POCATELLO — The Pocatello Car Club will hold a trunk or treat and a drift event this weekend to get everyone excited about motorsports and Halloween.

Brad Andres, who runs the car club, said the club’s goal is to bring motorsports to Pocatello. The trunk or treat/drift event, set for Saturday, will feature local professional drift competitor Rudy Hansen.

“Drifting is the fastest growing motorsport in the world,” Andres said. “It’s popular in every major U.S. city.”

The trunk or treat will be held in the parking lot of the Pine Ridge Mall between Hobby Lobby and Olive Garden. There will be a costumed car contest. Featured cars will be displayed inside the mall.

“The Pine Ridge Mall is allowing us to put decorated cars in the mall, but candy will be handed out in the parking lot,” Andres said.

Andres has contacted several local businesses to come help with the trunk or treat. The candy will be handed out between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. People will be able to hand out candy and check out the decorated cars in the mall.

“We want a parade-like atmosphere where they can come and hand out candy,” Andres said.

Anyone is welcome to come to the trunk or treat and hand out candy. They do not need to be a member of the Pocatello Car Club.

“You do not need to be decorated or part of the car club,” Andres said. “If you want to, please show up and hand out candy.”

Anyone interested in entering the decorated car contest will need to pay $10. Andres said they will put all the money from the contestants into a pot and whoever wins the contest will take all of it.

“Everyone who wants to vote come prepared to scan a QR Code so you can cast your vote,” he said.

While the trunk or treat is happening, the drift event will take place from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the AMC Classic Pine Ridge 11 parking lot. The hope is that people from the trunk or treat will take their kids to watch the drift event afterwards.

“We want to introduce to Pocatello what drifting is,” Andres said. “Pocatello is too much of a car community not to have motorsports.”

Local drift competitors Rudy and Chellee Hansen are set to participate in the upcoming drift event.

Hansen said he first got into drifting at an event in Las Vegas. He thought it looked fun and wanted to go on a ride-along with one of the drivers. After that, he knew it was something he had to do himself.

“After that, I was hooked,” he said. “Nine out of ten people went on a ride-along and thought ‘this is fun, I’ve got to do this.’”

Drifting is a motorsport technique where a driver intentionally oversteers a car around a turn, causing the rear wheels to lose traction. The driver maintains control of the car while the front wheels often point in the opposite direction of the turn, also known as counter-steering or opposite lock.

When two cars are drifting simultaneously, Hansen said it is similar to a dance where the car in front is the leader and the second car mimics the movements of the first.

“Everyone’s seen ‘The Fast and the Furious,’” he said. “It’s like ‘The Fast and the Furious’ on a race track.”

In a competition, the two cars go for two laps. During the first lap, one of the drivers is the lead driver and the other is told to follow the leader. The two cars switch roles for the second lap.

“They are judged by if they were where they were supposed to be and on mimicking,” Hansen said.

Hansen said at the amateur level, drifting is a good way to hang out with friends.

“It gets more intense as you get into competitive drifting, but it begins with having fun with buddies,” Hansen said.

Hansen’s wife Chellee is also a successful drifter. She competes all over the country. Many of the women who come to the events are excited when they get to ride with her.

“It’s not a man or a woman’s sport,” Hansen said. “It’s really fun for the girls. They come because of their boyfriends, and they go with my wife. They are just elated that a woman can drive a race car.”

Hansen’s favorite part about drifting is the aggressive way he is able to drive a sports car.

“I love doing things in a car that people don’t think you can do that are normally not done in a car,” he said.

The club hopes that Pocatello will eventually be able to build a motorsport park. Andres said that the younger generation is showing interest in sports like drifting, and they would be interested.

“They’re fixing cars for drifting,” he said. “We want to be ahead of the curve.”

More information can be found at pokycarclub.com.