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Every now and then, a
Japanese drifters and racecar drivers come to visit Hawaii. This
time, we had a chance to catch up with Ken Maeda from Up Garage
during his stay in the islands.
For those of you who
aren't familiar with Ken Maeda, he drives a yellow 20V turbocharged
AE86 hatchback in pro drifting competition in Japan. Maeda-san had come to Hawaii with the rest of his co-workers
on a company trip to relax and get away for a little while.
Luckily for us, Hiro
Tsudo from Eurosport was able to contact Maeda-san with the help of
Justin Carvalho, our Drift Session correspondant in Japan. Arrangements were made and Maeda-san was able to
spend some time with us at the Drift Session. It was a real treat
for us to be able to meet and spend time with Maeda-san, whom we've
watched on Option Videos for years.
On Saturday, February
7th, the Drift Session arranged a get together at the track so Maeda-san could view
some of the Hawaii drifters that he'd heard about from other
Japanese drivers. We had a few of our better drivers show up to do
some driving with Maeda-san to show him what Hawaii had to offer.
Participating drivers were: Lance Tsubota, Justin Kikkawa, Barry
Wong, Matt McQuain, Scott Pires, Denny Cabal, Earl Huang, Steve
Oliberos, Stanford Lau, Paul Umholtz, Pedro Dominon, and Royce
Fujimoto.
 
After a few passes,
vehicles were quickly offered up and Maeda-san jumped behind the
wheel of Jon Nasu's, Shige Hirabayashi's, and Lance Tsubota's cars.
After about 3 passes, Maeda-san was bombing the straightaway
performing smooth choku-doris and 3rd to 4th gear drifts at Long Course
Turn 1; even though this was his first time driving a left-hand
drive vehicle.
 
After some questions
from our drivers, Maeda did what he could to help our drivers with
techniques that they had been struggling with. Lance Tsubota
reported that even after just a few runs with Maeda riding along,
his input and advice were very helpful. The questions and answers
went smoothly thanks to our amazing Japanese / English translator
Roy Uno, who was there all day.
A few runs later, we
wrapped up at the track and took Maeda-san for a few laps around the
Hawaii Karting go-kart track. Maeda made quick work of the rest of
the cars on the track as he gripped his way to victory and then
demonstrated some of his drifting skills by connecting multiple
corners with his kart as well.
As is common practice
at the Drift Session, visiting drivers get taken out by the local
drivers, so we met up that same night at Dave & Busters in the
Ward Entertainment Center. Finding D&B too crowded to take in a
crowd of hungry drifters, we wandered across the street to Ryan's
Bar & Grill.
After the hostess at
Ryans Bar & Grill took a quick look at our group, we were
promptly seated as far away from regular customers as possible. If
your party had guys with nicknames like "Ruckus," "B-Dawg,"
and "Handsome Stan," you'd probably get seated in the back
of the restaurant too.
About 20 pupu
platters and 50 drinks later, we decided it was time to go...
Straight to the Penthouse Club. The Penthouse Club is the newest and
nicest gentlemen's club in Hawaii; and what better place to end the
night for gentlemen like us?
The Penthouse Club
was off the hook! Apparently strippers really like drifters... or at
least they like our money! It was boobs a plenty in there and we
have to give it up to those hard
working women performing table dances for us all night long. You'd
never think that performing an upside down helicopter spin from the
stage pole was difficult the way
these girls were doing it. A game of "take the dollar bill
without using your hands" broke out and the Penthouse girls
were very competitive to say the least. The beer and the dollar
bills flowed freely, but soon enough it was last call and time to
end the night.
We had a great time
taking around Maeda-san during his stay in Hawaii, and we hope he
had fun too. We all wish him the best of luck during the upcoming
2004 drifting season in Japan and we hope he visits us again soon.
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