A relatively calm crowd accompanied the D1GP opener, but anticipation of the drift event grew strong as the field of predominantly Japanese and a few U.S. drivers pulled up to the pits. Anyone waiting to have a shirt signed or a photo taken with their favorite driver did so now because every key figure, from Taniguchi and Kazama to U.S. favorites Rhys Millen and Tony Angelo, attended the event. The previous day's drivers search brought many hopefuls in an effort to boost the strength of U.S. competitors, but even those selected had a tough and controversial time advancing against the dominant Japanese. No doubt this weekend had plenty of action in store for those who came out.
Some big drivers, however, didn't attend this latest U.S. D1 event. Crowd favorite Katsuhiro Ueo was noticeably absent. All sorts of rumors floated around the pits as to why the `02 D1GP Series Champion and first D1 U.S. winner wasn't back at Irwindale. The word from Keiichi Tsuchiya was that he just didn't make this trip. Top Secret driver Ryuji Miki, who retired his infamous Top Secret S15 that carried him to the `04 D1GP Championship, replaced Izumida behind the wheel of the ORC/Top Secret Z33. And Chunky Bai, Signal Auto's most consistent driver to date, was also missing in action. Mad K replaced Chunky with two new drivers, Yukinobu "Bonny" Okubo and Tsukasa Kamiya. Okubo didn't make the cut, but Kamiya busted into the top 32. However, he couldn't put a clean run together, sending him back to the pits early.
Qualifying Sessions and Drivers Search
Qualifying got off to a very early start on Saturday, just hours before the main event. A press conference announced rule changes for 2005 (see course layout on page 126 for details), D1's debut in two countries, Singapore and England, and the testing of DriftBox, a GPS system that D1 officials are hoping to use in future events to analyze drift lines from a variety of angles. Also, drivers who placed in 11 through 16 would be awarded one point each for doing so. More than 50 contenders came out with hopes of being able to pass "Go" and face off with the top seeded drivers, but most either crashed, broke down, or did not find the right line on the redesigned course.
The new course's appetite for destruction showcased superior driver's talent and punished those not up to the task. The slight configuration tweaks proved to be a handful even for drivers with experience at Irwindale.
Judges required drivers to initiate their drifts much earlier on the Turn 3-4 banking that starts the D1 course. Cones placed on the banking of Turn 4 kept cars up on the wall for as long as possible. "Clipping Point" cones strategically placed at the apexes of some of the turns allowed drivers to earn points by coming close to these markers without actually hitting the cones. Finally, the judges "hinted" about extra points awarded to drivers who tapped the wall without disturbing their angle. (See course layout for detailed description.)
Perhaps the best display of precision placement came from Ken Maeda and his Up Garage AE86. Maeda barely glanced the wall at more than 50 mph without unsettling the car in the least. The only proof that he made contact was the minor scuffs on his still-intact rear bumper. Even `03 Series Champ Imamura clipped the Irwindale wall during a low-speed practice session one week before the event, and Manabu Orido hit hard in his Supra the Friday before. Other major incidents included Kazuhiko Tanaka backing his Team Orange S15 into the judges wall hard on Saturday, and on Sunday Kouichi Yamashita in the JIC S15 scrubbed the high-speed Turn 4 wall. The hit that hurt us the most was watching Yuichirou Takahashi shave the sheetmetal from the right side of the beautiful Weld Mark II we featured in the May `05 issue.
Another noticeable course change was the replacement of the red and white plastic K rails with hay bales to mark the circuit as it weaves through the infield. It turns out the portable barriers were owned by a karting school that had vacated Irwindale since the last D1 event. The hay bales gave the venue a kind of Beverly Hillbilly ghetto look, and Tony Angelo wanted to light them on fire for the finals to give the circuit a sort of "Highway to Hell" feeling.
The drivers search began after a brief exhibition session by the top seeded D1 drivers, but only four drivers--Tony Angelo, Ryan Hampton, Andrew Hately, and Kenji Yamanaka--would received D1 licenses from the judges. Many debuted new cars for the `05 season. We already mentioned Miki in the new RB26-powered Z33 (which sounded so menacing on the track), and Gen Terasaki's Autobacs AP1 S2000 replaced the AE86 used last season, but it saw heavy damage during the course of the day. Yoshinori Koguchi (HPI S15 Silvia) and Calvin Wan (Falken/GReddy V35) also attacked the Irwindale course with their replacement killers, performingexceptionally well early on. Anyone who saw the crazy-looking Drift Samurai walking around probably noticed him in the K-Style 180SX truck when he tapped the wall with the rear end and kept driving, but he did not qualify. Far from the roads of Japan, famous street drifter Yasushi Wakamatsu from Team Marionette took his RPS13 to perfect passes, but he was unable to compete in the top 20 qualifying.
Drift Alliance made a huge showing even though most of its new Falken-sponsored cars weren't ready. Angelo secured his first D1 license, Vaughn Gittin "JR" qualified for the main event, and Chris Forsberg simply could not get the bugs worked out of his new motor, keeping him out of the running for U.S. representation.
Sunday Drivers These Are Not
The crowd trickled in on Sunday for another early start, but by mid-day the stands were packed. The D1 judges changed some rules to encourage the drivers to enter at a much higher speed than previous events and push the cars closer to the wall. Even former D1 judge (and current D1 driver) Manubo Orido in the RS*R Supra underestimated the same turn by going way wide and placing heavy damage on his JZA80, which kept him out of the Top 16. Even after thumping the wall Orido kept his foot in it, taking a few banners and hay bales with him and causing the crowd to go absolutely nutty. Gittin did not move onto the Best 16 after experiencing engine trouble, leaving U.S. representation solely on the proven skills of Millen and his powerful Pontiac GTO.
Not only did Millen have a new paint scheme for his GTO, but he also had a large, clear Lexan diffuser thingy (excuse our aerodynamic jargon) that connected the passenger side C pillar to the wing. The doohickey (another technical term) looked like it was designed to increase the GTOs stability during high speed drifts. It's not as if Millen needs the help; the guy is always smooth as butta. If a non-J-spec driver were to ever win a D1 round, it would probably be Millen.
The Top 16 pitted the best against the best with many of the usual suspects, so the final outcome was tough to predict. Each driver performed beyond his capabilities, showing further improvements from last year's sliding techniques. Nomura blazed the rear wheels heavily, producing a huge cloud of smoke, while the DriftBox telemetry sensors registered Nomuken's wheel speed at more than 100 mph! Maeda performed a textbook perfect drift to advance past Toyohisa Matsuda, and Ueno-san in the Vertex Soarer outdrove `04 D1 champion Miki, who is still getting used to his new Z33 setup. The battle between the top Silvia drivers, NOB and Team Orange's Kumakubo, was a very close call, although the Team Orange leader had tighter control and more aggressive maneuvering against Taniguchi.
With the most popular and winning drivers out of the running, the Top 8 leading into the semifinals proved to be the most exciting, and controversial, part of the day. Although Imamura, Ueno, and Kumakubo all moved to the semis with great ease, the matchup between Millen and Kazama was a bag of mixed feelings, particularly because it seemed that Millen had the upper hand on Kazama on plenty of instances. But Kazama did not back down against the V-8 muscle; he gained the winning nod from the D1 judges and Millen ended his day in an upset.
After much heated debate and driving, the Top 4 were set to stage up the final round. Imamura had the upper hand with a lighter weight chassis against Ueno's heavy Soarer and drove without fault to meet Kazama in the finals, edging out `04's final round D1 winner, Kumakubo. While Imamura put up the good fight, it was no match for Kazama's fast and on-point technique, thus showing plenty of U.S. drift fans that day what it means to once again be the best. Kazama's efforts not only place him at an early lead against his fellow D1 competitors, but also $5K richer!