Super Street Tour West Leg - Event Coverage

My flight departed just before 8 am from LAX with a 4-hour layover in Utah. It was my fourth time on the Tour and West leg. Due to floods our route and stops were changed around a few times. I'm dead tired and burned out thinking about what a long week it's going to be, but then I remember what the Tour is all about. The Tour was created for you: our readers, the people who put Super Street where it's at today. We go to events throughout the year, but there isn't one that comes close to involving our readers in such a direct way. It's one of the few chances we have to get out of the office for nearly a week, interact with our readers and show you our appreciation. We give out free stuff, throw parties, and act crazy together. Every year we see familiar faces of readers who have become friends. Then there are the FNGs that get initiated into the Tour posse rather quickly. It's great to see that readers all around the nation can be brought together by two things: 1) cars and 2) Super Street. Some newbies manage to survive the whole Tour, but our afterparty is a different story. Who's down for another round?

Day Enkei Pre Party
My stomach had been hurting for a week and the Texas heat was killing me. Our Enkei pre-party made it all worthwhile. The lot was filled beyond capacity since we pulled more cars than last year. With a free car show, food, music, and giveaways you couldn't go wrong. Especially the guy who won a set of Enkei wheels. We even had an Xbox for people to play EA's new Need For Speed: Most Wanted game. Around midnight we called it quits and retreated back to the hotel to shower up and hit the sack.

We headed out bright and early to Arkansas. Sun-Sun was piloting my rental and I was hanging out the window just as I do every year. We had a healthy group of Tour members following us to the lunch stop in Little Rock, Arkansas. About halfway to our destination, Elijah Cole blew the motor in his Integra. He called up a tow truck and hopped in with his homie for the rest of the trip. That's the kind of dedication that earned him the job of our Toyo Tires Editor for a Weekend.

Our lunch stop was very damp. Everyone grabbed food to tide them over until our overnight party at Hooters in downtown Memphis. It was another long haul, but I stayed in the backseat like Ms. Daisy. On occasion I'd drop the window and point out positions for the cars to line up in so I could shoot.

The turnout at our Hooters party was quite strong despite our last minute route change. Greg Lillie from Underground Graphics picked up the tab for everyone's food and drinks. Hot wings are great, aren't they? We held tons of raffles and threw out more free Super Street goodies than you can imagine. Anyone that wanted to hit the nightlife afterwards was required to down a can of NOS energy drink so they wouldn't fall asleep at the bar. I hope someone signs off on this tab for my expense report. (Sorry, you're on your own. - JN) It's almost 3 am, where the hell did Stephanie aka Boobs go? Oh well, time for some shuteye.

Onto Nopi Day 2
I think I got a good solid three hours of sleep the first night. The next morning it was humid as hell outside, but that didn't surprise me. As we pulled away from the home of the Grizzlies and toward our lunch stop in Alabama the Tour-goers lined up and the hotel parking lot gradually emptied. Once we hit the highway the West Leg congested what was once a two-lane highway. After hitting traffic, construction, and detours we surprisingly made it to LA Extreme without getting lost.