Drift Tengoku — October 2003

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About this issue

English draft translations are available throughout this issue. Unclear or unreadable OCR remains flagged; these drafts have not received full image proofreading. The archive retains 310 scan files, including two duplicate captures, representing 308 unique pages.

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Page 14 · English draft

Draft translation. Unclear OCR remains flagged; full image proofreading has not been performed.

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  1. Keep an eye on these guys!
  2. Great student drifters — spotlight!
  3. Judging format. Individual: qualifying roulette runs (98 cars down to 30), then round one. Qualifying judging zone: from the straight to before the S-bend. Team: each team ran twice, with placings decided from those runs; judging zone from the straight to before the S-bend. …drivers swept the top spots! [Some clauses are interleaved or damaged in OCR.]
  4. …roulette runs (30 cars to eight), knockout tournament (eight to two), tandem battle (two to one). Round one, the knockout tournament and tandem battles were judged from Turn 1 until the exit of Turn 6. [Fragment continues preceding judging-format text.]
  5. In qualifying, Turn 1's…
  6. Ashikaga Institute of Technology, entered in both classes…
  7. …selected the best 30!
  8. The entry kings
  9. Eastern Japan event
  10. 2
  11. NIKKO CIRCUIT
  12. 3
  13. 1
  14. [Unclear: logo fragment.]
  15. Laughs [isolated caption]
  16. 石島俊, Ashikaga Institute of Technology. Prize: Racing Meter BLM set (Blitz). [Given-name pronunciation unverified.]
  17. Individual competition
  18. Ashikaga Institute of Technology. Prize: … / second: Nihon University. Prize: … (Car Make T&E). [Prize descriptions unclear.]
  19. Team competition
  20. (Takayuki Kawai / Masanori Yonekawa / Shun Ishijima). [Name readings require confirmation.]
  21. 2
  22. Nikko Circuit
  23. 3
  24. Judges
  25. Eastern Japan judges included Dai, Koguchi and Drift Samurai. Yashio Factory's Oka-chan and Kazama Auto also joined specially to see the students drive. [Other name/judging details badly damaged by OCR.]
  26. Second: Yusuke Kimishima, Josai University; prize: four GX-01s (Great Company). Third: Shuichi Hagiwara, Gunma University; prize: … (Proty). Fourth: Takahiro Matsuno, Matsumoto Dental University; prize: … (KSP Engineering). The third-place contest matched Hagiwara of Gunma University against Matsuno of Matsumoto Dental University. But Matsuno's VG30-swapped Laurel had developed exhaust-manifold trouble in round two. Unable to build boost, it stood no chance against the RX-7 with a TO4E turbo. [Prize descriptions and some name/model wording unclear.]
  27. One aero part of the winner’s choice (Final Konnexion); full suspension-arm set (Yanack); ¥30,000 gift certificate (Kazama Auto Service).
  28. (Kengo Kawaguchi / Takashi Kondo / Yukihiro Ueda). [Name readings require confirmation.]
  29. 20 liters of 4CR oil (Wako’s).
  30. The Eastern Japan event drew mainly students from schools in Kanto: 98 individual entries and four team entries comprising 12 people, with 107 participants in total. Under clear skies, Nikko Circuit buzzed with the energy of young students… [Totals are retained as printed; some entrants competed in both classes.]
  31. ¥20,000 gift certificate (Kazama Auto Service).
  32. Third: Kanagawa Institute of Technology
  33. (Sato / Yuta Sawada / Yasushi Iwanaga). [First given name and name readings require confirmation.]
  34. Stickers (BN Sports).
  35. …and their enthusiasm!
  36. Trouble brings disappointment!
  37. The favorite falls!
  38. 萩原秀一 (Gunma University) was a title favorite, but his clutch began slipping just before the event, forcing him to compete with a hurriedly fitted stock clutch. He apparently could not clutch-kick as he wanted with it and lost to Kimishima of Josai University in the tournament’s second round. “My driving skills weren’t good enough,” he said. Admirably, he never blamed the car for losing. [Given-name pronunciation unverified.]
  39. 2
  40. Nikko Circuit
  41. 2 [isolated numeral]
  42. 3
  43. Ikeda of Ashikaga Institute of Technology was adjusting his alignment with a Maple One gauge. “This is my first time adjusting alignment at a circuit,” he said—a sign of how seriously he was taking the event. Unfortunately, he did not make it through qualifying… [Given-name pronunciation unverified.]
  44. Ashikaga Institute of Technology wins both individual and team classes!
  45. With a large field of 98 individual cars at the Eastern Japan event, two ten-minute free-practice sessions were followed by qualifying that narrowed the field sharply to 30. The qualifying question was simply, “How do you attack Turn 1 from the straight?” A single clutch kick was fine; so were a feint or a three-swing entry. We wanted everyone to commit fully using the entry style they liked best. Drivers who made the judges think, “Wow! That's impressive!” passed. Simple, right?!
  46. …eight drivers were selected for the final tournament. They included Yonekawa of Ashikaga Institute of Technology, who drives his PS13 on the street more than ten days a month; last year's runner-up Matsuno of Matsumoto Dental University, in a VG30-swapped C33; and Hagiwara of Gunma University, whose FD3S had recently reached the best 20 at the Advan Meeting. All of them are drivers with promising futures… [Opening selection-format wording damaged by OCR.]
  47. …unfortunately. [End of the qualifying caption.]
  48. Takei of Takayama Junior College entered the only front-wheel-drive car in either the eastern or western event: a rally-spec Mirage RS. He drove with as much angle as the rear-wheel-drive cars and successfully qualified… [Given-name pronunciation unverified; the printed sentence’s awkward wording is retained in the source.]
  49. A front-wheel-drive drifter spotted!
  50. …successfully.
  51. I'm sorry!
  52. Whoa!
  53. Alignment…
  54. Of course it's a GT wing!
  55. What is it, you ask?
  56. …being adjusted!
  57. …supposed to be an imitation of?
  58. Of what…?
  59. I don't know!
  60. Come on…
  61. [Unclear: damaged caption fragment.]
  62. …worth watching in the future. We hope winner Ishijima and the others achieve good results in major events too. The team class had fewer entries than the Western Japan event, but Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Ashikaga Institute of Technology, Nihon University and Chiba University of Commerce entered four teams. Previous winner Kanagawa Institute of Technology was again favored, but local Tochigi team Ashikaga Institute of Technology won, denying Kanagawa a second consecutive title. All three winning Ashikaga students entered both classes, and Ishijima achieved the remarkable double of individual and team victories. Alongside the results at the award ceremony, lavish prizes were distributed in rock-paper-scissors contests: racing gloves from Kei Office, brake fluid from HKS, and GT oil and LED lamps from A'PEXi. The second student drift contest ended in great style!
  63. Really, 140,000 km?! …engine bay! [Continues the separate “clean” fragment.]
  64. 奥橋 of Kokushikan University drove a 180SX whose body color was his pride. During free practice he damaged its URAS front bumper… [Surname pronunciation unverified.]
  65. …damaging it.
  66. Ueda of Nihon University’s team entered a 1992 Silvia with more than 140,000 km on it—probably the highest mileage at the event.
  67. Clean…
  68. As before, Kanagawa Institute of Technology entered the team class. Team leader Sato’s Cresta had a homemade miniature GT wing on the trunk. We love this kind of silly thing!
  69. 12
  70. Judging format: individual qualifying roulette runs reduced 98 cars to 30; first-round roulette runs reduced 30 to eight; a knockout tournament reduced eight to two; tandem runs decided the winner. Qualifying was judged from the home straight to just before the S-bend. First-round, knockout and tandem runs were judged from Turn 1 through the exit of Turn 6. Each team made two runs, from which its placing was decided. Team judging ran from the home straight to just before the S-bend.
  71. Individual results and prizes: winner 石島俊, Ashikaga Institute of Technology—Racing Meter BLM set (Blitz), one aero part of his choice (Final Konnexion), full suspension-arm set (Yanack), and ¥30,000 gift certificate (Kazama Auto Service). Second, 君島祐介, Josai University—four GX01 tires (Great Company), and ¥20,000 gift certificate (Kazama Auto Service). Third, 萩原秀一, Gunma University—Profec B-Spec II (Trust), and cloth (T’s). Fourth, 松野高広, Matsumoto Dental University—rear multi-hub set (KSP Engineering). [Personal-name pronunciations and the short T’s prize label need a second check.]
  72. Team results and prizes: winner, Ashikaga Institute of Technology (河合隆之 / 米川正紀 / 石島俊)—front bumper and side skirts (BN Sports), plus 20 liters of 4CR oil (Wako’s). Second, Nihon University (川口憲吾 / 近藤崇 / 上田幸宏)—shift boot (Car Make T&E) and stickers (BN Sports). Third, Kanagawa Institute of Technology (佐藤裕 / 澤田悠太 / 岩永康史). [Personal-name pronunciations remain unverified.]