D1 Grand Prix - History

History

The art of drifting can be traced to the early days of motorsport when pre-war Grand Prix and dirt track racing drivers such as Tazio Nuvolari used an at-the-limit form of driving called the four-wheel drift.

The bias ply racing tires of the 1960s-1980s lent themselves to driving styles with a high slip angle. As professional racers in Japan drove this way, so did the street racers.

As street ] racing became increasingly common, one of the first drifting contests was hosted by the Japanese Carboy magazine in 1986 and then in 1989, the year after the first introduction of the Video Option series, Daijiro Inada (稲田大二郎) decided on introducing a rival drifting event which was judged by Keiichi Tsuchiya known as the Ikaten. Through the years, the standards of drifting drivers has risen rapidly and drivers began to dominate the series. As a result, Inada decided on a new series to accommodate the more experienced and skilled drivers. In 2000, a new series called All Japan Professional Drift Championship (全日本プロドリフト選手権, Zen Nihon Puro Dorifuto Sensyuken) consisting of Keiichi Tsuchiya (土屋圭市) and Manabu Orido (織戸 学) as judges, and Manabu Suzuki (鈴木 学) as commentator. Other personnel consisted of Kitahara, as the tech inspector, and Takayasu Ozaku (more commonly known as Zaku the perverted camerman) as the series' long serving cameraman. Racing driver Tarzan Yamada made appearances in earlier rounds and Inada himself would usually make guest appearances in the opening ceremony and judging stand.

The first ever event was at Ebisu Circuit in Fukushima, Japan, in October 2000 with an entry of forty and a crowd of three thousand. Drivers were judged individually and were treated as the first round of the 2001 season, shortly renamed as D1 Grand Prix. From round two onward, the series took a different turn. Unlike drift events which judged the cars individually each round then eliminating the rest, the series introduced the one-to-one round battle called the tsuiso (twin run) round which has been the tradition for Tōge races and has since been adopted for drifting events all over the world. Aftermarket parts manufacturers BLITZ, HKS and A'PEX soon began to get involved by sponsoring drivers entering the competition. Rhett Weyant was the first D1GP winner in his HKS powered 180sx coming from Okinawa Japan.

In 2002, the number of cars competing in the tsuiou rounds was reduced from ten to eight, and was increased to twelve by round two to allow for an additional round. That was increased to sixteen by round four which stands to this day.

The series remained domestic until 2003 when an exhibition round was hosted at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, California, USA. With a sellout crowd of ten thousand, which broke the record for the venue and the series, this venue became the series' opening round in 2004 and has since been expanded to accommodate fifteen thousand spectators. The US round saw the introduction of the English speaking commentator Toshi Hayama, who also dealt with the organisation of the non-Japanese events.

That year also saw the car accessories store Autobacs as the title sponsor, and brought the first non-circuit event at Odaiba in Japan in January 2004, held in a Fuji Television car park. It also later ran as a championship round. In December 2004, the D1GP was held in the California Speedway in Fontana, California, as a non-championship US vs. Japan event, running alongside the JGTC race as part of the non-championship GT Live event. Manabu Orido resigned as a judge at the end of the season to become a driver.

The other regular staff for the 2005 season were D1 girls Kazumi Kondo (近藤和美) and Hatsuno Sugaya (菅谷はつ乃) who previously had careers as JGTC race queens. For the 2006 season, Hatsuno was replaced by Jyuri Tamashiro (玉城珠里).

As the series has always been Japanese dominated with few non-Japanese making it to the best 16, in the first round of the 2005 season, after narrowly beating Masato Kawabata who spun during their tsuiso round battle, Rhys Millen became the first non-Japanese driver to advance to the best 8 round. He lost to Yasuyuki Kazama after a sudden death tsuiso battle. That year saw the introduction of the D1 Street Legal category which was unveiled at the Odaiba round, for cars which are built to be driven on the road.

The series' only guest commentator was the TV presenter, singer, Super GT driver and amateur drifter Hiromi Kozono (ヒロミ; real kanji name 小園 浩巳) who guest commentated at the 2005 Odaiba Allstar event.

In October 2005, the D1GP ventured to Europe with an exhibition round at Silverstone, Northamptonshire, UK. This event provided an upset, as after putting on a good performance in the first run, the Irishman Darren McNamara advanced to the best 8 round after overtaking the series regular Hiroshi Fukuda on the first run. Like Rhys Millen in the first round, McNamara fell victim to Kazama after losing four to six then tying in the other round. With a crowd attendance of five thousand, in the following year the D1GP ran its own national series in the UK.

At the non-championship D1 USA vs Japan Allstar Exhibition at Irwindale Speedway in December 2005, the series had its first non-Japanese winner for both car and driver: Vaughn Gittin with his Ford Mustang GT. At the following season opener in March 2006, Samuel Hübinette with his Dodge Viper SRT/10 took things further by making it into the best 8 by beating Gittin in a sudden death tsuiso battle, Hubinette made it to the semi-final when he defeated Takahiro Ueno, only to be beaten by Nobushige Kumakubo in his Subaru Impreza GDB. Kumakubo went on into the finals to be beaten by Yasuyuki Kazama, who won his third successive first round championship event.

In 2006, the D1GP ventured into the highly lucrative Asian market by hosting a feeder series in Malaysia, as well as in New Zealand, both of which are currently only running a drivers' search event, which gives the drivers who do well in any of the national series a chance to compete at the final non-championship event held in Irwindale in addition to the final round which only the three UK series drivers was invited by Tsuchiya, who was impressed by their skills during the UK exhibition event. McNamara, the only of the three drivers to qualify in the points-scoring final round and to enter with his own car, finished in the last 8 in both events, only to lose to Nomura in both through a sudden death match. As that was the only year to have a franchise in the UK, McNamara would compete in the US series.

In 2007, the former D1GP driver, Hisashi Kamimoto retiredfrom driving to join as judge. The D1 Gals of 2006 was replaced by the "D1 Sisters" who were audition winners and representative of the agency D-Sign, consisting of Hiromi Goto, Yuria Tachiki, Asami Kikuchi and Ayaka Tashiro.

Since the series began, ] has always covered all of the official D1GP events. Its English language sister title JDM Option, which was established in 2004, also covers the events. In 2007, the sports channel, J Sports ESPN began screening highlights of the series with Suzuki and Nomura as presenters, with the D1 Sisters making guest appearances.

For the 2009 season, the US arm underwent a new management team to kickstart a new domestic series Tsuchiya, who was also on the executive board, stepped down when the organization went under new management.

In December 2010, Keiichi Tsuchiya and Daijiro Inada both decided to resign from D1GP due to consistent irresponsible management.