Going Out On Top - Tsukuba Circuit Retirement Party

Tsuchiya says he only has two regrets in his life so far. One is that he never got a chance to compete in the AE86 N2 championships, and the other being that he missed this year's Super Bowl halftime show. Even though we couldn't stage another wardrobe malfunction, at least one of Tsuchiya's wishes finally came true. As we all know, Tsuchiya is an avid fan of the Hachiroku. Eleven contestants including Tsuchiya, Wakisaka, and Orido competed in the AE86 N2 final race. Tsuchiya raced in a TRD works Hachiroku. These are probably the fastest Corollas in the world, able to lap Tsukuba in 1 minute flat in good conditions. The race became heated right away and one car blocked the course as it spun out of control on the first lap. Tsuchiya should be called The Master Mr. Miyagi of Hachirokus because in the end he whooped everyone, grabbing the fastest lap time of 1:00 en route to taking home the championship. I keep asking myself, why is he retiring?

Next up was the GT-R and Silvia Tuner battle. Nismo showed up with its BNR34 with a 2.7L RB26 that puts out 493 hp @ 7,600 rpm. The Nismo gang also brought its S15 R tune. Tsuchiya took the R34 and "No One Better" Taniguchi picked the Silvia R tune. These may be Nismo flagship cars tuned to the max, but they are still designed to be street legal. MCR had its touge special 34GT-R driven by MCR chief Shinichi Kobayashi. Somehow he reminds me of Antonio Inoki, but I'm not going to tell him that. (Don't worry, Taro, we'll send him the story.-Staff) Yashio head Okamura-san was in his Yashio Factory Okachan F-15, Manabu Orido was in the Mine's GT-R, and Shunei "Mini Me" Kawasaki drove his very own Autoland Yamagata S14.

Orido had the fastest preliminary lap time with the Mine's GT-R, but the starting grid was staged in reverse order, meaning that the faster cars started from the back. The battle for the top position became a one-on-one contest between MCR and Mine's. After overtaking the other cars with ease, MCR was in front throughout the race until the Mine's GT-R finally caught it coming out of the last corner and took the lead on the final straight to win the battle. Mine's is known for fine-tuning and total balance, but this GT-R was anything but "fine" as its 592hp package allowed Orido to rip around Tsukuba at 57 seconds, literally tearing up the track. But the biggest upset was Okachan and his F-15 coming in third place, putting both the Nismo GT-R and S15 to shame.

To top off the day, Keiichi Tsuchiya was given a final chance to break the GT car Tsukuba time attack record. He had two tries earlier in the day with the morning runs scheduled to test and tune the car in preparation for the afternoon finale. Before the morning session, Nishizawa, the event's emcee, tried to persuade Tsuchiya to reserve his strength, but he pushed his number 8 NSX and broke the 53-second flat record set by Satoshi Motoyama in the Pennzoil JGTC GT-R.