You may remember that last year saw the first ever G1 Grand Prix held during the Sunday afternoon of the Autumn Drift Matsuri. The venue was the Nishi, or West Course, and the foreigner-only roster was made up by locals and a few Aussies that had come over to enjoy the Festival. For 2010 Suenaga and Kumakubo of Team Orange have decided to step the whole G1 up and make it into a proper event to be held on the Friday before each of the three Drift Matsuri weekends. So not wanting to miss history being made I really couldn’t pass up the opportunity to cover the first 2010 Round.

Things kicked off nice and early in the morning and the weather couldn’t have been better for this Round 1 of a soon to be legendary event! Before things got started it was into the Ebisu Minami office for a meeting where Suenaga explained to the drivers what he and Kumakubo were looking for in the way of style, line and overall entertainment factor. With 16 participants signed up it was an automatic Best 16 start which meant everyone present got a chance at a tsuiso, or battle, run.

Here are Chris Pickering and Ben Schumacher sticking down the entry number on Chris’s yellow RPS13.

This is Sumika from driftschool-jp.com with Team Orange posing for a quick snap with Kumakubo Junior. Sumika just won Round 2 of the D1 Ladies League in Ebisu Circuit this past Sunday. Congrats!

You may remember seeing some of these cars on the Drift Matsuri coverage, looking in far worst condition than they were at the G1-GP!

I always can’t help grabbing a shot of Kumakubo’s GS450h when I see it. It just sits so well on the big 19-inch RP05s.

Once final tire changes and preparations ended it was out for a whole morning of practice so that those that had never experienced the Minami course could familiarize themselves with the track. It takes drivers years of practice to master the challenging D1 course, but a few hours would have to suffice for many of the gaijin competitors.

Here is Andy showing how it’s done, throwing his RPS13 sideways down the main pit-wall straight.

A few laps later this is what his front end was looking like as he clipped the wall with the “wrong” end of the car.

That didn’t put him off one bit and a few minutes later he took out his JZX90 Cresta for some more practice runs.

Kumakubo showed up with the now famous “Pole-Dancer-spec” S13 from the Odaiba D1 Round. After strapping down his son on a special child seat he took him out for a few laps, progressively driving harder and harder. A future D1 Champion in training no doubt!

Probably due to a complete lack of fear it didn’t take Jay Duca long to master some pretty wild entries at Minami. This shot is taken right before he flicks the car the opposite direction and takes the drop down on to the straight.

Ben Schumacher had one of the cleanest cars on the paddock…

…running very nice Work Equip 03s up front.

With the amount of Aussies participating they might as well have called it the A1-GP! LOL

Yep, here is another one! Alexi from noriyaro striking a curious pose.

Lots of practice means burning through lots of tires, and everyone was well stocked up in that department with the weekend they all had in front of them!

Shane Bingham, who had driven all the way up from Osaka, was out in his gangster RPS13. The rear fenders were welded in place, and the car painted literally hours before he left for Ebisu. If you are wondering why there are two numbers it’s because he shared the car with Matt Cappellaro during the G1.

Emily from Powervehicles was driving this red RPS13…

…and getting some pretty good angles coming down onto the judged area of the circuit. Emily now participates in the D1 Ladies League with here very cool pink S14 which has recently received a bit of tuning from God Hand Koyama of Koyama Racing Labo.

Stewart Bryant was covering up rear damage of his RB26-powered HCR32 Skyline with anything he could get his hands on, including a rubber chicken.

Here is Stuart Stirling out for some action in his A31 Cefiro drift car. To drifters, Stuart is probably the luckiest man in the world as he literally lives 5 minutes from Ebisu Circuit!

After lunch the competition kicked off with the everyone getting a shot at tandem runs. This is Chris Pickering with his other RPS13 leading as Alexi follows. Stay tuned for more action from this epic event!

-Dino Dalle Carbonare