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by
Justin Carvalho
Ok
first off, how do you get to Tsukuba Circuit?
There are no trains, no plains, and no buses that go there.
I have no car here now, but I was lucky enough to have a
Japanese friend who lent me his car for two days.
This event was held on November 26 and 27, a Wednesday and a
Thursday. Why was it
held in the middle of the week, I will never know. Anyways, I took two days off of work and made it out there.
For me it was just a short thirty-five minute drive.
Not to bad.
So
I arrive at Tsukuba Circuit at around 7am, pay my 1,000 yen for
parking, then my 2,000 entrance fee.
For all of those wondering, do these event workers
speak English? To answer that one, OF COURSE NOT!
But its ok, my low level Japanese got me by no problem.
Even if you spoke zero Japanese you would have gotten in
sooner or later. There is this beautiful thing in the Japanese Language called
Katakana English. It
has saved many a foreigner including myself.
Day
one, like I said my Japanese was poor so when I bought my ticket, I
could have paid an extra 1,000 yen to get a special pass to sit in
the bleachers. This
would have been nice but it was not necessary.
So instead, I stood at the perimeter fence to get the best
angle to watch the crazy drifting action.
I had to look through a fence to watch the drifting, so I
would suggest bringing a short ladder or chair to stand on. If
I had a ladder, I would have been able to watch from over the fence.
Anyways, it all depends where you want to watch from.
I watched from the main turn near where the judges where
placed. Day one is
basically a qualifying day. The
top 10 drifters in the series automatically qualify for day 2.
That leaves twenty spots open, because day two is the real
competition with the top 30 qualifiers.
So
how many drifters entered D-1 Round 7?
There were 109, to be exact.
So that means 99 people were fighting for 20 spots on day
one. On day one, from
9am there was 10 x 10 group practices in the morning, followed by a
drivers meeting. Between
the D-1 event, there was Super Lapping practice on the track.
The infamous “Tarzan” Yamada, was ripping up the Tsukuba
Circuit. In the
afternoon, it was basically about three or four hours or drifting as
the 99 drivers showed their stuff one at a time to try and make it
to the top 20. Around
4:30, they announced the top 30 who would be participating in day
two. Many of the cars
that never made it, got packed onto their trailers, but I think most
of the drivers still show up to watch day two.
Day
two, I arrive to the track at around 7:15, and am surprised because
there are a lot more people on this day.
The bleacher section is sold out, and I waited in a short
line as we all waited for them to open the gate.
It was awesome, seeing the top thirty cars all lined up near
the entrance to the track. The
drivers were all hanging out talking with each other, each waiting
to be interviewed by the Option’s video crew.
Once the interviews were done, the drivers all fired up their
cars and drove to the pit area that was packed with people.
The pit is a cool place to check out.
Some of the car companies set up small booths next to their
sponsor cars and sell shirts and stickers.
I was even able to chat with some of the drivers when they
had some time to kill.
The
format of day two was a totally different from day one. The day started with the drivers practice.
After practice, the rest of the day was made up of mostly the
competition. The
competition started with the top thirty drivers. The drivers would them battle each other two at a time.
One driver would lead, the other would follow.
After two laps, the drivers switch positions.
The driver who dominated the lead and the chase wins.
So from the top 30, 16 drivers were chosen. From the top 16, they go from 16 to 8, 8 to 4, 4 to 2, 2-1,
until they finally get a winner.
If the drivers performances were difficult to judge or their
skill levels were almost identical, the judges would have the
drivers keep taking laps until a dominate driver is chosen.
In the instances where the drivers levels are similar, it
often comes down to the first person to mess up is gone.
For
all of those wondering who won Round 7, Taniguchi(S15) took first
and Imamura(SD3S) took second.
As for the series, Imamura won that by a landslide.
I was kind of sad because Ueo(AE86) had a good chance of
winning, but couldn’t compete the competition because he had car
troubles. Ueo made it
to top 8, and would have easily advanced but his car had major power
loss, so he was eliminated. Seeing
the awards ceremony was pretty cool also.
I never thought I would see grown men crying after winning a
drifting competition; but I respect them because they put in lots of
sweat, blood, and hard work to get where they are now.
The closing ceremony was great all the drifters and
spectators gather together and wait for the winners to be announced.
Everyone is in good spirits, and the winners always act a
little crazy.
The
high lights of the day for me, was seeing Taniguchi’s and Nomura
Ken’s massive NOS drifts after they complete ½-¾ of the main
turn, they boost some NOS basically burn rubber for the length of a
¼ mile strip. It also
meant smoking the hell out of anyone who happens to be behind them. The other highlight of the day came after the competition.
The top 30 drivers formed drifting teams of about five to six
cars. Since the
competition is over, the drivers are still pumped and care a lot
less about damaging their cars.
So the drivers went all out and did some of the best drifting
I had seen all day. I
even got to see the three-car pile up of Taniguchi, Ueo, and Imamura
right in front of me. I hope you enjoyed the article.
Be sure to check out the picks at:
http://www.imagestation.com/members/hachirolla808
Any
questions email me at: justin_carvalho@hotmail.com
Justin
Carvalho is a Drift Session staff member currently living in Japan,
teaching English with the JET program. Justin is originally from
Kauai, Hawaii and has been in Japan since August 2002.
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