Seeing as I’m putting up a lot of videos recently, I thought I’d dig this old GoPro2 footage out and edit it up.
This was in about mid-2011 at a Wind’s Auto weekday event. It wasn’t a very busy day, so Daigo decided to get his jollies by tandeming (is that a word?) myself and Andy from Powervehicles at every opportunity.
For some outside footage, check this video shot by Powervehicles. As you can see from the horribly taped up rear quarter, this was shortly after I had that crash at Maze Circuit.
Here’s some on-board video of my R32 Skyline missile from an event on the 29th of December last year at Okegawa Sports Land, as seen in these previous posts.
Unfortunately, this will probably be the last time drifting will ever be seen at Okegawa, as the circuit owners are not too keen on how dirty and chewed-up the track gets after drift days. There are usually consecutive drift events held on the last weekend before New Year’s, so at least we were able to attend that before they ban drifting and return to their usual clientele of motorcycles and karts. This is a right shame because it really is a fun circuit to drive, and is the closest one to where I live.
For everyone else out there, look after your local drift track! Take all your used tyres and garbage home with you, even little things like used zip-ties and cigarette butts, avoid dirt-drops, clean up any fluid leaks and help keep your track clean!
If you’d like to see some more action from Okegawa, click here to view Noriyaro Raw Video #3 cued up to the right part.
If you liked the helmet-cam video from Sports Land Yamanashi, you’re going to find this one rather enjoyable too.
Early last December, I took the Mark II out to Tsukuba Circuit at the AE86 Matsuri (this crash video on the first corner was from that event too). There were three drifting sessions scheduled during the day in-between races, an NA-class, which was basically an AE86 class, and a turbo class. Since I had to take photos for one of my sessions, I only managed to get in about nine laps for the whole day, but I still managed to get in a couple of decent runs.
私の筑波本コースのへたくそドリフトを見てください。ＨＤもあるよ！
The first half of the video is drifting. The second half is the drive back through the pits. For bonus points, see if you can spot Keiichi Tsuchiya’s striped N2 coupe and his personal Trueno somewhere in the pits.
Last Sunday, I attended a drift day at Sports Land Yamanashi. You can occasionally see it in really old drifting videos, but the owner isn’t really a fan of how drifting tends to tear up the sides of the track, and rarely runs drift days there. Since local drivers quite easily fill up the numbers, events aren’t announced through the usual magazine and website channels, so after seeing 396 Motoring Ishiai, who lives about ten minutes from the track, in a video from a day there earlier last year, I asked if he’d kindly inform me the next time one was on.
Even though it was only a little day, D1 drivers Koguchi, Orido, Tokita and Imamura were there drifting as well, which added to the fun. It’s Imamura’s home course too, so I was able to get a bit of good advice on how to properly tackle the corners.
The circuit owner’s briefing was quite harsh compared to those at other tracks. Purposely doing a dirt-drop was about a $150 fine, damaging a tyre barrier was a $30 fine and doing a burnout u-turn was also a fine. Even though he was quite strict at the briefing, he was actually very nice when I saw him in the office and asked for a photographer’s vest so I could take some photos. I think all the warnings were just to keep people on their toes.
Towards the end of the day, I dodgeyed-up my little Bloggie video camera to my helmet with gaffer tape. Check out 396 Motoring Ishiai’s awesome entry and spin at the end of the video. It’s a bit hard to see, but the rear of his car jumped about a foot up into in the air!
I didn’t know that unmarked highway patrol units actually have patrol lights that pop out of a little hatch on the roof, just like in Seibu Keisatsu! One of the officers was actually quite keen on Holdens and watched Top Gear too, but he said it was annoying that they’ve only subtitled it up to season 5 on TV here.
