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Article
by: Justin Carvalho
D1
Street Legal, Round 1: DEC Sekiya Hills; Kumamoto, Japan.
February
4th, 2006. We woke up bright and early to be welcomed to
a freak snow storm.
As
I looked out the window, I was shocked to see 3-4 inches of snow on
the ground. It does snow in Southern Japan, but this was not in the
weather report, and it snowed a lot more than usual.
Despite
the snow, we hit the road and headed to Sekia Hills Circuit in
Kumamoto Prefecture. Luckily the drive took only a little more than
an hour. Of course we were a little side tracked when we came across
the “Omoshiro-kan” or “Pleasure Shack”. My friends and I
have seen them before, but we figured it was time to actually see
what was inside. Anyways, I will let the pictures speak for
themselves.
We
arrived at Sekia Hills at about 8:30am, giving us plenty of time to
get good seat for the day. Being that it was only the qualifying
day, there weren’t as many people as I expected.
The
drivers were divided into 4 heats and were sent out one heat at a
time. There were a total of 55 drivers in this event. We were happy
to see many of our favorite drivers from D-1 also entered the
competition. The list included Kumamoto’s own Ueo Katsuhiro,
Fukuoka’s Nomura Ken, and Kagoshima’s Suenaga Masao. (These are
all neighboring prefectures in Kyushu, Japan.) Other attending D-1
drivers were Drift Samurai in the Drift Tengoku Pink Chaser, newly
licensed Yashio Factory owner Okamura Kazuyoshi, Kamimoto Hisashi,
Ichinagi Kazuto, and last but not least Inada Daijiro.
Most
of the drivers started out the day slow as they got used to the wet
and icy track. As the snow stopped and the sun came out, the track
was dry by 11:00am. With the track dry, the drivers’ aggression
and speed rose. I am usually not impressed with FF drifting but
Yoshimura Takuya’s EG6 Civic Hatchback was on fire that day. Mr.
Yoshimura, of Fukuoka Prefecture, was the only FF drifter to enter
this event. Other impressive drifters were Drift Samurai in the
automatic transmission Chaser, Okamura Kazuyoshi easily connecting
the whole track in his self built pink Yashio Factory car. Also I
want to give big props to the women drifters that made it to the
second day’s competition, Nakamura Mai (pink S15) and Hayashi
Yukino (green Soarer).
The
day ended with 32 drivers continuing on to the next day’s
competition. The day ended with some comical antics from Inada
Daijiro. Mr. Inada was mad because he never made it to the next
day’s competition so he called up head judge Tsuchiya Keichi on
his cell phone to get him to be allowed in the next day’s event.
After judge Suzuki Manabu and Tsuchiya talked on Mr. Inada’s cell
phone, it was decided that he would not be given special favors for
the event.
As
the D-1 Street Legal Season progresses, I am sure the drivers’
levels will also progress.
Good
luck to all the drivers in Japan and abroad.
DRIVER
- CHASIS - POINTS
1.
Suanaga Masao FD3S 20p
2.
Hiyane Yoshi AE86 18p
3.
Matsukawa Kazuya RPS13 16p
4.
Murakami Yuuichi S14 14p
5.
Ogisako Takashi PS13 12p
6.
Hirashima Akihiko PS13 10p
7.
Koga Seishin S14 8p
8
Yasukouchi Shinichiro AE86 6p
9.
Hibino Tetsuya AE86 4p
10.
Okamura Kazuyoshi S15 2p
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