D1 is an amazing thing. It can literally stop the aging process. Now we don’t know if it’s the fan friendly atmosphere or pure senselessness of wasting so much wide rubber, but this professional drift phenomenon has the ability to turn 35 year old men pushing their kids out of the way in order to get an autograph from one of the professionals themselves, or just losing your hearing while watching the exotic machines idle in the pit lane where the seasoned veterans, there since the beginning like Nomuken and Ueno sit proudly next to their Skyline and Soarer, the latter taking a moment to capture the scene on his camera phone.

Laughing with their crew, taking photographs with fans, even taking a smoke break. These are two 40+ year old men who are having the times of their lives. Earning a living traveling the world, doing what most people are arrested for and are adored for it. They are showmen, but unlike the tired traveling salesmen, these middle aged men look younger than some of those guys with a pen in their hands. Professional drifting looks to be the fountain youth in a cloud of tire smoke, or perhaps just the best midlife crisis of all time?

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