D1 Grand Prix USA will be releasing an official announcement later today on judging and the DriftBox they will be using but we are bringing you the story early on today. Each event will be scored by two American judges and one head Japanese judge. Scores for angle, speed, and g-forces will be taken from the data providede by the D1GP USA Pro 1 unit but the judges will account for line/style and producing the overall score together. The head judges will vary between one of these three profiles.

Keiichi Tsuchiya

Widely known as the “Drift King” he became famous for drifting at non-drift racing events around Japan. This brought popularity to drifting as a motorsport in Japan. He is well known for his documented togue (mountian racing) driving as well. Tsuchiya is said to be the head judge for Miami, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

Daijiro Inada

A major celebrity in Japanese automotive culture and a very recognized figure in the car scene. He is mostly known for being the founder of Option Magazine and the Option video series. He was a creator of the D1 Grand Prix Series and he started the Tokyo Auto Salon which really places him as an authorative figure in Japan’s automotive culture. He is an alternate for head judge in D1GP USA.

Manabu Suzuki

He is a former driver, journalist, sport announcers and TV presenter in the Japanese automotive industry. He competed in the Formula Toyota and Saurus Cup through the mid 90′s. He worked a ton with Option Magazine and the video offshoot Video Drift. He has been involved with Drift Tengoku which is a great Drifting only magazine in Japan. He was an original judge with Manbu Orido and Keiichi Tsuchiya in th D1 Grand Prix series of Japan.

Competition Staff

Terence Jenkins and Chiaki Goto will take over on-site personnel. Terence Jenkins will be the D1GP USA’s competition director which is a job none of us are envious over! He was the founder of Lateral G Racing and lead that team with Sam Hubinette to the first ever Formula D championship in 2004. Terence Jenkins then ran Octane TV which was a cable on-demand television series. Chiaki Goto is the Technical Director of the D1 Grand Prix series who was a former endurance racing champion and director of the 2003 JIC Magic Drift team. Goto is bringing his experiance from Japan and Drifting to the USA in 2009.

Racelogic’s Drift Box

It will be used for judging called the D1GP USA Pro 1 which utilizes new proprietary algorithms and can measure a drift angle within .5 degree of accuracy. Speed can be calculated to 0.1 mph accuracy and lateral g loads within 0.01g. Data will be collected 10x a second and transmitted from the competition car via telemetry directly to the judges stand. The video VBOX will record the action from inside the vehicle during competition and overlay graphics on screen showing angle, speed, and g-force loads. Sounds like quite a bit of fun going on during the runs for the 2009 D1GP USA sesaon.

Every January Tokyo is invaded with it’s own SEMA like trade show called the Tokyo Auto Salon. A massive converagance of JDM tuners and media from around the world arrive in Tokyo to enjoy a few days of massive tuning overload! We sent our local resident Dino Dalle Carbonare to cover the Auto Salon and he came back with over 700 amazing photos from the event. Some tuning shops even brought out Nissan 370z’s to the party which were already modified.Enjoy the drifting machines, exotic cars, and girls of the Auto Salon!

Check out the gallery:http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=86

Other Wrecked Magazine Stories Related to Tokyo Auto Salon:

Takahiro Ueno’s BMW Debut

Daigo Saito’s Ford Mustang Debut

2009 D1 Grand Prix Schedule

Well let me start off saying that this is a total rumor and no one has told me anything to verify this is true but I have a sneaky feeling my prediction will come true. Taniguchi, Orido, and Miki are the three drivers in this picture above. Ironically all of them have driven in Formula D in some way shape or form but Miki was the one who shocked us out of this group. Will he be returning for the 2009 Formula D season, we don’t think so… with APEX in a poor financial state and him not quite being in the marketing globe for the 08 season we have to think the Bergenholtz brothers would be considering a new driver for the Mazda. Who will it be? Am I way off base? This could all be true but as the off season gets smaller more people will talk and we will be on top of the breaking stories. Now seeing him driving in MSC and digging up stuff on the few Japanese sites I can make sense of anything at I just feel Miki’s Formula D career is over for now but we shall see.

Read more about Ryuji Miki: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/issues/issue5/issue5.html

Normally I use this space for a hard sell or a plea to check out the Drifting gallery we just spent our monthly dinner budget on but this time I think it takes no sell. MSC Drift invaded Odaiba over the weekend in a copy of D1GP’s summer Tokyo invasion. The sickest cars in Japan came out to rip it up and we love every still image of it….if you look through the gallery deep enough you will even find some Japanese girls and stormtroopers, what a complete weekend!

Check out the gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=81

The D1 Grand Prix series is up to it’s typical “screw you Drifting world, we are better” attitude and has told all of their drivers that they are not allowed to participate at the Redbull World Challenge. In a matter that seemed to be going on behind private doors until today when Formula D posted a full card of people who were offered spots for this event and D1 had a big DECLINED on the list.

D1GP D1GP Japan 1 of 6 invitations D1 requested DECLINED
D1GP D1GP Japan 2 of 6 invitations D1 requested DECLINED
D1GP D1GP Japan 3 of 6 invitations D1 requested DECLINED
D1GP D1GP Japan 4 of 6 invitations D1 requested DECLINED
D1GP D1GP Japan 5 of 6 invitations D1 requested DECLINED
D1GP D1GP Japan 6 of 6 invitations D1 requested DECLINED
Nob Taniguchi D1GP Japan 2001 Champ DECLINED – Prior engagement, race
Youichi Imamura D1GP Japan 2003 Champ DECLINED – D1 Not allow
Yasuyaki Kazama D1GP/MSC Japan 2005 Champ DECLINED – Scheduling Conflict
Nobushige Kumakubo D1GP Japan 2006 Champ DECLINED – Dubai Demo
Manabu Max Orido D1GP/MSC Japan D1 Judge, MSC Judge, Super GT driver DECLINED – Hired by Chevy for WTCC race in Macau

So it looks like our World Drift Championship will be short of Japanese talent but not short of talent from anywhere else in the world? It is funny how every organization in the world can come together and be excited about an event with the exception of D1. We really just wish D1 would get off it’s high horse and let their talent participate. Formula D and fellow organizations gladly attended their All Star and Vs. the World events in the past. As it appears D1 is just having it’s typical attitude we still keep hearing rumors about this “2009 D1 season” here in America. With the track record of D1 in the United States I think we are going to refrain on booking flights until the week of the event assuming it’s not on a Formula D weekend again.

Check out Friday’s gallery sponsored by Bosch from the House of Drift. We have some great footage of unseeded qualifying and the late night top 32 practice. This event was looking to be a great one as we rolled into the main event with a championship on the line and victory on everyone’s mind. Check out all of our great coverage from Formula D.

Check out this Formula D Irwindale Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=68

Daigo Satiro in his JZX 100 took home first place this weekend while battling the hometown hero Ken Nomura in his Nissan Skyline! It was a great battle but Satiro took home the win for this mid summer classic! Daigo Satiro has been looking strong at events this year like Fuji and Tokyo so it was only a matter of time until he took home a win. On another note Max Orido retired very early due to car trouble in the Lexus. A very underwhelming debut but we’ll see if he is back at Ebisu at the end of August.

1st- Daigo Saito (JZX100)
2nd- Ken Nomura (R34 Nissan Skyline)
3rd- Masato Kawabata- (Nissan Silvia)
4th- Youichi Imamura- (S15 Nissan Silvia)