TOCHIGI BAKA MATSURI 2009: Part I

January 6, 2009 12:30 am Published by

Located about 100km north of Tokyo, Tochigi Prefecture is generally known for it’s beautiful mountainside, gyoza, temples and ski resorts, but is also one of the major hubs of drifting activity on the Kanto plain.

This year’s Tochigi Baka Matsuri (Tochigi Idiot Festival) run by two of the biggest idiots in the prefecture, D1 drivers Hiroshi Fukuda and “Mr Tochigi” Yoshinori Koguchi, was as it suggested, a festival of much idiotic activity, which generally meant a whole lot of drifting was going on.

Nikko Circuit is the only real choice of drift venue in Tochigi for this kind of event, as it has been used for drifting for decades, and has a challenging set of corners that can be difficult to properly tackle for even the best of drivers, while still being easy for beginners to try their skills on.

Both Fukuda and Koguchi drive 180SX cars in the D1 series, so it seems only natural that Tochigi is home to quite a few cool one-eighties.

This one is actually a private replica of Koguchi’s D1 car, using a full set of Koguchi Power fenders, BN Sports bumpers, and Koguchi Power “Teiou” carbon wing.

Of course, S14s aren’t forgotten about.

Neither are S15s, with Garage Friends’ Toru Inose bringing out his nitroused D1 car.

Another Tochigi baka, Kenji Takayama, brought out the orange FC he used in D1 before switching to the R Magic-built FD.

Takuro Watanabe, yet another local idiot, was getting ridiculous angle in his 180SX with super modified front knuckles. More on this in another article.

Missile drifting is the perfect activity for an idiot festival, with lots of drivers bringing out their beaters for some close driving.

Whites of their eyes etc.

Hiromi from Winds Auto was encouraging the following driver almost every run.

Driver’s-side windows are a requirement on almost every Japanese track these days to prevent arms coming out of the window if the car rolls over, which explains the gumtape net on Shinji Minowa’s JZX90 Mark II missile.

This is how much fun Koguchi can have in a near-stock C34 Laurel.

Of course, it doesn’t always go right. Where do you think they get those dents from?

Yukio Matsui and Masahiko Mizuno’s missiles had a little coming together that put them out for the rest of the day.

Most people usually don’t carry spare brake rotors.

Believe it or not, these NASCAR-style steel wheels are sold new as an American-style fashion accessory, and are usually fitted to Hiace vans.

There was also a “rajikon” (RADIo remote CONtrol) course for some scale-model drifting.

A scale-model itadorisha with Lucky Star’s Kona-chan on the bonnet. If you understood most of what I just said, you are a nerd.

Emceeing the event was the voice of D1, Manabu Suzuki. I had to apologise to him for drunkedly accosting him and Keiichi Tsuchiya outside a convenience store at about midnight after the last Fuji Speedway D1 Grand Prix. He accepted my apology and thought it was quite funny.

In the middle of this crowd is the largest tub of instant yakisoba you have ever seen. I didn’t manage to get a photo of it, but I’ll find some I’ll stick some up later. It was quite impressive.

I didn’t get any photos of the bike stunt show either, but here you can clearly see the aftermath.

Unfortunately, the track owner (on the left) wasn’t too happy with the static burnouts the bikes had done, and had a bit of a yell at Fukuda.

I have no idea what these things are based on, but they look like ridiculous amounts of fun. Any scooter experts? Honda Dio?

Part II coming soon!

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This post was written by Alexi

17 Comments

  • maxe says:

    awesome stuff, looking forward to the next update

  • josh young says:

    looks awsome… much bigger than the same event in 2006… although fukuda and co were just as crazy. way more missiles than previously….

  • Warren says:

    I understood dorisha and bonnet. Those missiles pics are awesome, thanks for your good reports.

  • Warren says:

    Sorry for the double comment but the scooter mini bike thing is a suzuki street magic…by the way

  • s0apgun says:

    i love this post

    thanks alexi!

  • deftstyle says:

    Black Silvia really needs new wheels..

  • Polyestergun says:

    Nice shots man, what rims are on the back of the black s13? Those missile drift cars look pretty badass.

  • Geki Minihux says:

    Nice work, looked like a very cool event!!!

    Next year is going to be a sad year for many lower profile D1 driver including Fukuda, with the banks lowering their credit card limits and getting tougher in general it means many drivers wont be able to afford to drift in D1, most of them now are already spending money they dont have, Its pretty sad when speaking to local D1 guys that just battle so hard to attend events.

    MSC is going to get bigger and bigger. Good work with the pictures!!!

  • Fury-S12 says:

    awesome article drifting magazines ans sites everywhere should just close up shop now this is heaps better

    that black 180 looks bloody perfect from behind love it, inose’s s15 has to be one of the craziest sounding cars ever

    i didnt understand anything you said about the rc cars but ive always had a soft spot for them so please explain 😛

    i would also like to purchase one of them flame shirts a few of the guys are wearing , whats the significance of them?

  • Alexi says:

    I would have liked one of those shirts too…but they were strictly for the event workers only. Much like the hoodies worn by the workers at MSC, they were probably something that would have sold well if they were actually on sale.

    The big fluoro logo on the back says “Tochigi Baka”. They were selling stickers at the event too, but they sold out before I managed to get one! There’s going to be another run of them though.

    Also, thanks for everyone who emailed and responded about the name of that scooter stunter.

    i didnt understand anything you said about the rc cars but ive always had a soft spot for them so please explain 😛

    An “itasha” is a car covered with stickers of characters from anime or adult videogames. It’s a pun on the word “itasha” which refers to Italian cars usually, but they replace the characters “イタ” for “Italy” with “痛”, a character that means “painful”, because your average person will look at the car and feel pain.

    “Dorisha” means “drift car”.

    Kona-chan is the character on the bonnet, from the currently popular anime series “Lucky Star”.

  • Dapip says:

    some nice pics,great events….love those beaters driving so close.

  • Fury-S12 says:

    thanx for that alexi sucks they werent for sale id so find a way to get one to me

    haha turns out i did no the itasha bit not the painful bit but wat it means ive got a photoshop of my car with something just like it and well pretty much anyone that sees it feels pain lol

  • Lorenzo says:

    This blog keeps getting better!

    Inose has a nice S15 but he hates me. I publicly shamed him at D1 2 years ago at Fuji when he put his car on my Dyno Dynamics there and had it in “Shootout” mode and the numbers were no where near his claims. You cold of imagine what he felt when he saw the truth of different Chassis Dyno designs show different results. Too bad that time many people were watching and saw the screen.

    Love those missles!
    I should have kept that sweet simple Trueno back then right Josh!

  • DAN-XIII says:

    hey man excellent writeup ur blogs are always worth a look.
    those missile drifters are insane hahah i cant wait to see them in person.

  • Zach says:

    I understood all of it lol

    ULTRA NERD!