Drift Tengoku — October 2013

Did DOSS reward the deep-angle entry? On Friday, Suenaga from Team D-MAX only took part in practice. He expected it would be better not to make the run too uneven. His overall plan was: ‘If I push too hard to score above perfect in Sector 2, Sector 3 will probably suffer, so it's better to keep the level high and even throughout.’ I asked Kobashi, who was entered in qualifying. He said, ‘The thing I'm most careful about is not letting the angle wobble get marked against me.’ He expected that if the car didn't rotate cleanly through the second corner after slowing down, any wobble in its attitude would cost points.

‘Those are things we didn't have to worry about as much with human judging, but the machine gives a cold evaluation,’ he said. Meanwhile, Kumakubo, who had been checking DOSS's scoring tendencies, seemed a little puzzled: ‘Maybe it's not that strict?’ He had expected beforehand that the system might limit driving styles and award points only for runs it liked. In practice, though, drivers with deep angles scored highly, as did drivers who held back the angle and prioritized speed. In other words, different styles could all score well as long as the driving quality was high. ‘Don't focus too much on DOSS; just run your line…’

D1 Grand Prix introduced the DOSS mechanical judging system this season. The system is supposed to award high scores to runs that look impressive to human observers, but drivers may need to approach their runs differently than before. At the Ebisu rounds, held on consecutive days for Rounds 3 and 4, we followed Team Orange as they worked to understand DOSS and plan their solo runs.

Kumakubo concluded, ‘It seems better to focus on avoiding deductions and let the judges award the bonus points.’ He felt that even a strong DOSS run could be hard to improve by more than two points, while judges' bonuses and penalties could easily swing the score by about two. Last year at Ebisu, Kumakubo wanted to try a ‘tail-first entry’ at the first corner. That technique can reduce cornering speed, so judges had mixed opinions about it. But DOSS gave high scores even to this pursuit of angle, and Kumakubo earned high DOSS marks for his tail-first entries in practice. Team Orange was beginning to understand DOSS, but Friday's qualifying did not go as planned. The competition run took place on a half-dry surface after rain. Kumakubo managed to put together his first run and qualified. Kobashi made a mistake on the first run, and on the second there was little he could do on the difficult surface…

…so he failed to qualify. Meanwhile, Suenaga, who was watching qualifying, was planning for Saturday's solo final. The tricky part was how to handle the unmeasured section between Sectors 1 and 2. ‘If I push too hard here, I'll have to slow down a lot in Sector 2 and lose points. But I also want to put on a smoky show on the straight for the foreign visitors who came to watch,’ he said. A dramatic straight-line run might earn bonus points from the judges and could make up for DOSS deductions in Sector 2. Even so, competition rarely follows the plan. In the solo final for Round 3 on Saturday, Kumakubo's first run…

Kumakubo pushed too hard and made a mistake on his first run, so on the second he drove more cautiously while still showing a ‘tail-first entry.’ Suenaga held back a little on his first run and got a decent score, so he attacked on the second, but a missed shift in front of the judges kept him from giving it everything. What was Team Orange's plan for Sunday? After Saturday's Round 3 final ended, it was time for Round 4 qualifying. Kumakubo and Kobashi entered. Kumakubo couldn't raise his Sector 1 score and failed to qualify, although he felt his run had been close to what he was aiming for—perhaps his feel and DOSS's evaluation didn't match. Kobashi showed good speed and just barely qualified. So, for Sunday's Round 4 solo…