It took a few days of recovery, but now I can finally look back on the madness that was Gatebil’s 2024 Main Event, held at Rudskogen Motorsenter in Rakkestad, Norway.
When I start, I never know how this annual three-day festival of car madness will turn out, what kind of pictures I’ll take, or how much my health will deteriorate by the end of it. It’s always a mixed bag.
This year I experienced Gatebil at Rudskogen in the rain. And while I had the comfort of shooting the Super 3 practice and qualifying session from the media room window, limiting my photography to that angle would not have provided good coverage.
I was afraid I would ruin my gear Gatebil’s 2024 Summer Festival in Mantorp Park in Sweden a few weeks agobut this time I took my chances and went for it. Getting up close and personal with cars coming at you sideways is exhilarating. Rain or shine, this is the Gatebil I love.
Sure, the cars were slower than usual, but that’s to be expected. The Rudskogen Motorsenter circuit is like an ice rink when it rains, and that makes it impossible for teams to give it their all. On the other hand, it makes it easier for them to stay together.
Literally. Here’s “Team Professional Children” doing their best bumper car imitation.
Thinking about it a few days later, all these drivers started to slide, either in the rain or on ice. This is Scandinavia and drifting is not just for the summer months. Maybe I should go to an ice rink event when winter comes…
Despite the weather conditions, the Gatebil audience loved it.
Formula Drift king Fredric Aasbø had a great time as one of the Super 3 judges this year.
Simen Olsen, another Formula D driver, was drifting in his MkV Toyota Supra. Following his companions, Ole Morten Davanger and Joachim Haugenes in Team Supreme, Simen seemed to have everything under control.
After the qualifying session for the Super 3 I visited the new main building of Rudskogen Motorsenter, which is 1,800 m2 and connected to the old pit garages.
The new building, which was completed earlier this year, has raised the profile of the entire facility, featuring offices, terraces, jury rooms, pit boxes and a new media centre overlooking the old Würth building where I spent the weekend.
I also found Formula Drift’s Jacob Getting and Sara Haro from the Netflix series Hyperdrive interviewed for an upcoming Super 3 documentary being produced by my good friends Samuel Kolsmyr and Linus Johnson. Jacob and Sara had some interesting things to say about their Gatebil experience, so watch out for the film.
The paddock is one of the most interesting places to spend time at Gatebil’s Main Event. This magical world of open hoods and crazy engine swaps never ceases to amaze me.
It is where I like to spend my Thursday evening at this event, while things are still somewhat organized. I will go into more detail about this year’s paddock events in another post.
The setting sun was my cue to go outside and take a nap before the event really got underway the next morning.
Fridays are always a spectacle. It’s the first day all The participating cars are released onto the track in five categories.
Four of these five categories have something to do with different levels of drifting. They are Drift Line Pro, Drift Line Rookie, Open Line, and Straight Line. It is often difficult to distinguish which class is which, but all cars go sideways anyway.
The only class where drivers do not want oversteer action is Gatebil Extreme. These track monsters are designed purely for speed, and the variety is insane.
That’s how Gatebil is, one moment you see these time-attack weapons going around the corner with an insane grip…
…and the next moment a Volkswagen Transporter comes towards you sideways.
Where else can you see two Volvo bricks between a MkIV Toyota Supra? I am always blown away by what this festival brings.
With so much experimentation in many Gatebil cars, the inevitable often happens.
And that means that the tinkering in the paddock never stops.
As the drivers and fans prepared for the final Super 3 race, I sat in a briefing room to get some information about the track.
Why, you ask? As I mentioned in my Gatebil Summer Festival report, I had never experienced straying from the passenger seat before. I figured the best place to make this pop was Rudskogen. After attending a 30-minute presentation on the ins and outs of a Gatebil passenger ride, I was given a yellow wristband that allowed me to ride in any car on the track that had an open seat. I did find someone, and I’ll be sharing my experience with you soon, so stay tuned.
But first there were the Super 3 finals.
What exactly is Super 3? Simply put, it’s a drifting competition where teams of three drivers slide their cars through a judged section as close to each other as possible.
It really is one of the best things you can do in the drifting scene.
After qualifying on Thursday took place in the rain, the race was held in dry conditions on Friday until the heavens opened again.
While some teams struggled with the changing conditions, Team Supreme’s final run with FD driver Simen Olsen in the mix was a textbook example. The trio left a smokescreen that completely The Parisian Curve (Parisian corner).
The Gatebil crowd likes tire smoke. Drivers sometimes not so much.
A few minutes after the first drops of rain fell, the weather gods decided to pound Rudskogen with all their might. One of the favorite teams, Sørby Utleie By Samsonas, navigated the wet track skillfully, but in the final meters of the section Andreas Øvergaard hit a dry patch and lost control of his Nissan Skyline R33.
That saw the victory go to Team Supreme. Yes, the rain stopped again.
What started as a perfect day ended in a very wet and muddy Rudskogen Motorsenter. The people of Gatebil didn’t seem to mind though; Friday night had arrived and the party animals were ready to go.
Stay tuned for more news about Gatebil’s 2024 Main Event.
Alen Haseta
Instagram: hazeta