2009 proved to be a very exciting year for D1. Youichi Imamura became the first driver to win two championships, his first back in 2003 behind the wheel of the Apexi RX-7. His Auto Produce Boss built S15, based on Yasuyuki Kazama's old 2005 championship winner car, allowed him to grab points consistently at each round allowing him to finish ahead
I couldn't pass up using this picture as the opening shot for a last look at the action from the Street Legal event in Nikko. During the driver presentation Jikuya got the judges and spectators falling over laughing when he slowly made his way onto the track on a dekotora- styled bicycle! At the same time Nakamura was on his own customized pushbike
Time to head back at Nikko for more coverage from the third round of the Street Legal championship which as we saw in Part 1 , was won by Nakamura, in his D-max S15. Every time I go to Nikko I end up taking way too many pictures, bad for me as I need to sort through all of them once I get home, but good for you guys as you can see how the crazy Japanese
It seems we just can't keep away from tire smoke here at Speedhunters! With Mike and Linhbergh in Vegas for Formula D and Ross at Santa Pod for the NFS European Drift Championship, I certainly couldn't come up empty handed from over here in Japan, could I? So it was yet another early rise as I got in the Legacy and shot up the Higashi Kanto
As I begin to get ready for my departure towards Okayama for this week-end's D1 Grand Prix event, I thought this would be a good time to wrap up the coverage from the D1 Street Legal round up in Ebisu. This was rather amusing, all the judges posing for the official D1 photographer and pulling weird faces. Nomuken seems rather confused LOL Okachan
The Street Legal action over in Ebisu kicked off very early on Saturday morning, which meant I needed to get on the road by a frankly absurd 4 am to make my way up to Fukushima in time. What I like about covering both days of a D1 event is that you get to see a far broader selection of cars, not just the seeded and top qualifiers. Kazama Auto with Moty's
What a week-end this has been! Two days of non-stop drifting as the D1 Street Legal guys battled it out at Ebisu circuit. I am beyond sleep deprived, so you will have to wait until tomorrow for a proper post on this action-packed event. For now, I've selected some teaser shots to keep you happy, but I'll be posting a lot more in the coming days