Top Speed recently had the opportunity to attend the second round of the D1GP USA. The experience was unforgettable to say the least. The event gave almost 100 drifting hopefuls the opportunity to compete alongside seasoned veterans and even last year’s champion from the professional drifting series. In the end it came down to a Green S14 from Finland, the four door Skyline of Nomuken and last year’s D1GP champion Daigo Saito standing atop the podium.
This clip comes from the semi final round when Daigo Saito was applying the pressure in his grey Toyota Chaser to Tanaka’s Team Orange Impreza.
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?
The D1 organizers have finally gotten there act together and after years of anticipation, they have found the good sense to come down to sunny South Florida. Round 2 of the 2009 D1GP USA series is rolling into Gulfstream Park this for one day only. It will be an entire day filled with sideways antics of the Japanese D1 professionals, stunt riding from the Adrenaline Crew, the finest that South Beach has to offer strutting their stuff at the bikini show and the start of the Roadstar car show. The only thing that could spoil the party is the rain, but it will just make the drifting that much better.
So, head on down to 901 S Federal Highway in Hallandale Beach this Saturday for an unforgettable automotive experience, just remember to bring a raincoat.
Don’t forget to enter Top Speed’s ticket giveaway for your chance to take home some tickets to a D1 event near you.
Just a reminder to all of the drifting fans out there in cyberspace. Round 2 of the D1GP USA tour is taking place at Gulfstream Park just north of Miami, here in sunny South Florida on May 30th. Last year’s D1 Champion, Daigo Saito already scored a win in Anaheim, and American hopeful Forrest Wang managed to sneak up onto the podium.
So don’t miss out on your chance to see Nomuken’s new paint job and Kumakubo drifting the classic Team Orange Impreza. If you miss this one, you will only have two more opportunities to see the stars of the Japanese drifting series strut there stuff here in the U.S. Round 3 will take place in Philadelphia on July 18th, and the final round of D1GP USA action will be held at Soldier Field in Chicago on August 1st.
Check out the link above to enter Top Speed’s D1GP USA ticket giveaway, for the chance to win your way in to a D1 event near you.
The second round of D1GP USA action was supposed to take place at Dolphin Stadium in Miami. Well the venue has been changed, but not to worry, the new location is only about 7 miles to the east, 15 minutes closer to the beach, to the Gulfstream Raceway Park. The racetrack typically reserved for horses is located at 901 S Federal Hwy in Hallandale Beach. So if you up where the Dolphins do their thing on May 30th you’ll probably be all alone, so don’t forget: D1GP USA round 2 Miami at the Gulfstream Park Race Track.
Well round 1 of the D1GP USA tour has come and gone, and to no surprise left two of the six competing Japanese drivers atop the podium. Last year’s champion Daigo Saito came in first place with Nobushige Kumakubo coming is second. But the real news comes from the American drifter Forrest Wang showing the rest of the field how it’s done drifting his way to a third place finish in Anaheim.
The next round of D1GP USA action will take place at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Florida at the end of the month on May 30. Don’t miss out.
With the first round of the 2009 D1GP USA series less than a week away the officials at D1 have confirmed the Japanese professionals that will be loading their machines onto freighters and packing their racing suits for the first round of stateside competition in Anaheim on May 2nd.
The drivers confirmed for the 2009 D1GP series are former professional drift champions Daigo Saito (2008) and Nobushige Kumakubo (2006). Saito will be competing in his 800 HP four door Toyota Chaser, and unfortunately for diamond star fans Kumakubo will leave his JUN powered rear wheel drive EVO X in Japan and instead compete in the Team Orange Subaru WRX. D1 veteran and Vertex owner Takahiro Ueno will compete in his beloved twin turbo Toyota Soarer, better known as a Lexus SC300 here in the U.S. Toshiki Yoshioka will not be driving his latest generation Lexus SC430 and instead has found a ride in the Driftspeed S15 Nissan Silvia. Providing comic relief in the pits will be the “Monkey Man” Ken Nomura piloting his longtime favorite four-door R34 Nissan Skyline. New to competition but not to the sport, Daijiro Inada the founder of the D1GP will suit up to compete in Anaheim.
Takahioro Ueno is another one of the senior drifters competing in the D1GP professional drifting championship. Ueno has taken his love for the Toyota Soarer (Lexus SC300 in America) very seriously. In 1996 he founded the tuning shop Car Make T&E, owners of Vertex Aero parts. Using his Soarer as a test bed for the company’s body kits he uses the D1 competition to showcase the simplistic and elegant designs they create. He has entered the same model Toyota in every round of D1 competition since he began drifting professionally in 2001. Ueno had great success in his debut year, winning round 4 at Ebisu and finishing 3rd in the overall point’s championship. Unfortunately he has not been able to recapture his original success but devoted to the JZZ 30 chassis he is back competing in the same red Toyota Soarer for the 2009 D1GP Championship.
The Japanese drifter Yoichi Imamura has competed in the D1GP professional drifting league since it began back in 2000. He originally competed in a favorite of drifters around the world, a lightweight Toyota AE86. In 2002 he began competing for Apex’i and ran the first three round of the season in a turbocharged Toyota Altezza before switching makes in favor of an FD Mazda RX-7. After a year of getting the rotary powered drift machine dialed in Imamura was able to win the 2003 D1GP Championship.
You would think that for the founder of the D1GP professional drifting series sliding a car sideways would be second nature. Given a quick tutorial by the "Monkey Man" Ken Nomura, Option Video and D1 pioneer Daijiro Inada gives drifting this S13 Silva a shot. As the video proves, drifting ain’t easy.
