It’s a little hard to consider as time rolls on but HyperFest has been a thing for over 20 years. Nine of those from 2015 on, including this one in May of 2025 (Pandemic 2020…?) have been at Virginia International Raceway. It actually began as a thought and event in 2002 at Summit Point which is just north of Virginia in that little bit of West Virginia keeping Maryland stable. It came to VIR in 2015.
The various incarnations and automotive delights continue to make HyperFest a car party destination. This year some weather leading in put a bit of a damper on “Dirt World” which intended to be an off-road jamboree but it came to life a little later on. Weather also made an additional, but brief, Friday appearance. Some high winds came through and dissipated just as quickly but not before turning pop-ups and other displays into a show of tubular metal pop art.
It cleared and normal came back. That may be relative for what “normal” is at HyperFest.
Testing, tuning, some qualifying rolled through Friday for the NASA racing schedule on the main, full course. Drifting was on with smoke and rubber on the inner “Patriot” course. The “Koni Downhill Power Wheels Attack” set the stage to begin the Friday evening party once the winds went and the brief rain fell.
Saturday weather was much kinder. The racing, the drifting, the demos and shows on the skid pad all went on without a real worry. Last year there were motorcycles jumping over drifters. This year, it was a giant wheeled, over powered VW Beetle. The bikes were there but doing skids, wheelies, drifting and standing. The drifting was well on with a competition climax of Monster Energy Drink retention and burnout donut points shows.
Sunday was drift and race finale with an “All In” attitude on the track, the course and the pad. There were leftover and busted up tent frames and odd remnants of car body bits in small rubbish piles scattered about. This was not really evidence of some weather but more of a time well spent with a car party gone wild.
That is, or was, HyperFest 2025. What is in the planning for the next one? With the pandemic year taken in, will 2026 be the “official” ten year anniversary at VIR? What new bit of excitement will be there to carry the torch forward?
We’ll see… The photos below give a glimpse of this year as HyperFest is best experienced as an “in person” experience. With that, we’ll look ahead to the next one!
