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3-4-06
D1 Grand Prix, Round 1: Irwindale Speedway, California
The
first weekend of March 2006 and it’s time once again for the
opening round of the D1 Grand Prix professional drifting series. The
Irwindale opener kicks off an 8 round D1 season this year and the D1
is well on its way to becoming a truly international series with
competition events in the USA and Japan as well as exhibition events
in China and the United Kingdom. Lucky drifting fans from all over
the world are getting more and more opportunities to witness
drifting up close and personal.
   
The
Drift Session staff made the journey to California this year to
check out the D1 Grand Prix at Irwindale Speedway. We flew in to LAX
at 6am on Friday March 3, 2006 and found the greater Los Angeles
area has been experiencing torrential downpours for the past several
days. Our trip was off to a soggy start as roadways and highways
were completely soaked and rain slowed traffic to a crawl.
It
was nearly 10am when we reached the Irwindale area, but the rain had
not let up one bit. We searched through town frantically for
umbrellas or ponchos to use, but apparently the D1 event staff had
cleaned out several stores the night before. Luckily, by the time we
actually made it to the Speedway, the rain had slowed to a drizzle
and we managed to park and setup camp in our friends’ booths in
the driver’s pit area.
   
The
driver’s pit area was setup on the opposite side of the track from
the main entrance / grandstands. It was very clean, as our driver
friends told us that judges would penalize them for messy pit areas.
Just about all of the top D1 drivers were there, walking around,
talking story, and trying to keep dry.
Falken
Tire had set up a large portion of the pit area with their various
trailers and containters. Their drivers included our friends from
Team Julius, Drift Samurai, Koguchi, and a few Falken sponsored
American drivers as well. Hiro Tsudo formerly of Eurosport Hawaii
had come along to assist his friend Hide Hanawa, president of V-Spec
Inc. / Julius with their competition vehicle, the lime green 180sx
that had visited Hawaii in 2003 for the All Hawaii Drift
Championships.
   
Hiro
told us that the Julius driver had not gotten a chance to practice
on the course on Thursday since their vehicle was shipped from Japan
late and had only cleared customs on Thursday night. Luckily, the
car made it on time for qualifying and a handful of practice laps on
Friday.
Right
across from Falken was the Kaaz pit area with Drift Session driver
Barry Wong along with his teammate Brian Norris and crew chief Saji.
Wong was driving the Kaaz 180sx and Norris in an identically painted
Sil-80. Also making the trip up from Hawaii to California was
Advance Graphics owner Erik Alfires and Drift Session Group A driver
(and mainland competition hopeful) Jensen Kona.
While
we were talking with Hiro and the rest of the Hawaii guys, another
former Hawaii driver, Ross Petty, stopped by. Ross Petty, formerly
of Okinawa, then Kalihi, and now Irwindale, California area was once
again going to be driving the Rotory Power red Mazda FD for this
event. Ross did inform us though that it would be the last time that
he would be driving this vehicle for competition. Ross said that he
would be campaigning his own RB powered Nissan 240sx in other USA
drift events in the 2006 season. Best of luck to Ross.
At
about that time a golf cart drove by announcing for drivers to suit
up and gather for a group picture. Ross put on his race suit and,
true to Ross Petty style, his suit had big embroidery across the
chest reading “BOSO” with the islands of Okinawa and Hawaii
embroidered on the backs of his legs, just like his matching
tattoos.
Later
in the afternoon, the drivers were told to get ready for Qualifying.
There were a total of 32 spots open for the actual D1 competition on
Saturday, but there were about 50 drivers in attendance so far. The
top 10 finishers in the D1 in 2005 were “seeded” drivers meaning
that they were guaranteed a sport in the top 32. This left 22 spots
left open for competition and the remaining drivers would have to
battle it out.
The
course that was setup for this event used most of the infield of
Irwindale’s large oval. Unlike a traditional road course, the
Irwindale oval provided a large open area, surrounded by 2 large
banked turns and walls on all sides. The judging stand was setup in
the 5 o’clock corner on the inside of the oval allowing judges an
elevated view of both the approach and exit of several key corners.
Since
there was no actual “roadway” on the oval infield, plastic
barriers were placed on the roadway to allow drivers to see where
they were supposed to go. Large orange cones were placed in the
corners as well, giving drivers a point of reference as to where the
judges wanted to see them apexing.
Immediately
prior to the qualifying, Keiichi Tsuchiya (aka the “Drift King,”
and head judge of the D1) called all drivers together for a drivers
meeting and orientation on the course. Tsuchiya explained, through
the translation of Toshi Hayame, that exactly what he wanted to see
the drivers doing while going through the course. According to other
drivers in attendance, the judging standards seem to have gotten
increasingly technical over the last year.
Tsuchiya
explained that in the first banked corner, drivers should be at full
throttle and tracing the wall with the rear of their vehicle. He
then outlined the line they were to take when coming in through a
chicane area, and then explained that the line through the final
banked corner was actually through the middle of the roadway and not
along the wall, as that would scrub too much speed. Tsuchiya also
made use of line judges in the corners to determine exactly how
close drivers were getting to the clipping points. If more than a
certain distance from the clipping point, a point deduction was
levied. A speed gun was also setup on the course and Tsuchiya made
it clear that anyone under 66 MPH at a certain turn in point would
be disqualified.
For
the actual qualifying, 3 vehicles were put onto the track at a time
and were given 3 passes for scoring. Slowly, all hopeful vehicles
ran the course as Tsuchiya and Suzuki made their marks to determine
their fate.
It
was now near the end of the day and the drivers gathered around for
a final driver’s meeting in which the remaining qualifiers would
be selected for Saturday’s competition. Samuel Hubinette was
selected first out of all drivers with the highest scoring run for
today. Other drivers stood up with him as they were called by
Tsuchiya as qualifiers: Drift Samurai, Koguchi, Gitten, Hibino,
Kuroi, Ueno, Yoshioka (Julius), and several others. Unfortunately
Barry Wong Ross Petty, and Alex Pfeiffer were both knocked out of
competition at this point and would not be allowed to compete at
Saturday’s event.
After
a congratulatory round of applause, drivers returned to their pit
areas to cleanup and return to their hotels; tomorrow would be a big
day.
Saturday
March 4, 2006
We
arrived at Irwindale Speedway at about 11am. Gates had opened at 9am
and the place was already pretty packed. Hundreds of spectators
walked through the small car show and vendor areas buying stickers,
shirts, and food & drinks.
By 12pm, the Pit Area had opened up to the public and all drivers,
even ones that had been eliminated from competition the day before,
were present to meet and greet fans and sign autographs. Most of the
US drivers seemed amiable and friendly, but statements heard amongst
the crowd and various sources said that several of the US drivers
have let fame get to their heads.
At
2:30pm, the opening ceremony was about to start and we went into the
media area. The media tent was setup very nicely by the title
sponsor Shark Energy drink. We enjoyed some tasty energy beverages
and sandwiches provide by Shark and were quickly refueled and ready
for more action. The media tent was also a great viewing location,
located along the wall of the second banked corner. I hung back in
the tent while other media people rushed right up to the track
fence. Little did they know that they would be pelted by debris and
rubber dust each and every time a vehicle blasted through that
banked corner.
After
taking a few pictures from the media tent, I decided to join Drift
Session Japan liaison Justin Carvalho in the main grandstands. Lucky
for me, Justin and his 2 friends decided to stretch out on the
bleachers, giving us enough room to sit. It seemed as though just
about every other seat on the grandstands was occupied. The D1
Organization also put out an additional set of bleachers right
behind the judging stand, on the inside of the track oval. $15
additional dollars was all that it took to get you out to those
bleachers for an even closer view of the track.
First
up in the competition, the top 32 drivers had to do a solo pass (“Tansou”)
to be judged whether or not they would continue on to the Best 16.
In a freak accident, veteran driver and 2002 D1 Grand Prix champion
Katsuhiro Ueo was taking his warmup lap when he seemed to lose
control of his vehicle at low speed, sending him into the outside
wall. Everyone in the audience was stunned. This wasn’t even a
judged pass; it was just the warmup! Ueo came back though in full
force on his second pass, absolutely blasting it through the course
and sending up such smoke and debris that everyone behind the fence
at the second banked corner had to turn away.
The
thing that was the most interesting to me about the USA D1 Grand
Prix was the type of audience that was there and what they thought
of drifting. I spent some time during the day looking around at the
various booths and talking to drivers, spectators, and media people
just to get a feel for the tone of drifting in the US mainland.
From
what I was able to get, some fans are only interested in the
Japanese drivers. Any white guy out there was going to get booed no
matter how well they did. Other fans were die hard “USA” types
that would complain about judging and favoritism constantly when US
drivers either lost or were not allowed to progress. Those were the
two contrasting types of spectators, but they were in the minority.
I think the majority of spectators at the D1 were just along for the
ride. They weren’t overly interested in drifting, but the sheer
spectacle of the D1 event and hype brought them out to the track.
They didn’t especially know who to cheer for or what they were
cheering for, but tried their best to remember any names off of
their friends Option Video so they could somewhat feel like they
knew what was going on.
From
what I watched of the drivers, I didn’t particularly care for how
several of the USA drivers represented America. Maybe I’m
imagining things, but many of the US drivers seemed a bit unruly,
but not in a goodhearted, playful way, but more of an “I’m a
dick and don’t care about your rules” kind of way. During some
of the qualifying runs, Hubinette could be seen staging long
burnouts to warm up his tires at the end of the line; very
disrespectful and not classy at all. Other US drivers were
continuing to drift after the end of the course, coming fairly close
to other drivers waiting their turn in line; again, not cool.
To
find out more about the event and how everyone placed, you’ll need
to go out and get your own JDM Option video so you can watch the
entire competition.
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