Sad i wont be drifting but these things happen, I have a drift day coming up this month anyway! Just packed my Kei car up with all my camera gear and now we are ready to go!

See you guys back here on Monday / Tuesday after the epic weekend, then off to Mobara on Wednesday to film my mate Andy from Powervehicles.com running in the D1 Street Legal event and on Friday night I’m heading to Kiryu to film some local boys run the touge, damn I’m BUSY!!!

Every weekend with out fail for the last 2 months I have been going go karting at Pit ORC (Ogura Clutch) in practice for an event they hold every Sunday once a month called the Sunday Cup. Its an event in the format of a 5 minute qualifying session, two 6 laps races with 5-6 other people then a 10 lap session at the end. Pictured here the main office of the go kart centre.

The full course that is changed every week for a different race line.

Looking over the start line.

Looking over the back section of the track.

Before the race everyones weight is taken and the go karts have lead weights added to them so no one has a weight advantage.

I have had many practice session leading up to this event but nothing could prepare me for how serious the Japanese racers took these event. Full race suits with back supports, matching gloves and shoes, the full get up, these guys were ready for battle. You can buy you own brand new ORC go kart for 180,000 yen brand new, the huge advantage over these go karts compared to most rentals in Australia is all of them are actually fast. Bored out scooter engines, with fast acceleration and instant power these things fly around the track or can drift the course whole course no problems with slicks on!

The go kart getting fueled up before the next session.

In the pitting area waiting to head out.

Pictured here at the start line, the guy in the red jacket won the even with amazing lap times!

Basically for my first event I learnt quite a bit, for starters I need to be more consistant with my lap times and get my ass over the line. On track everyone is fighting each other, hitting each other, driving over each others tyres to get in front, its all pretty serious racing. I was running lap times from around 33 seconds to 32.80 seconds where as the pros were running 32.20 seconds up to about 32.80 seconds, so i need to shave about .30 off to mix it with them. It was a great day and big change from my usual go kart drifting, usually i would be crossed up front wheels locked up heading into the first corner off the straight while the rear of my go kart skims the foam wall. So its a huge change from drifting the karts, its much harder to go fast and skim off .30 of a second then it is to hang your tail out every corner.

Below is a little low quality video from the day, but if your ever in this area its a must do activity!

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Snowboarding and Kei Car drifting!

Pictured above my good friend Don from America and me in yellow hitting the hard packs around Gunma. I only just started snowboarding last year and I was lucky to have about 10 years worth of skateboarding under my belt which made the transition for me much smoother. It only took me about an hour to get all the basics down and in no time I was going flat out down the mountain trying to lunch myself of anything I could find. I cant wait for this years snow season to start so I can get back out in some nice fresh pack snow.

After you get yourself some gear or rent it from the shops around the mountains it will set you back about 5,000 yen for an all day pass which usually includes 1,000 yen for lunch, pretty damn cheap!

Once night sets in you take a basher Kei car like the ones pictured below add snow tires and you hit the snow covered touges. Most weekends you will find yourself along with about 30-50 other cars up around the mountains all racing around in snow. Many cars travel up to the snow covered touges around Akagi from full blown rally cars, 4WD and of course the most popular of all the Kei cars.

Hoshino and myself driving his Kei car around Mt Akagi excuse the mobile phone filming. Hoshino reaches speeds over 100kph+ in the snow and manages to keep up with rally spec WRX’s uphill and downhill in a 660cc FWD turbo Kei car he mad fast. When you go out in a big group you will see about 3-15 cars all running in snake formation up and down the mountains.

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My personal car, I’m not huge on looks but its got a tuned ECU, aftermarket engine, locked front and rear diffs, plastic / rubber mix tires for higher speed drifting and bad ass scando flicks, something you can’t do running normal hard plastic tires.

Just chucked some videos together that I had laying around on my computer.

My mate Aaron with Hoshino locking his front and rear diffs.

The RC dedicated area of Hoshino’s workshop.

Aarons slow junk RC car, even worse looking then mine haha. <3

Some of the Geki boys.

Our good friend Pants from Geki acting like a fool. He owns the orange bashed up S14 I posted on here not to long ago.

Hoshino being his normal self haha.

There will always be someone with an RC car at every local track day.

Heres some more serious ones which can usually be found at D1 events etc.

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Heres a random video from youtube.com taken in the surrounding area.

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