February 2026

sno*drift

The highlight of the month except it was like the first weekend of it.

The roadtrip to Michigan was extremely doable. My partner brought this up after the trip, but traveling with the gang is so much easier than traveling with family and such. We all entertain each other enough to make it pass by quickly.

Our missions for this rally race event were:

✧ Wear our Stormy Kromers

✧ Get "shasties" (the pasty hand pies)

✧ Meet Lia Block + picture w/ her

✧ Meet Travis Pastrana + picture w/ him

✧ Make lots of noise during the stages

At 5am-ish on the 5th, we donned our Stormy Kromers and set out. We were packed heavier than usual because it was going to be so bitterly cold out there. My partner and I planned our layering system well in advance in anticipation for the cold. The drive there wasn't too notable until we got to the UP again. I love that area. I don't often think about where I'd be if I wasn't in Minnesota, but if I did leave, I would probably go over there. Of course, I'd rather stay for political reasons.

We went through Green Bay which has strange vibes. I think the Bass Pro we stopped at was in Wisconsin? Wisconsin is just weird for me. I took funny pictures in this Bass Pro.

Much of the scenery wasn't as pretty because it's the middle of winter. Last time we went through it, it was peak fall colors. I was also not completely conscious or focused on anything in particular except drawing. Yes, I was drawing in the car. It worked out amazingly, and I didn't get motion sick! We did get pasties in the UP. I think in Escanaba. One of the missions completed. I recommend having a pasty. I loooove savory hand pie things. I wanna learn how to make them.

The Mackinac Bridge was the most interesting part of the journey there and back. I'm gonna be so honest, I didn't know it existed until my partner brought it up. I am actually in my own world wtf. He hyped it up making it seem like the scariest thing in the world. I was actually nervous to go on it. In my head, it was higher, longer, and scarier than the Escambia Bay Bridge. It is higher and longer, but definitely not nearly as scary as I found the Escambia Bay Bridge. They also advertised the radio station for the Mackinac Bridge, but all it talked about was how snowmobilers are welcomed and appreciated on Mackinac Island over and over.

Once we were off the bridge, I had been given a task to find a particular fish. This task was from a friend that I had met through Neocities actually! They collect images of their friends next to this fish sculpture. We got the image for them, but we did miss an exit getting there. While looking at the big fish, some flat brim dude yelled out "YEAAAHH CATFISH" out the passenger window of his friends like Ford Expedition or whatever the hell it was. The fish sculpture was a sturgeon. Not a catfish. UM ACTUALLY!!

Random thing, but the area we were staying in was between Gaylord and Atlanta. There's like one spot where they combined the names to make "Gaylanta" at like a park or something. Why the fuck did they do that? It was just outside the town of Vienna. Why Gaylanta????? Why not Vienna??? Bro what???

We got to our cabin just an hour after the fish sculpture encounter I think. I can't remember if we hit up Meijer before or after. Regardless, we shopped at Meijer which was an interesting experience. Things are arranged so strangely in there. Mainland Michigan is also so strange. Imagine the UP as like "nicer" and full of more yuppies but it isn't urban. Mainland Michigan is more honest about its character. Less tourism too. OBS Fords everywhere. You're stared the fuck down by the locals. Subarus are NOT everywhere like they are in Minnesota or the UP. Anyways, Meijer does actually rule. I still get the alcohol culture shock when I'm outside of Minnesota especially with my bartender experience. Grocery shopping or stopping for gas and picking up a few shooters is insane to me. Liquor in a grocery store is so weird. Liquor is a separate errand!

We grab just a bit of food to tide us over until the next day. I don't remember what we ate, but it doesn't matter that much. The cabin was like a third of the size the one in the UP was, but it was cute. Definitely not built for winter. The drafts were INSANE. It was so cold there. The shower was probably the worst shower in the world. It was hot water, but I'd rather it be cold because, as my partner described it, it had the flow of a "gentle pee." It being warm only made that worse.

We ate food, watched some Olympics stuff, discussed our plans, and then passed out in our frigid rooms. The next day was the beginning of the racing.

Woke up, ate breakfast, chatted, etc. One of the conversations was about something that a driver posted while doing reccy which is where they take notes on the stages. It uh scared the drivers because they thought they were going to hit something. Um.

It was a coyote frozen upright. No one knows how it ended up like that, but uh. It was interesting. Hover to uncensor it. It has exposed spine and ribs.

After breakfast and frozen animal discussion, we went to Meijer again to get the rest of the food for the trip. It being so cold meant that we could just leave the food in the car while we attended the Sno*Drift activities. Get dunked on, warm weather nerds. You can't use your car as a fridge!

The first thing on the Sno*Drift agenda was the Parc Expose. Basically, the drivers stand by their cars and look cool before they race them. One bajillion cool Subarus, a Saab, diesel trucks, and more descend onto this tiny town of Lewiston. The locals looked like they hated it. The parc expose was pretty chill until cars started showing up. Then it got even busier when Lia Block and Travis Pastrana showed up. Lia Block is one of Ken Block's kids, and this was her first rally race event after her Formula 1 Academy. My friend got a picture with her so another mission completed. Travis, the X-Games guy, just does rally for love of the game. He races in a lower class just for fun, and it's sort of his "retirement" gig. My friend and I got to show Travis our Brataroo pins. The co-driver, one of my favorite women in the world, Rhianon Gelsomino, told Travis that they had to go to the driver meeting, and Travis seemed kinda sad that he couldn't talk to everyone. It was sweet of him. Oh and they all seemed so so so cold. The wind chill was below zero.

Sno*Drift didn't get as many entries as LSPR 2025. I have a couple of thoughts on that. One, it's really cold and icy. It's a hazardous race. LSPR was too though because the stages are extra rocky. They shred cars. Sno*Drift also tends to be rowdier. The previous year, drunk people were fighting each other on the famous Bonfire Alley spectator area. SnoDrift as a whole tends to be more of a party while I found LSPR to be more love of the sport.

With about half as many racers, there were still really cool cars. There was the BMW that lost a coilover at LSPR 2025 and still DROVE to the gas station and ceremony. MINI Cooper John Cooper Works were there with bone stock MINIs which means that they raced with CVTs. The GoPro CEO raced there too. He just did it because it seemed fun, but I wish he was more into the sport. He's just doing it to do it. There was an old Jetta, 80s Celica, couple of BRZ/GR86/FRS things, and, my personal favorite, the 2002 Blue Ford Focus.

The Focus drivers were super kind. I was the most excited for this little thing, and I was so pleased to hear that it was supposed to have Thomas the Tank Engine strapped to the hood. The ARA wouldn't allow them to have it unless maybe the eyes lit up. Their next project is to put lights into Thomas, and then Thomas will race.

They don't have images of the Focus on social media which sucks, but this is their Instagram page with their other cars!

We bounced out of the parc expose kinda early, but still ended up being late to the first stage. SnoDrift was incredibly efficient with their timing. They were on it compared to LSPR which ran late frequently for a number of reasons. We parked far away because other spectators had some skill issue or whatever. We walked geared up in warm clothes with a heater, food, chairs, and noisemakers, and we walked about two miles. Walking on snow also. I was so wiped out by the end of it. The stages were ran twice in SnoDrift, so we missed the first one, but that was okay because they'd race it again. We found a nice mound to stand on top of and be annoying. Everyone was fucking annoying honestly. Everyone had fires which was nice and warm, but everyone was also blasting music and were piss drunk. Being drunk is fun and all and like you're gonna be standing around for hours, so might as well, but idk maaaan I'm here for the cars not the shitty tractor rap blasting out of your speakers on wheels. Of course, I'm too shy to say anything. We were annoying in our own way. Equipped with a weird airhorn from Ax-Man, a cowbell, and a vuvuzela, we ruined everyone's videos of the cars including mine, so I can't make a sick edit of the race cause it's ALL vuvuzela!! The noise mission was completed, and it was funny. It was also too cold to record anything. I enjoyed most of this stage with just my eyes.

It was so cold at this spot. I couldn't feel my feet, but that was okay because the cars were so cool. We could see a car coming down the road behind trees, take the turn, and then absolutely rip in the straight in front of us. It was so cool, and we saw a lot of cars hit the snow bank. One older beamer DNFed that stage because it got so stuck. When the drivers went through and did reccy the weather was nice, kinda warm, and there was just slush. Well, it got cold as fuck, and the slush froze. This made it so the notes had to be altered. If they weren't, the driver would have to do extra thinking lest they crash into show. You really don't want that because it can ruin everything. There's also incentive to not destroy your car.

We left when the sweep trucks went by. Got to the cabin, played card games, ate, and crashed.

The next day, we went to a spectator area that was in an open field. You'd think the spot the previous night was cooler, but we all really enjoyed this field. The sun made it warmer, and we got to see a good turn but also follow the car wayyyy out there. We settled in a corner before too many people showed up.

First stage happens, and we watch cars spin out, get stuck, etc etc. Hell, even Travis Pastrana spun out. The bigger MINI got stuck in a bank. It was disastrous in a fun way. SnoDrift is interesting because the ice hazard makes skill win not speed. Of course, rally racing requires a lot of skill especially in the RC2 cars that are so fast, but the ice leveled the playing field for everyone.

Again, they were going to run the stage twice, so we chilled out with what the called "The Rally Shack." It was a shitty hunting blind with a Buddy heater in it. I think we're gonna try to get Travis Pastrana to sign it sometime. The next stage starts, and everyone is doing a lot better! Less crashing!! Definitely listen to the Audi at 0:30. It's sounds INSANE.

The last car goes by, and we leave for the ceremony. We eat some food. We freeze our asses off. We watch the cars drive in. We freeze our asses off more. Then we eavesdrop on some drama. First, we walked into the ceremony and some guy muttering to himself something like "That's not how you run a rally!" Also dog bit a driver in a separate thing. Can dog people fucking leave their dogs at home btw?? There was one that jumped in my face and my friend's face at the parc expose and the guy did nothing about it. If people think it's cruel and evil to hate dogs, maybe make them act better. Anyways, sorry, tangent. I don't like dogs except for mine.

Our ears are perked for drama and figuring this shit out. At the ceremony, we did manage to meet Travis Pastrana fully and get a picture with him! The whole gang! Final mission completed! The Subaru Motorsports and Launch Control people were there recording Travis. This is important later.

We do leave the ceremony early because we were so damn cold. They wouldn't start announcing national winners until two hours after we left anyways. This is because big named got disqualified. This was the drama. Lia Block lost a timing belt in her Ford Fiesta. Spectators held push the car which got her disqualified. It was contested, but denied because the spectators pushed on a hot stage. Travis got disqualified because he got stuck in a snowbank. Rhianon ran to set out the cones which one needs to be on top of the car and another behind the car. One of them was not correct which gave them a five minute penalty. The penalty plus 25 minutes in a snowbank trying to dig out the car meant that they met the 30 minute disqualification. Travis didn't contest this. Bad for PR, but also it was the rules. There was also another drama ridden disqualification, but I can't remember it. I also know that the driver of a 90s Subaru questioned the legality of Travis' car. I know the engine of the limited car is new. It also may be the same engine in the Brataroo. It's mysterious... but that wasn't what was questioned. It was something with the control arms. The ARA Technical Supervisor said that the vehicle passed, so nothing illegal. Travis is just good at driving.

Remember that Ford Focus? Yeah, that silly little thing got 4th place in its class. Probably one of the slowest cars there got a high place because they were able to take the time to properly turn without hitting snowbanks. Mark Piatkowski's 90s Subaru sits at 1st for the North American 4WD class. A car that is as old as I am did first in a national class. This car also somehow broke its whale tail wing. Here is where you can see the standings of the racers. I wanna point out that it's called "ARACombinerThing." Clearly, one guy made it and named it that. I do wish I had more photos and footage of this rally event, but it was so cold.

We got back to the cabin, played more games, and slept again. The journey back involved walking on Lake Michigan a little bit. I have seen three Great Lakes now! In order of seeing them in my life, Michigan, Superior, and Huron. Also, I did know how close we were to Canada. One stop was at this restaurant chain spot called "Big Boy?" It was mediocre, but the vibes were fun. We were also relishing in the social media posts from the race. Drama, cool cars, everyone being sad while Matt Nykanen (fellow Minnesota man) posted his dubs and being happy, and yes, the vuvuzela. The vuvuzela showed up in people's videos. It is hilarious.

Being back home felt strange. I wanna see race cars forever. My friend's coworkers at the shop they work at are all jealous about it, and so we're gathering up a group to go to Ojibwe Forests Rally in August. I am so excited. We're probably taking the xB!! My sweet baby xB who is only misfiring aaa.

Oh, also remember how I mentioned that the Subaru Motorsports filming crew were at the ceremony? Yeah, the gang posing with Travis Pastrana for a photo ended up in their video about the event. It's because we look like Subaru buyers and not American motorsports nerds with flatbrims and Hoonigan hoodies. Subaru only includes stuff they think is cute, sooooooo...

Rally is definitely making a comeback as a big deal especially with the WRC looking into the US as a country to race it in 2027. Politically challenging and I hope everything is smooth for the drivers and visitors if it does happen. I will definitely be going. WRC hasn't been in the US since the 80s, so it's a huge deal.