The Gatebil Mantorp Summer Festival: Part 1

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 less than two weeks away now.

Before that, though, is the other big 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 the weekend before last.

As usual, I arrived on Thursday from Stockholm and got straight amongst the teams in the paddock to see what the event had to offer.

Last year, an insane heatwave hung around during the event. This year it was the rain that poured down late Thursday afternoon, and the forecast wasn’t much better for the 72 hours of insanity ahead. Since water and electronics aren’t a match made in heaven, I called it a day on Thursday, put my camera away and prepared for what was to come.

At 8:00am on Friday, the smell of fried eggs intermixed with tire smoke and the sound of engines revving made any thoughts of a possible storm front rolling through immediately disappear. The 2024 Gatebil Summer Festival was well and truly underway.

This year saw the return of Monster Energy, with drifter Dmitriy Illiyk and Gymkhana GRiD world champion Luke Woodham in attendance. Both were driving S-chassis cars and ready to tear things up.

As cars rolled into pit lane, it felt like the event was much quieter than usual. Granted, it was still early on Friday morning, but perhaps many spectators saw the weather report and decided Saturday was enough. Or maybe the hype for this Scandinavian automotive phenomenon is coming to an end?

I can safely say the answer to the latter is no! Once the track dried up and the Gatebil Drift Series pros headed out, Mantorp Park quickly became engulfed in smoke.

Since I’m a one-man team, I never spent too much time shooting in one spot. Running around Mantorp was the first exercise I had done in months and I cannot say I enjoyed any of it. My current stamina level is terrible.

The dry track also pleased the Gatebil Extreme time attack competitors. They wasted no time pushing their cars to the limit – and beyond in some cases.

Kai Roger Bakken from Team KRB Racing Motorsport was back at Mantorp Park with his iconic Lotus Esprit. Gatebil wouldn’t be Gatebil without Kai’s bonkers creations.

While the wild on-track action and crazy party atmosphere are what most people flock to Gatebil for, there is so much more to these events. Even the paddock is an interesting place to visit, and if you look hard enough you’ll find many hidden gems here.

Gatebil is also a car show. Thursday is the event setup day, but because of the bad weather, it was still coming together on Friday. The Show Garden was filling up nicely, and I returned on Saturday to check it out in more detail. I even shot a spotlight here, so look out for that in the coming weeks.

Do you remember the Gatebil after movies? This year, the media team has something cool cooking. Pictured above are the pro drifters ready to do some Oscar-worthy acting. I’m really looking forward to seeing 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 treat it like a premier league derby match.

It’s fun to see two nations go head to head, but there can only be one winner. This year, Team Sweden took home the prize.

With that event done, drivers and spectators were eager to get the evening shenanigans going. I still have my main Saturday and Sunday coverage to share with you, so look out for that soon.

Alen Haseta
Instagram: hazetaa