Ocean Shores Focus Wars 4
September 2nd, 2015
Being able to get out of California to a car show had long been a goal of my own, a goal I was finally able to accomplish by heading up to Washington for Ocean Shores Focus Wars 4. The drive up to the show was broken up into 3 legs. Bay Area to Sacramento, Sacramento to Vancouver, WA and finally joining up with a caravan from Vancouver out to Ocean Shores, WA. The drive itself was rather uneventful (thankfully!) but it was great to see the looks from others in traffic as 30 or so Focus' made their way in a caravan along the freeway.
Friday was consumed by the caravan to Ocean Shores and welcome meeting held at Bennets Fish Shack for which the weather stayed sunny and clear, however as the evening rolled in so did the bad weather. Friday night was a wet and windy affair which certainly messes with anyone who cares to have their car meticulously detailed.
Saturday was the day of the actual show, hosted at the Ocean Shores Convention Center, the weather was certainly not ideal by any means with 70mph gusts and rain blowing through. Despite the adverse weather conditions everyone showed up to show off their pride and joy. For myself it was great to see many of the builds I had been watching on the forums for a couple of years and meet the owners. Awards for this show were actually judged by fellow competitors, everyone who registered for the show was given a voting sheet and a car number. Votes were tallied and awards were given out, the winners were all justified, with the arguably cleanest cars taking the awards in each category. Some people even took home more than 1 award, Brian Reich ST (as seen in our feature shoot) for example took home Best ST and Best Interior. Saturday was wrapped up with a parade lap of the show cars around the town of Ocean Shores.
Thankfully the weather got better over night into Sunday, Sunday was the day for Airport Speed Runs at the local airport in Ocean Shores. This consisted of a 1000ft course on the runway with a speed trap and a radar gun to judge purely a trap speed. Everyone who wanted to, got to run a total of 4 times. Fastest speed of the day went to COBB Tuning Focus ST with a speed of 98mph.
For those that were still left in town by late Sunday afternoon there was a farewell meet on the beach, being allowed to drive on the beach is a great novelty and makes for some great photo opportunities! With all the show weekend festivities wrapped up for another year all that was left was time to reflect on a great weekend during the drive home to California.
Photos: Gordon Lister
Words: Gordon Lister