2006 D1GP Drifting Series Final Irwindale Speedway - Twice as Nice

Once the single round passes were complete, four drivers had perfect 100-point scores. Daigo Saito put his big Toyota Chaser in fourth, Masao Suenaga and his GReddy FD came in third, with Tatsuya Sakuma and his S15 landing the second spot. But in this solo round no one was as strong as Tsuyoshi Tezuka and his Skyline GT-R. Tezuka's R32 sports a very rare R34 front-end conversion as well as a Silvia strut-style front suspension swap to provide a sharper steering angle. But our favorite mod is the WRC-style anti-lag system which emitted boombastic blasts with each lift of Tezuka's foot. But Tezuka didn't treat the fans to these explosive backfires nearly enough, as he was pegging it everywhere and whipping the big Nissan around like a little Hachi.

Tezuka dispensed of our boy Gittin in the first tsuiso pairing, only to get rocked by '05 D1GP champ Yasuyuki Kazama in the best eight. In another best eight match-up McNamara came dangerously close to upsetting D1's monkey magic man, Ken Nomura. Nomura's Blitz Skyline was sporting McNamara's Irish window flag in its final four pairing against Kazama's S15. We're pretty sure it was a sign of respect, but it just might have been a spoils-of-war trophy that Nomura the victor claimed from his vanquished foe (oooh, we smell an international controversy, though it might just be last night's dinner). Whatever the case, it wasn't enough as Kazama not only ended Nomura's night but also his championship dreams, essentially handing the trophy to Kumakubo.

This made the other top four match that much more interesting. It was an all orange affair as Kumakubo was going up against his teammate Kazuhiro Tanaka.It was quite a sight to see both Team Orange Imprezas prepare to battle it out. This was compounded by the fact that Kumakubo is not only a Team Orange driver but the team owner as well, which makes Tanaka his employee. Because Kuma already locked up the championship, the twin Imprezas were able to duke it out without any team orders in place (take note, Ferrari). In the end Tanaka triumphed, and the night and championship belonged to Team Orange.

By Carter Jung

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