Article
by Naoyuki Nagatskua (D1 Driver)
Translated by Central Anime Hawaii
There
are probably many of you who are thinking, “What?” Usually, the
page before Drift-Samurai is the Monthly-Koguchi. The reason why
this is like this is because the person in charge is sick in the
hospital. (Don’t worry Inoichi-kun!) So, this month, instead of
Koguichi, his friend “P-san” from Ibaragi is the leader.
Here’s a story as a souvenir from the drift event in Hawai’i.
Drifting
is the “big thing” right now in Hawai’I!?
Apparently,
there are events almost everyday!
Right
now in Hawaii, drifting is the big thing. I heard that there’s an
event called Drift Session every month. Anyway, why I got to go to
Hawaii was pure luck. The president of M-Sports received a call from
Hawaii one day, about guest drivers. But August 31st was
the day that they had D1 at America, and so Kazu (Tanaka Kazu) and
the rest of the guys weren’t in Japan. I just happened to be at
M-Sports that day and so the president asked me. Score! Of course I
immediately said yes. Happily, I left work for a week.
We
took my 180SX (a different one than the one that I usually drive),
as a Demo car for M-Sports. In addition, Team Julius went as well,
and the two drivers were Hayashi-kun (Nightwalkers) and Karasawa-san
(Ayumi of Nagano.)
We
were in Hawaii for four days, but the first day was dedicated to a
DVD shoot. They shot models with the cars and put cameras on the
cars. There was more than one company so I’m not sure what kind of
DVD it’s going to be, but it seemed like they shot the inside from
the driver seat. I wonder what they’re trying to film?
The
whole second day was free. I slept in my hotel room until afternoon,
probably because of the lengthy shoot from the day before. That day,
everyone I was with wanted to eat Hamburgers so it seemed like that
was all I ate.
The
third day was the actual Drift Session event. The event started at
5:00p.m. and went on until about 10. This is where the drift
competitions are held. My role was the exhibition run before the
contest, the demo run.
There
was time to practice, and there was a boy standing there so I asked,
“Do you want a ride?” and took him for one, and when I came back
the event staff yelled at me.
I
also gave the “former Australian cart champ” a ride too, but he
was filming throughout the whole run. When I asked him how it was,
he said, “Slow!” even though he seemed to be having fun when he
was in the car. I wonder if he meant to tell me to drive slower… I
know that carts are faster, but I feel sort of lame.
When
I gave a local T.V. reporter a ride, she was really having a good
time. For me, I was having a good time just being with her.
Foreigners tend to have bigger reactions than Japanese people so
it’s always fun giving them rides.
But
that day, there was an electrical problem with the 180SX, so it
would start up, then after a few minutes, it would stop. That was a
bummer.
There
were lots of girls in the crowd, but most of the people who wanted
an autograph were guys. There’s definitely a bigger percentage of
girls than in Japan. I guess drifting is pretty popular with girls
too.
It
was a lot of fun though. I want to go again. The car is still in
Hawaii, so someone, invite me over!
Photo
Captions
I
went to Hawaii as a guest driver! Popular with the girls~
Report
by Naoyuki Nagatsuka (Troupe Iroha)
The
180s in the DVD shoot. Pretty cool right? They asked a lot in the
interviews but all the questions were like “Why did you start
drifting?”, and other questions along those lines. It was kind of
boring.
They
put a camera on the outside and filmed the inside from the back. A
different feel from Video Option. I wonder if people from Hawaii are
more interested in the driver’s techniques rather than the
outside?
Hayashi-kun
and Karasawa-san of Team Julius. Karasawa-san was very popular.
Almost a super star. But when we took group photos with the local
models, I guess she liked their bodies… She was touching their
breasts.
The
first day, we drove a lot for the shoot. This is the demo car that
Julius drove. They said it throws out about 400hp. I wanted to drive
it around but it had a normal transmission so I probably would have
broken it.
The
president of M-Sports and myself. Thank you for taking me along!
Take me more places! Apparently this car is still at a dealership in
Hawaii somewhere. Next month, they said that it’s going to be
displayed in Las Vegas.
The
drift event was at night. I couldn’t take any photos so there
aren’t photos of my cool drifting. I apologize. But you can see
our popularity from this photo.
What
is Hawaii Drift Session?
In
2001, Tom Brian and David Shimokawa started a company and they
opened the first drift contest in Hawaii. Every year, at HIRS
(Hawaii International Racing School: Hawaii’s only circuit) they
have 11 events and its so big that about 5000 people and even TV
stations come. The entry cars are mostly Japanese. The main event is
the competition and their exhibition matches with Japanese guest
drivers are also famous. DriftSession is the name of the contest and
the company.
Check
out the DriftSession homepage (www.driftsession.com)
for schedules and past events. You can also see the profiles of
Japanese guest drivers here!
The
Monthly Nagatsuka!?
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