Wow, what a weekend! Our 19th year…wait, hold up, let’s confirm that. Upon doing some research into it, this is our 18th year hosting NICOFest at Carlisle. Oh well, we’ll celebrate 19 again next year 😉 Ok, so now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s talk about how great this event was! Leading up to the weekend, there was worry that we’d have a repeat of the weather in 2024, which was rain, rain and more rain. We did get some substantial rain Friday morning, and some towards the end of the day (and even some hail), but Saturday weather was fantastic. Perfect temperature, a nice breeze, and no rain all day! Great for both AutoX and Drift!
What makes NICOFest fun for us to host is seeing returning faces year after year as well as meeting new ones. As we rolled in right at 8am on Friday, we were delighted to see a line already forming to get checked in and get on track. Every year we make some slight changes to the track, and for the AutoX, a 1 minute time is usually the benchmark to have a fast time. Sometimes we only have 1 or 2 cars break that benchmark, but this year’s course layout was a bit quicker than previous years, so we had a number of cars run sub-minute times. For those that didn’t break that barrier, it was still fun to watch drivers get ever closer and closer to it!
The variety of cars entered is another thing we always love to see. Although NICO is a Nissan and Infiniti club, many of us own or have owned a variety of other marques, and we love to see what those cars can do too. This year, Tyler Steck returned with his Thunder Roadster, Devon Glover-Dice brought a Rover 216, and Bon Booher returned with his Chevy Monte Carlo drift car, and ran some entertaining autoX laps with it! Those cars were interesting, but the biggest surprise was Clement Miller’s subtle looking VW Jetta that ended up with the fastest time of the weekend, a 50.74 second run. Not only is he an amazing driver, but he has that car dialed in perfectly for AutoX. To see the full list of AutoX participants and their fastest times, check out the NICOFest Carlisle 2025 Results.
When it comes to drifting, we saw a lot of familiar faces. Jake Melton returned with his Pontiac GTO and put quite a show on. He got 2nd place in the drift limbo last year, and unfortunately was knocked out earlier in the competition this year. But that didn’t stop him from putting on a great show in the open drifting for everyone to see. Bon Booher is also another crowd favorite in his ’85 Monte Carlo. He’s a great driver and that car shouldn’t be able to do what he does with it. Jonathan Mata Liz also entered at literally the last minute before we began the drift limbo competition. Although he didn’t make the top 3, he was absolutely capable of it. His BMW 335i was very well built and he drove the wheels off of it! We’re glad we got to see him Saturday afternoon really lay down some great runs. There was great driving throughout the drift limbo, but in the end it was Dakota Elstun in his 2004 Nissan 350Z that took home the 1st place trophy, besting his 3rd place 2023 finish, followed by Brady Wood in his 1998 BMW 323i, and Dustin Elstun taking 3rd in his 2004 Infiniti G35.
For the drift limbo competition, we’re always surprised to see how well some of the drivers get their between the cones at great angle. And there was some good misses too. Seeing a cone punted across the track is the best way to go out!
All in all, a fantastic weekend once again and we can’t wait until next year. We’ll be back for NICOFest Carlisle at Carlisle Events May 15-16, 2026. Mark your calendars and see you there!