Been another crazy weekend with a little bit of film at D1SL, then some of the most amazing touge i have ever seen in my life. Take a quick look at these snaps to see what i am talking about.

Heres some snaps taken off the video camera from D1SL, close drifting is an understatement.

The sound of jaws hitting the floor was caused by Nakamura in the blue D-Max S15, his angle and tight drifting was amazing!

The view from the parking / pit area at the top of the 3rd touge course on a secret moutain. This mountain housed 3 courses from beginner to expert also with undercover parking / pitting areas it was almost built with the sole purpose of drifting in mind. I cant even explain how amazing this place was.

The crowd was getting the drifters pumped up, they love nothing more then people jumping up and down and really getting into it. After we started going crazy they started to run down hill aswell, you have to show some love to these guys.

Notice in the gallery area on the right a crowd of foreigners from Australia also known as Team Gravy eurging on the locals.

We also spotted pedo bear.

After some words with one of the local touge guys i stuck the camera on his 350ps + S14 and we attacked the expert course.

Notice on the bottom left a few zip ties sticking out, look at the picture below this one.

Where have the zip ties gone? They are swimming in the tall grass, thats how close he was drifting.

Got home at 4:30 Monday morning for work the same day, just another crazy weekend!

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This is just a progress video clip to show you we are moving forward week by week with filming.
Nothing special nothing in depth just a quick slap together for you.

Remember view the video in HD

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You done well, you placed in the top 10 at your first D1 event, you have taken wind to some comments saying you might be in line for some tire sponsorship after your efforts. You are in good spirits as you drive to your next D1 event. At the event you manage to lay down perfect runs against your rival Tezuka whose piloting the Goodyear backed Nissan Skyline. You take the long drive back to the start line waiting to hear an outcome. What! Your called back for a re-run, even after your rival made a mistake causing you to lead in the points score, it does not matter the judges want to see a re-run. You know you clearly that you beat him but you head out again for a re-run. The results come in, you just happened to miss out and wont be making it into the top 8. This is your first taste of the real world in D1, as you and your pit crew pack up for the long drive home you cant help but feel some sort of failure.

Your car is all ready, you have paid the ridiculous 70,000 yen entry fee again, the truck is loaded and everything is packed, you just got off the phone to your new tire sponsor, this year Yokohama who are happy to have you on board but did they forget to mention that you will never ever have a chance of wining D1 because of their main tire competitor Goodyear. Goodyear is one of the D1GP’s main sponsors who will always have the last say in who wins, thank the King for the that. You happen to being doing flawless runs but yet the Goodyear backed big guns still manage to score more points then you every run without fail, you can also thank the King for that.

Yoshida from SuperMade in his super gangster S13.

Whose the King you ask, well its none other then Keiichi Tsuchiya also known as Dorikin . The King is the largest icon in drifting, who brought the D1 Grand Prix to all its glory but now he seems to be closing it down event after event with the crazy entry fee costs and his ridiculous judging. Only 2-3 years ago you would find over 100 cars entered into any D1 event around Japan, that was before they decided to up the price from around 25,000 yen to 70,000 yen, and for what? So you had the pleasure of packing up and leaving early because the judges decisions were completely biased. You and the other 40 or so competitors, did I say 40 or so, sorry I meant 100 no actually I didn’t, D1 now struggles to even get entries and have resorted to calling up ex-D1 drivers personally to see if they would like to enter upcoming events. I have seen with my own eyes at the Suzuka 07 D1 event the lengths that Tsuchiya will go to when one of his friends, not mentioning names but he drove a bright pink S15. He did not quite achieve the points needed so they called for a re-run against lesser backed privateer, resulting in the higher profile driver wining. The judging got so bad that they even started brining in guest judges such as Nobushige Kumakubo from Team Orange for the pure fact of just trying to make the judging calls fairer for all participants not just the high profile drivers.

These higher entry prices coupled with the fact the economy is going down the drain is not good for the Smaller privateer drivers who would usually just put everything on the credit card and worry about paying it back another day. Not this year with banks cutting down credit limits in Japan it also means a lot of privateers now have no money to enter D1. Now days you will see most D1 drivers at local events just drifting for the passion and fun of it, before it was taken over by money and sponsors. They are returning into the real drift scene, not this Pamela Anderson version of drift, with new improved bits and pieces but the price to pay is getting Hep C, turning green and losing your hair.

Good friend Tomohiro Murayama from Team Geki in his 550HP SR2.2.

So its clear there is only one way to the top and that’s making it to the Kings table, make it their and your sure in for a win. Do the hard work kiss the right backsides and in no time you will have a spot. But once your there don’t ever think of leaving, leaving the table would result in having all you hair cut off then getting it dyed green upon the Kings request of following the traditions and showing your loyalty. After that process you may never enter a D1 event again unless you make piece with King Tsuchiya. Your now a free man with a name, where do you go? You go to America where the grass is greener, the money flows like water and your fans line up in dozens just to get a glance at you. If you done all of these things you would sound just like Nobuteru Taniguchi also known as NOB, a very smart man who seen the light and happens to be one of the best drivers in drifting or grip to date and whose making a killing for himself in America the land of opportunity.

Another good friend and fellow Team Geki member, Zema in his RX7 along with his bright green D1 Street Legal 180sx below.

So there it is D1 is dying, prices have doubled and entrants have been cut by at least 50% or more. You cant really run a D1 event with no cars drifting. If you do intend on seeing some drifting in Japan I would be hunting down some MSC events or if you demand on seeing D1, the Ebisu event is always the best one to watch.

All my information has been based on facts and truths, its not just a propaganda rag out on the D1 Grand Prix even if it does sound a bit far fetched. My close relationship with a few good friends who happen to be ex-D1 drivers for all the reasons mentioned above have always brought up some great stories about D1 and the trouble it has caused.

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After a 8 hour flight from Australia to Japan I would have to say the first thing on my mind was drifting and no sooner after we landed we found ourselves jammed into our friends JZX100 along with his tools and drift wheels. We were getting carted off to our first drift experience in Japan at none other then the world famous proving grounds of Nikko Circuit.

But first we had stopped for some traditional Japanese fast food, Mc Donald’s……….

After we had got some heart stopping food into our bodies we headed off down the road to get some fuel where we were greeted by some very genki (happy) service attendants. It was our first encounter with the level of service you get in Japan and we were surprised to see them filling up the car while giving it a good clean, you didn’t even need to move from the drivers seat, that’s a far stretch from the service you get in Australia and all that with a smile.

You know your in ghetto country Japan when you see nothing but rice fields for miles.

Finally after a 2.5 hour drive from central Gunma and an 8 hour flight we were faced with a sight we had only seen in countless Drift Tengoku movies, we were excited to say the least!

As we looked around the pitting area we started notice that main car of choice was the Toyota JZX models. Nothing has really changed, even today they seem to out number most at local track days.

But there was of course a strong showing of from Nissan and Mazda.

No smoking at a drift track? Notice that small white thing appearing to be a RX7 on TE37’s missing a roof.

Well this RX7 had quite a bit of poke and like any tuned RX7 it had flame throwers attched where the exhausts should of been.

This worked AE86 was owned by a nice local called Takahashi who was kind enough to take me for a few passenger runs before his engine lost all oil pressure, but more on that later.

One of many dark horses at this track was this fantastic sounding R33, by the symphony it produced you would be safe to say he had about 400HP under his right foot.

Stay tuned for Part II coming this week along with a short Video from the Nikko track day.

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