Do you know what time it is? It’s time for all Scandinavian performance car enthusiasts to pack their bags and head to Gatebil – the main summer festival at Rudskogen Motorsenter in Norway is now less than two weeks away.
But that’s what it’s for other major Gatebil event held at Mantorp Park in Sweden. The Gatebil Summer Festival – stop two in the five-event Gatebil 2024 season – is where I found myself last weekend.
As usual, I arrived from Stockholm on Thursday and immediately joined the teams in the paddock to see what the event had to offer.
Last year there was an insane heat wave during the event. This year it was rain that poured down late Thursday afternoon, and the weather forecast wasn’t much better for the next 72 hours of madness. Since water and electronics are not a match made in Heaven, I called it a day on Thursday, put my camera away and prepared for what was to come.
At 8 a.m. Friday, the smell of fried eggs mixed with tire smoke and the sound of revving engines immediately put all thoughts of a possible storm front to rest. The Gatebil Summer Festival 2024 was well underway.
This year saw the return of Monster Energy, with drifter Dmitriy Illiyk and Gymkhana GRiD world champion Luke Woodham in attendance. Both drove S-chassis cars and were ready to destroy things.
As the cars entered the pit lane, it felt like the event was much calmer than normal. Granted, it was still early Friday morning, but perhaps many spectators had seen the weather report and decided that Saturday was enough. Or is the hype around this Scandinavian car phenomenon perhaps coming to an end?
To the latter I can safely say that the answer is no! Once the track dried and the Gatebil Drift Series pros left, Mantorp Park was quickly enveloped in smoke.
Being a one-man team, I never spent too much time shooting in one place. Running around Mantorp was the first exercise I had done in months and I can’t say I enjoyed it. My current stamina is terrible.
The dry track also pleased the participants of the Gatebil Extreme time attack. They wasted no time in pushing their cars to the limits – and in some cases even further.
Team KRB Racing Motorsport’s Kai Roger Bakken was back at Mantorp Park with his iconic Lotus Esprit. Gatebil wouldn’t be Street car without Kai’s crazy creations.
While most people come to Gatebil for the wild track action and crazy party atmosphere, there is so much more to experience at these events. Even the paddock is an interesting place to visit, and if you look carefully you will find many hidden gems here.
Gatebil is also a car show. Thursday is the set-up day for the event, but due to bad weather it was held on Friday. The Show Garden was filling up quite nicely and I returned on Saturday to take a closer look. I even shot a spotlight here, so keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks.
Remember the Gatebil aftermovies? This year the media team has cooked up something cool. Above, the professional tramps are ready to do some Oscar-worthy acting. I am very curious about the result.
Friday’s main event (apart from the partying of course) is the evening drift battle between Sweden and Norway in the Nordkampen Showdown (Fight of the North).
This is a friendly competition, but some spectators consider it a premier league derby match.
It’s fun to watch two countries compete against each other, but there can only be one winner. This year, Team Sweden took home the prize.
When that event was over, drivers and spectators were eager to get the evening hits going. I still have my main Saturday and Sunday coverage to share with you, so look out for that soon.
Alen Haseta
Instagram: Hazeta