Drift Tengoku — October 2013

Hirashima wins with a relentless, door-to-door chase! In the tandem battles, solo-final standouts Kitaoka, Kobashi, and Hirashima landed in the left bracket, while Hayashi and Kuroi were in the other, drawing attention to the title race. A key matchup was second-ranked Kobashi versus third-ranked Hirashima in the top eight. Hirashima earned an advantage with a superb chase on the first run. On the switched second run, Kobashi pushed too hard for a close run from the final corner and made contact with Hirashima, falling well behind and being eliminated. Kitaoka, Hirashima, Kuroi, and Hayashi then advanced as expected—

At Ebisu, his PS13 blew up, so he competed in a car borrowed from Taniguchi at Taniguchi Motors. Despite being unfamiliar with the car, he was running well until clutch trouble during practice left the clutch unable to disengage. He got it working again for the solo final but could not raise his score enough and was eliminated. Returning after a long break, Naoki Nakamura made a mistake in the two judged runs—

During the first practice of the morning, he caught the member on a dip in front of the judges' stand and broke it. He recovered by transplanting the member together with the brake system from Maki Ito, who had failed to qualify. But the front-end alignment changed dramatically, so he canceled practice. In qualifying, he drove brilliantly on the first run, scoring 99.40 and topping the field. At that point he had already secured at least ninth place overall—

—and reached the top four. In the first semifinal, Kitaoka faced Hirashima. Hirashima stayed tightly inside Kitaoka from the opening part of the first corner, earning a huge 6.5-point advantage—rare even in the D1 Street Legal series. With no room left, Kitaoka tried to answer with an aggressive approach and initiation, but was pushed wide and sent his rear into the embankment. Hirashima's win was decided. In the other matchup, Kuroi and Hayashi could not get inside each other on the first two runs, forcing a rematch. This time they each cut inside the other, leaving the score even and sending them to another run—

The final was Hirashima versus Hayashi. It promised a close battle, but after advancing through a series of rematches Hayashi had little left. On his first chase run he could not get inside and drifted wide; on the second, leading, he half-spun. Hirashima stayed steady, maintained his performance, made no mistakes, and secured his first victory. As a result, Kitaoka barely kept the championship lead. Kobashi slipped to third, while Hirashima moved into second, just two points behind Kitaoka.

Hirashima earned a remarkable 6.5-point advantage! The closest run of the day came in the top eight matchup between Hirashima and Kitaoka. Kitaoka led on the first run, and Hirashima succeeded in positioning himself from the final corner, staying so close that his car disappeared from the judges' view and earning an astonishing 6.5-point advantage. Kitaoka pushed hard on the switched run and matched the closeness, but could not quite stop in front of the judges and was eliminated. The in-form Kuroi then suffered a surge-tank failure in the semifinals!