This weekend is the much-anticpated third round of the European Drift Chamipionship which will feature the driving of Nobushige Kumakubo and Kazuhiro Tanaka from Team Orange. Being the vast operation they they are, Team Orange has separate vehicles which are used for overseas competition. Here are some photos of the cars as they were being loaded into containers in Japan a few weeks ago. With the lack of D1 events in the US this year, it's great to see the Japanese D1 stars keeping the "international relations" of drifting alive. Stay tuned for more from EDC round three on Speedhunters. How do you think Kumakubo and Tanaka will do next to Europe's finest?
-Mike Garrett
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It'll be interesting to see how Europes best fair against these two on Sunday, I can't wait, I shall be sat in the BRDC stand watching avidly
Are they going to compete or just a demo? Kuma back in the subie is just awesome. I love the EVO but The Subie just fits his style a bit more i think. I hope the come back to USA, I dont think anyone in Formula D can touch Kuma.
They'll be competing
I wish I could be in the UK to see this! I love Team Orange! Kumakubo and Tanaka FTW!!!
They'll also be at round 4 Santa Pod
Hows the skill set out there? As soon as you said theyre competing I immediately thought, ok, kuma wins. Tanaka top 5. BUT...dik if the UK doods have madd skills or not?
You can follow live updates here:
http://www.europeandriftchampionship.eu/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=28
qualifying results are in:
Driver/Points
Ben Broke Smith Pre Qual
Mark Luney Pre Qual
Daniel Eyles Pre Qual
Brett Castle Pre Qual
Tim Marshall Pre Qual
Maciej Polody Pre Qual
Nobushige Kumakubo 100 Points
Kazuhiro Tanaka 94 Points
Alan McCord 92 Points
Phil Morrison 92 Points
Paul Smith 87 Points
Peter Barber 85 points
Declan Hicks 84 points
Steve Carter 84 Points
Paul Conlan 83 Points
Steve Evans 80 Points
Chris Parry 80 Points
James Russel 77 Points
Scott Armstrong 77 Points
Kieran Cameron 72 Points
James Grimsey 60 Points
Steve Usher 0 Points
Emanuele Festival 0 Points ( Clutch Broken )
The top 16 Battles for Sunday's main event will be as follows :
Ben Broke Smith vs. Steve Evans
Kazuhiro Tanaka vs. Alan McCord
Brett Castle vs. Declan Hicks
Tim Marshall vs. Peter Barber
Mark Luney vs. Paul Conlan
Nobushige Kumakubo vs. Phil Morrison
Daniel Eyles vs. Steve Carter
Maciej Polody vs. Paul Smith
Fastest entry speed of today was Ben Broke smith at 93mph, then Kumakubo at 90mph
Only thing I'm interested is in Phil's S15.
Call me crazy, or take my comment lightly if you want, but to me, the drifting scene in Japan is corrupted.
I've seen amazing drivers "disappear" from the scene after winning championship. Kazama, where is Kazama? He doesn't drift anymore? He does, but not in the D1. How about Manabu Orido (Max Orido). He drifted for sometime (while racing GT500), but then quit. How about Miki Ryuji? Miki ended up the contract with Top Secret after winning the title few years ago....then disappear. Then re-appear in the States driving in Formula D after a VERY long "vacation" (very strange, doesn't it?). As talented as he was/is. Competing agaist the very best, he found himself battling out in the Formula D series. Yoichi Imamura is the same. After winning with the FD for Apexi, he ''left''. He competed few taikyu races , but quit. Then re-appear with the Z sponsored by Top Secret.
Kazama's S15 was being used by Ueo (Takahiro) last season if I remember correctly, then disappear.
All those coicidence were/ are very strange if you asked me.
All I can think of is, when it's time for Nomuken and Nobushige to "leave"? Seeing over and over the same driver winning the race gets boring after a while, doesn't it.....I don't know, like I said, call me crazy....but those events look very weird....
I guess things happen behind the scenes bro. Just the way things are. I agree that they seem the disappear but in reality they're just doing other stuff. I remember a few years ago there was a big controversy about Orido and Taniguchi being banned from D1 for a year because they participated in an event in the US. After this they started the D to D project.
Kazama left D1 and started rollin with Orido and Taniguchi on the D to D project they had. If you can find some D to D mags and DVD's you'll see him drifting different cars and giving tips to all us future drivers.
The Imamura situation as I understand was because APEXi pulled out of D1 and drifting in japan all together. After that he went with TOPSECRET (which is awesome). Whats up with Miki? He was a damn D1 champ but he cant get past top 8 in Formula D? WTF? Its just weird to me. Being that whenever there was US vs Japan series, more than 1/2 of the americans couldnt even qualify (props to our americans that made it! JR just rocks, lol). Maybe its his car or something, idk.
Nomuken I dont think will ever dissappear until he retires, if he ever does. He's like a mascot for D1 and BLITZ, I dont see him going anywhere. Especially since he'll start using an R35 to compete later this year or early next KUMA will never leave, he owns EBISU and us most of us know, thats drift heaven. So even if he stops competing in D1, he'll still be around because drifters NEED EBISU.
Fact of the matter is that unfortunately for some of us, we dont get all the news and latest happenings on the Japanese Drift scene. So it may seem that these drivers "disappear", I know how you feel tho, frustrates me too. Some of those drivers even disappeared from the BMI vids, something about not getting along with Tsuchiya. Even in the US it happens, Dai didnt get back with rockstar and if reese didnt pick him up he woulda dissapeared too.
Whoa so much to talk about on this subject haha. Lets get a speedhunters lounge goin sometime yea? We can all meet from different parts of the world and do a mega vid conference