2006 Motorsports Challenge Japan - Riceboys

Another thing I loved about the event was the whole grassroots feeling of it. There were no tire sponsors or manufacturer-backed cars. There were no sick Tokyo Auto Salon cars. These were all "street legal" cars hand-tuned by either the drivers themselves or their buddies running a speed shop down the street. The majority of the cars were old school Hachis, Soarers, Chasers, and Silvias. These cars are what drifting is all about in Japan.

The MSC series has picked up a big following this year-150 people signed up for this Nikko event alone. The interesting thing about MSC is that the judges vary depending on the particular event and at this round Manabu Orido, Nobuteru Taniguchi, and MSC executive producer Kazuhiko Iwata decided who went to the finals and who went home.

The expert class had 73 entries from drifters all around the Kanto region. The usual format of drifting events in Nikko is "roulette" style where cars go around the track during a set time period. But on this day the drivers drifted in front of the judges' tent one by one with three runs per car. Out of the 73 cars, 32 cars moved to the next round. In the next round, each car only passed in front of the two JDM drift stars and Iwata. The final round featured 12 cars with only one run each. Car no. 100, Miura in his RPS13, advanced with great speed and line. No. 124, Inoue in the S15, produced a great run just skimming the rim of the track. Orido gave him a perfect 100-point score for this pass. Inoue blasted past this round and advanced to the finals. No. 110, Ochiai in the PS13, also nailed his run with an excellent line and major smoke. No. 103, Murakoshi in the AE86, also showed great stability without any corrections to land in the final six. Another great part about making the final six is that the top five earn an entry to the MSC Japan Championships at the end of the year (well, maybe it's only great for the top five).