Toyota Corolla during practice
During Friday and Saturday (the 13th and 14th), the best drifters from both countries will battle it out to the top in the Vegas night time, one of the few places where the competitions are not hosted during the day (and who would want to stand around in the Las Vegas heat anyways?).
On Friday the13th (no pun intended), unlicensed drivers will have the chance to participate in a Driver’s Seach to earn their licenses and qualify for the main event, which will be hosted on Saturday, July 14th. Practice will go on during the day and be carried out until sunset. After dusk, the lights will come up and the qualifying rounds will begin. The exhibition match starts at 9pm and it will continue until a driver is victorious. Returning to the judging stand is the popular trio: Keiichi Tsuchiya (the "Drift King"), Manabu Suzuki ("Mana-P"), and D1 Street Legal Series driver Hisashi Kamimoto. Toshi Hayama will be joining the judges stand to commentate on the judges’ analysis. The top two drivers will go home with a combined cash prize of $7000, $5000 for the first place and $2000 for the runner-up, courtesy of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Falken Mustang driven by Vaughn Gittin JR
Below is a list of the licensed D1 drivers that have already signed up for the Las Vegas exhibition match:
| D1 Licensed Japan Drivers |
| |
Driver Name |
Team/Vehicle |
| 1 |
Nobushige Kumakubo |
Team Orange GDB Impreza |
| 2 |
Kazuhiro Tanaka |
Team Orange GDB Impreza |
| 3 |
Takahiro Ueno |
T&E Vertex Toyota Soarer |
| 4 |
Ken Nomura |
Blitz Nissan Skyline |
| 5 |
Yoichi Imamura |
ORC Nissan Fairlady Z |
| 6 |
Atsushi Kuroi |
Toyo Nissan Silvia |
| 7 |
Daigo Saito |
Funatz Toyota Chaser |
| 8 |
Toshiki Yoshioka |
Droo-P Toyota Corolla |
| 9 |
Kazuyoshi Okamura |
Yashio Factory Nissan Silvia |
| 10 |
Katsuhiro Ueo |
Team M.O.V.E Nissan Silvia |
| 11 |
Hideo Hiraoka |
Team M.O.V.E Nissan Silvia |
| 12 |
Tetsuya Hibino |
Sunrise Toyota Corolla |
| 13 |
Michihiro Takatori |
Super Autobacs Nissan Cefiro |
| |
| D1 Licensed USA Drivers |
| |
Driver Name |
Team/Vehicle |
| 14 |
Ernie Fixmer |
KURE International Nissan Silvia |
| 15 |
Brian Wilkerson |
MA-Motorsports Nissan 240SX |
| 16 |
Chanin Prapopyuenyong |
Tiger Racing Nissan 240SX |
| 17 |
Hubert Young |
Team Milano Nissan 240SX |
| 18 |
Jayitr Sritongkham |
Tiger Racing Nissan 240SX |
| 19 |
John Russakoff |
Speed Machine Toyota Corolla |
| 20 |
Justin Pawlak |
SR Motoring Mazda RX-7 |
| 21 |
Quoc Ly |
Drift Speed Nissan 240SX |
| 22 |
Ryan Hampton |
McKinney Chevy Corvette |
| 23 |
Chelsea DeNofa |
Drift Brigade Mazda Miata |
| 24 |
Nathan Brasz |
Zero lift/Cooper Tires Nissan 240SX |
