Drift Tengoku — October 2013

‘If I am competing here, I have to win!’ Mimoto said, and she backed it up with strong runs throughout practice. In the solo final, she was the only driver to score 99 points, taking the solo victory she missed last year. She continued with impressive consistency in tandem, defeating one opponent after another. Even after two rematches in the final, she made no major mistakes and won outright.

Mimoto tops the field with the only score in the 99s! She said she had not driven much this season, but being at her home event clearly helped: from practice she repeatedly made sharp, committed initiations. In the solo final she scored 98.65 on her first run, safely above the cutoff, then posted the day's only 99-point score—99.15—on her second. Her third run could not beat that, but a 99.00 still put her through in first.

Solo final Local drivers shine! With only one round remaining, the Setonaikai event could have crowned points leader Saori Ishikawa champion, depending on the results of those ranked second and below. First, the solo final selected eight tandem finalists from the 14 entrants. Running from the lower-numbered qualifiers, Erika Ono of Ehime Prefecture was first. It was her first D1 Ladies League event, but she had driven well in practice. She made a mistake on her first solo run, then corrected it on the second and scored 8.40. Among the lower group, last year's runner-up Miki Endo had provisionally taken the lead; Ono followed in second and made a strong impression. Then the top group ran. First up was—

Niimi put together a good run and beat Endo's score. Yabuuchi then scored 8 points on her second run to take the provisional lead. Immediately afterward, Michie Mimoto initiated sharply and traced the line cleanly, earning 9.15 points and securing the solo win at her home event that she missed last year. The one struggling was last season's solo champion, Iwamoto Asahi. She had been building her run carefully through practice, but could not show her full ability on the day. Saori Ishikawa had power-steering trouble from Saturday practice and struggled to put together her run. Still, she managed to tie Iwamoto with a score of 9.00 on her first and third runs, advancing to tandem on her second-best score—

First-time entrant Ono makes the tandem bracket! The previous day she earned a D1-E license at the training session, then made her D1 Ladies League debut. The 21-year-old from Ehime already had some podium finishes in local drift competitions around Setonaikai. In the solo final she beat many established competitors, scoring 98.40 and qualifying sixth.