony, so in many cases triple drift looked like this:

Few teams did it better than others, but in the end, Team Toyota with Ola Jæger, Tor-Anders Ringnes and Fredric Aasbo were the victors

I also heard that a team of Gatebil taxis participated, but didn’t go further qualifying, that was a great move. Every driver would like to beat those..

It was also great to finally meet Fredrik Oksnevad, for too many times I missed him while going passed his pit area.

This year I just went to spots that I wasn’t using on previous occasions

Taavi Toomara’s spirit is still hanging on the track

Speaking about spirits, quite a few drivers were driving with #fuckcancer stickers as well as a memorial was created in Drift Monkey tent. Clearly everybody are still sad about it, r.i.p. Ove Harlem.

As always, plenty of crazy engine bays at Gatebil, V8 in a Fiesta or perfect Lotus Omega heart pumped with a turbo.

Teemu Peltola here is cheering for a fellow diesel Mercedes driver, an old W123

Estonian fellows from MEKA Workshop were also at the track.

Unfortunately their car was a bit damaged by inadequate Liam Doran who you can see on a picture below. After his behaviour he was banned from Gatebil and I guess lost all his Norwegian fans. Just thinking, what is Petter Solberg’s reaction to this.

Monster Energy, being the main sponsor, brought a number of good drivers like Steve Baggsy Biagioni, Max Tvardovskiy, Dmitri Illyuk. I was mainly happy that Arkadiy Tsaregradsev made it to Gatebil and brought along Zarrubin – the drift videographer if you understand Russian.

In the evening they were shooting some material, so hopefully we see another great report

I also want to mention Dennis Häggblom, probably the friendliest guy in drifting who’s always there to help :)

And then we come to the World Powerslide Championship, a boring thing in itself, one car drifting in the wide corner of the track, trying to hit the ideal line and make it spectacular. Petter Eriksen did it the best in his S14.

For the last few year, my favourite part of Gatebil actually becomes the Extreme Race, it’s refreshing to see so different cars battling against each other.

This is a real David and Goliath battle right here

Also, impossible to forget to mention Kenneth Alm and his crazy backside 4wd entries

Or look at this Toyota, it’s front side architecture is more complicated than the shadow of a bridge you see next to it

And it’s also four-wheel-drive

Here my report comes to an end, here’s a pic of a sad kid for you

In the end I want to come back to my motivations, why do I come to Gatebil every year since 2013: it’s a mixture of belonging to community, seeing old friends, challenge of producing better content each time and a feeling that you will see something that you won’t be able to see anywhere else.

P.S. if the kid made you sad, here’s a beautiful girl to cheer you up