Full Throttle: Jeffrey Pang's Road to Kansai All Stars
- Brennan Jordan
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Welcome to REALS: A series that shines a light on people doing cool stuff in real life. At SLEKE., our mission is simple: to create technology that inspires deeper engagement with the real world. Through REALS, we aim to offer not just inspiration, but examples of what it truly means to do cool stuff. What counts as "cool"? It's a broad canvas—anything from savoring a quiet afternoon with a new book to skydiving in Egypt.
Our third feature is Jeffrey Pang, a Toronto-based car enthusiast who has a penchant for drifting… Yes, the kind introduced to us by the Fast & Furious franchise. Jeffrey's story is about laying it all on the line to pursue a dream. It's equally about prioritizing the people who matter most.
Jeffrey started his journey into the world of drifting in a Nissan S13 he bought specifically to pursue this passion. In Toronto, he logged countless hours behind the wheel and under the hood, learning everything he could about the sport.
Drifting itself has a variety of styles, ranging from the Clutch Kick to the Scandinavian Flick. One style in particular captured Jeffrey's imagination over all the rest: Big Entry-Style drifting. Pioneered in the mountains of Japan, this style involves entering corners at extremely high speeds while sliding sideways at dramatic angles. It is widely regarded as an aggressive, high-stakes drifting technique, making it extremely thrilling to both watch and drive. His love for this high-octane driving style led Jeffrey to make a bold and inspiring decision.
After feeling like he'd hit a plateau training locally, Jeffrey moved to Japan, bought a used Nissan 180SX and started practicing big entry on Japanese tracks. He did all this with one goal in mind: compete at Kansai All Stars at Meihan Sportsland, the pinnacle of big-entry style drift competition.
After months of driving, and a brief break after witnessing a dramatic crash, Jeffrey finally got his chance to race at Meihan Sportsland. What he found there changed everything about his approach to the sport. It wasn't just the drifting, but the community that drew him in. At Meihan, one of the most internationally renowned drifting racetracks, drivers from all walks of life came together - united by a culture of kindness, humility, and respect - to enjoy the sport, compete hard, and push each other to improve. Here's Jeffrey with a race organizer on the day she competed in the expert class.
Motivated by his first drifting experience at Meihan, Jeffrey trained ferociously for months and ultimately competed in a qualifying event for Kansai All Stars. While he didn't make the cut, his performance during a few post-qualifying laps caught the eye of one of the judges. The judge asked if he'd be returning next year. Unfortunately, Jeffrey's visa expired, and he had to return to Toronto. Back home, he kept competing in local events and was a finalist at many of them.
During this time back at home, Jeffrey also reconnected with his dad over their shared love of the Porsche 911. During the 1980s, his father worked as a professional photojournalist covering car racing circuits, including Formula One. Many of his photos were featured on the covers of popular racing magazines.
While many of Jeffrey's dad's photos were published, many more had gone undeveloped, sitting in a box in the family garage. Inspired to share his dad's photographs with car racing enthusiasts everywhere, Jeffrey took it upon himself to learn what was required to develop the images. He then went through the process of developing the yet-unseen photos of the "golden era" of Formula One racing. You can buy prints of the photos here.
Despite the joys that came with reconnecting with friends and family back home, when Jeffrey traveled back to Japan for Tokyo's biggest car show, something forced its way back into the foreground of his awareness. He couldn't shake the feeling and he knew what he had to do: Move back to Japan and train to qualify for Kansai All Stars 2026. After one final check-in with his family, he committed.
Today, Jeffrey is preparing to return to Japan and resume his training in hopes of competing in one of the most distinguished drift races in the world at one of the most renowned courses currently in operation: Kansai All Stars at Meihan Sportsland.
To us at SLEKE., Jeffrey is a living example of what it means to follow one's passions with abandon, while keeping the people who matter close along the way. To 'Do Cool Stuff' as we like to say.
To follow Jeffrey's journey to Kansai All Stars (we definitely will be),
you can subscribe to his YouTube channel.
