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The 2009 D1 GP Japan drift series kicked off with the first round in Ebisu over the March 28th 29th weekend.

A sell out crowd filled the Ebisu south course stands and braved the ZERO degree chills and snow to see the best drifters Japan has to offer!

To cut to the chase, here are the Top 8 results from Round 1 of D1 GP Japan 2009:

1. Nomura Ken (white R34 skyline)
2. Imamura Yoichi (red S15 slivia)
3. Saito Daigo (red JZX100 chaser)
4. Tezuka Tsuyoshi (yellow R32 skyline)
5. Suenaga Masao (white FD RX-7)
6. Kuroi (blue Toyo S13 one-via)
7. Kumakubo Nobushige (Evo 10 Lancer)
8. Koguchi (dark red 180sx)

All eyes were on Kumakubo in his new Evo 10 Lancer drift machine (7th place) so it was a shame to see him get knocked out against Tezuka in the R32. Tezuka was in fact drifting like a champ all day, so it was good to see him advance.

Another upset was Saito Daigo (last years overall champ - JZX100) getting knocked out in the semi-finals vs. Imamura (red S15)....Saito's car is an abolute monster and he was driving it aggressively all day.


The final round brought Nomuken and Imamura head to head.

Imamura lead the first run but his engine broke, stopped and he couldn't start it for the second run so Nomuken won by default.


It started snowing just before the final round so everyone was in a hurry to get home anyway...so thanks Yoichi, you saved us a few extra minutes of pain!

A great day of drifting even though it was freezing cold!

The next rounds in Ebisu will be round 5 and 6 in August (summer) so it will be nice and hot and I can watch it without shivering and catching a cold.

Ueno's Series 3 BMW drift car was in the pits but never made it out to the track. The car is beautifully made and will be great to see it out drifting amongst the Japanese cars.

Also, Saito Daigo's Mustang was on display but not driven...that car is supposed to be prepped and ready for the track during this season some time. Keep your eyes peeled for that!

Round 2 of the 2009 D1 GP Drift season will be held in Autopolis on April 26th.

Unfortunately, it's at the other end of Japan and as much as I'd like to go, I'll have to skip it. But I'll keep you updated on the results from that and the rest of the 2009 D1 drift season!

Live hard - Drift safe!

Stu
Owner of www.DriftinJapan.com

Labels: 2009, BMW-drift-car, D1, d1-2009, d1-japan, d1-japan-2009, D1GP, D1GP-japan, ebisu, evo-10, evo-X, kumakubo, kumakubo-evo-X-10, lancer drift car, lancer-evo-10-driftcar, mustang-drift-car, nomuken

It's a brand new year and a new 2009 D1GP drift season is about to begin here in Japan!

With the new season also comes a few new D1 drift cars. It's always cool to see a new line up of cars from your favorite D1 GP Japan drivers.

Kumakubo's New Evo 10 Drift machine!

Kumakubo from Team Orange has yet another orange Evo drift car. He will debut in his newly prepped Lancer Evo X which he tested out at Tokyo Auto Salon earlier this month.


Rumors have it that Suenaga Naoto will be inherting Kuma's old Evo 9 to drive in the 2009 D1 season. Naoto was driving the orange GC8 Impreza for the last couple of years.

2008 D1 Japan Champion Daigo Saito Switches to American Muscle!


2008 D1 GP Japan champ Saito Daigo will be driving this red Ford Mustang in the 2009 D1 Gp Japan drift competition adding some "international" spice to the D1 mix this year.

Daigo won last years D1 GP Japan championship in his dark red Mark II Chaser.

It'll be interesting to see how this torquey American v8 machine handles on the Japanese drift circuits against the Japanese turbo units.

Some other changes to watch out for....

The color scheme of Suenaga Masao's FD Rx7 which used to be wrapped in the sky blue Amemiya colors will be racing in white, green and black...still the same car though by the looks of it.

Another change is the blue Toyo 180sx behind him which is what the 2007 D1 champion Kawabta will be driving in 2009. He used to drive a S15 Silvia which won him the trophy in the


This slick new 355i BMW is Ueno Takahiro's new drift machine!

Quite a radical change from the old red Vertex Soarer he was know for for so many years.

Apparently, the soarer is one of the hardest cars to drift. Good luck to him in his new "expensive" European weapon.


With a broad variety of new drift cars entering this years D1 season, it makes for some very interesting battles!

Can't wait to go to the first round in Ebisu in March.

Stay tuned as next I'll be posting the D1 GP 2009 Japan season calendar.

Cheers,
Stu

:)

Labels: kumakubo-evo-X-10, lancer-evo-10-driftcar, new-d1-drift-cars-2009, saito-daigo-mustang-drift-car, ueno-bmw-drift-car