While sadly I’m not going as I’m busy, I thought I’d just remind everyone that the Drift Matsuri is on this weekend. So if you’re in Japan get your ass there, if not then keep a look out on the usual sources like Noriyaro and Speedhunters etc for pics and video in the near future.
Here’s a random pic from the event that I stole from Speedhunters. You can see some of the nice autumn foilage in the background lol
and here’s the first video that came up with a google search…
… aaaand finishing up my posting of my D1 pics from June, here are the pics of what half the people with cameras went to the event for…. the ladies!
The Up Garage girls seemed to be the most popular on the day so I’ll start with them.
After the day’s events had wrapped up on the track, alot of the crowd headed to the pits for some Q&A sessions with some of the drivers and the girls
I saw these girls roaming the pits earlier trying to flog what I think was “D1 water”…. they weren’t so popular hahaha
This last guy was just plain creepy. He used the cute plush toys as a lure to get the girls closer to him. I saw him a few times during the afternoon, everytime chatting to one of the girls.
I honestly doubt he watched a minute of action on the track. If he did I’m sure that a girl would have been involved somehow
Yes still more pics from the D1GP!
As it’s the 10th anniversary year of the D1GP they also had like a mini-museum kinda room in the pits with memorabilia .
To my surprise they actually gave some of this away at the end of the day with a massive knockout ‘janken’ competition (paper-rock-scissors).
It was pretty fun and I almost won one of the rims too, I think i was in the last 3 or 4 left in that round.
The pit area was kinda lamer than expected but it was cool to get up close and personal with the cars, drivers, pit girls etc.
Kumakubo, the infamous owner/driver of Team Orange and owner of the Ebisu circuit was there signing Team Orange gear. I got him to sign a tee…but the signature washed out the first wash! (Maybe I shouldn’t have worn it? hahaha)
(ignore the fact I’m wearing crocs, I’ll explain that in a later post hahaha)
These two cars limped back to the pit area early after having some mechanical issues
While they probably wouldn’t look any good on many cars I loved these orange gram lights
Weld had this pair of JZX100′s on display lol
They copied the idea with this Z…. but the end result just wasn’t as impressive.
On the other side of the pits was the main straight.
I dunno what a limo 300c has to do with Rire Racing but it was sure getting alot of looks.
Tetsuya Hibino and Matsuoka-san from the Up Garage team were giving a little Q&A talk ….
But the guys next door at the Toyo tent were a little too noisey for their liking…
So they let them know it hahaha
but I’m not sure if I’d mess with Drift Samurai. The dude is packing!
These pics are from June when they had round 3 of the D1GP at Fuji Speedway. I wasn’t posting on my blog at the time so here they are, better late than never!!
It was my first D1 event as most of the tracks are quite far away from me. The first thing I noticed as I made it to the hill where everyone was sitting was how many families were there. I couldn’t believe it when I saw mums, grandmas and kids politely clapping when there was a good run.
A few action shots…
Youichi Inamura ended up taking out the honours for the day and Ken Nomura came in second. (If I remember correctly Nomura limped throught he last round with a trashed gearbox?)
