2009 AUTUMN DRIFT MATSURI: G1 Grand Prix
November 17, 2009 1:54 pmGood morning!
Just like last time, I spent the night in the car. The Mark II is a bit roomier than the Skyline was though. That’s an orange tarpaulin over the windscreen, if you were wondering.
All the gas stations around Nihonmatsu are quite expensive, including the Eneos just outside the gates of the circuit. I heard they ran out of high octane later on the second day though.
I spent pretty much all of the day drifting on Higashi and Minami, and didn’t really pull out my camera, so this photo is from about 3:15PM, when we had the drivers’ meeting for the first official G1 Grand Prix, “G” standing for gaijin!
A couple of weeks ago, Andy Grey from Powervehicles had suggested that since there were going to be so many foreigners attending the event, we should have a little informal drift competition on the short-course layout of Nishi Course, the same track they use in D1 Street Legal.
He had mentioned this to Kumakubo, who not only made it an official event with trophies and prizes, but called up Drift Tengoku DVD to come out and cover it!
Kumakubo and Suenaga were to be the event judges.
Here, Aniki Suenaga transcribes everyones name from English romaji characters to Japanese katakana. The majority of drivers were from Australia, but there were also Americans and New Zealanders, as well as one Dutchman.
Nothing says “Aussie” like a kangaroo sticking out of some Hard Yakka coveralls.
Now this is cool. The Drift Tengoku crew set up an in-car camera in my Mark II.
We were all given three qualifying runs, and the best four would run battles. The final qualified were myself, Dutchman Paul Vlasblom and Australians Linden Reynolds and Ben Purtell.
Unfortunately, I choked my following run against Linden, so the final was between him and Benny, which he managed to win! Yeah, tandem is something I’ve done almost zero of in the JZX100, since all the competitions here rely so heavily on solo performances. More practice is required.
All Aussie podium! I wasn’t able to take a photo, obviously, so here’s a pic taken by Kumakubo.
Here’s Linden being interviewed by the Drift Tengoku reporter, Bandoh-san. I hope my start-line interview was interesting enough to make it in, since I spoke it all in Japanese.
All packed up, and ready to go home! Matsuri is awesome…
Tags: Drift Matsuri, Ebisu Circuit, G1 Grand PrixCategorised in: Events イベント
This post was written by Alexi
22 Comments
awesome stuff! maybe i can make it to next year’s G1GP and reprezent for Canada (not really though since i only drive FF… 🙁 )
and i never actually noticed your bonnet was aftermarket.. also your rear wheel setup is very agreeable to my tastes 🙂
Congrats on 3rd place
i cannot believe all you guys are going to be in tengoku! that is seriosly epic stuff. exiting times. good work man
Heaps good, looks like an awesome event, i wanna go 🙁
oh and when the Drift tengTku comes out can you please post what vol number it is, keen to get a copy 🙂
Great post! Love reading about the matsuri events, wish I could attend one some day, would be EPIC! 🙂
Congrats on the podium place! 😉
What happened to Paul Vlasblom? Wasn’t he accustomed to Nissans yet?
Awesome 😀 I can’t wait to see it on DVD!
Good work on 3rd place. So many Aussies too!
well done to the AUSSIES!!!
any idea what tengoku this is going to be on? id love to grab a copy! cant wait to get over there for this event 🙂
looked like you had a ball, congrats on the 3rd place trophy.
Can’t wait to get over there with a car!!
Super congrats! must be a dream to be filmed by Option.
what volume of Drift Tengoku do you think it will be in i recently got 45 but not sure on what the latest one is
Congratulations on the podium finish, Matsuri looked like a great event. Hopefully in a few years I’ll be able to come out an represent England.
Heee so Paul really make it into Drift Matsuri ^^ nice 😉
Congratz on 3rd place 😉
Filmed by Option f*****ck yeah! Congrats on 3rd place man, drift matsuri looks like some much fun..I need a car!!
cool stuff, makes me wanna hurry up and save the cash to get a car and join the fun. well, early next year i hope. Prob about the same time your little Dori-ten DVD might come out…
I wish i could make it to one of those drift matsuri events. Congrats on 3rd place!
Awesome on finishing 3rd.
Which kiwis turned up?
Was Will Cook there? He’s quite crazy in a car.
Likes to wreck stuff too.
I’ll try and bring a contingent of kiwis for the next one.
Brad will be back there and if we can get cars up there we’ll be away!
What dates will it be?
Wow, your doing a great thing man
You should of won Alexi since your the least “gaijin” looking of that bunch lol.
man so pissed we couldn’t enter our car into the G1 event… we shattered the core support and tension rod bracket after about 15 hours of drifting on the first day.
Congrats Alexi and the other AU guys (not too sure if I still consider you an AU guy lol)