Here are some excerpts from Forrest Wang’s interview with Vegas Drift that I found very interesting. You can follow the source jump at the end to head over to Vegas Drift and read his whole interview.

Top 8 vs. Tanaka “Rematch” from Round 1

Lead Run
FW: As I qualified 2nd I was supposed to lead but Tanaka bullied his way into the lead position.
I followed him really well, at times during the run we were within a foot, he got away and then I sucked back up

Follow Run
FW: I gapped him by 2 car lengths. The judging panel I guess agreed that there must have been a starting error, and they called One More Time.
We did the one more time – he followed me well, and then on my follow I was almost rubbing his car. This is where things got strange.

The Starter made us wait at the staging start line for over 5 min and after much anticipation, the judges called a OMT, I was ready to go again and then we received another messaged that they changed their minds and said I won. Tanaka and Team Orange flipped out and would not leave the starting area. The staging guy said the decision was final they threw a fit.  Staging was motioning to Tanaka to back up,  he started revving his motor and starts burning out, the starter that was motioning to him jumps back as Tanaka’s car starts moving forward .It seemed dangerous as there were a lot of spectators and crew members and video crews in that area.  Tanaka did a half donut and turned around to go back to the pits and the flipped us all off with his crew yelling in Japanese. This was seriously a first for me, I have never even heard of anything like this in drifting ever. I was kind of upset from that. I waited at staging to go against Kumokubo for the final 4.

VegasDrift.com: So what happened with the final 4?

Forrest Wang: Well Kumokubo came up to me and gave me a hug, he was smiling and said “I don’t know what is going on” “it’s nothing against you, but I’m not going to be able to compete with you.”  I got a bye run and took on Nomuken in the final round.
VegasDrift.com: So how was it fighting for 1st against Nomuken?

Forrest Wang: I was definitely out matched grip wise, he had a ton grip due to his tire compound, and he was able to carry his speed better through the first clipping point. We ended up doing a One More Time but I just didn’t have the grip.

Read the full interview: http://www.vegasdrift.com/exclusive-interview-with-forrest-wang-on-d1-chicago/

According to some reports from fans, drivers, and people closely linked to teams have filled me in on what seems to be a mess of epic proportions. The event really fell apart when the Tanaka Vs. Wang battle took place. Apparently Forrest Wang defeated Tanaka and the Japanese drivers went insane. They demanded a OMT and were not issued it. Kumakubo was scheduled to battle Forrest Wang in the top 4 and refused to run a tandem battle with him.I understand being upset about a bad call but what poor sportsman ship that is from the Team Orange camp which is a huge disappointment to not only us at Wrecked Magazine but the thousands of fans who paid money to watch them drift.

Apparently a fan I spoke with says the crowd got wind of the activities and started “booing” and chanting “bullshit.” Then it appeared that Nomuken was going to refuse to run as well passing Forrest Wang into a victory. Eventually Nomuken came out and tandemed with Forrest Wang which drew a OMT. Then Nomuken cleanly earned a victory for the night. One thing neglected was a third place run however and somehow Harri Hokkanen was just issued third place without any formal runs.

Mind you this is a story we pieced together from several people’s experience that we trust who were either fans or people we have known and worked with for some time. We will keep you updated on this story as more information comes out from the D1GP USA party and the others involved. As for now it looks like we just have a ton of unanswered questions on our table.

UPDATE: Now being told I down played the drama with the finals between Nomuken and Wang. Fans waited around 20 minutes they say for the tandem battle to occur. Wang was staged and ready and Nomuken was not coming to the line and it took around 20 minutes for this to happen.

D1 Grand Prix USA invades Miami, Florida

Some more footage has surfaced from the D1 Grand Prix Miami event and Subject Media captured some excellent content from the event. A few crashes, some Japanese stars in tandem battles all behind a N.E.R.D soundtrack from the Miami event.

Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/d1-grand-prix-usa-invades-miami-florida-

D1GP USA Round 1 from Wolf Productions

Wolf Productions produced this piece on the D1GP USA Round 1 event that took place in Anaheim, California. He captured some crashes and great tandem Drifting from the event. Some great highlight from your favorite Japanese drivers like Daigo Saito and Team Orange! You can also catch some of America’s up and coming Drifters inside the video.

Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/d1gp-usa-round-1-from-wolf-productions-

Here are some great snaps from the D1GP Tokyo Expo Day 1. Koguchi went ahead and took home a victory for the Saturday events. We have packed inside over 1,000 great snaps from the Japanese D1 Grand Prix drift festival. The excitement is high when they invade the city of Tokyo and by looking at the gallery you can see why it is!

Check out the gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=101

Here is the drivers list provided by D1GP USA for the round two event in Miami, Florida. Please do not the event did have a venue change which you can find out details here. It looks like a full weekend at the track in Miami this weekend. We will have coverage your way right after it’s complete!

Top 16 Ranking
1) Daigo Saito
2) Nobushige Kumakubo
3) Forrest Wang
4) Takahiro Ueno
5) Kazuhiro Tanaka
6) Ross Petty
7) Russell Walker
8 ) Chelsea Denofa
9) Toshiki Yoshioka
10) Kelvin Arreola
11) Will Parsons
12) Harri Hokkanen
13) Tyler Cox
14) Quoc Ly
15) David Blunt
16) Cyrus Martinez

Unranked Drivers
17) Bill Sherman
18) Harri Tervola
19) Juan Henao
20) Albert Abalos
21) Patrick Goodin
22) Chanin Prapapyuenyong
23) Andrew Hateley
24) Erick Mahle
25) Raffi Karakouzian
26) Jason Jiovani
27) Gary James
28) Scott Neener
29) Matthew Williams
30) Ken Nomura
31) Juha Rintanen
32) Janne Leinonen
33) James Bondurant
34) Matt Waldin
35) Damien Bagley
36) Matthew Dahm
37) Zoltan Hadju Jr.
38) Zoltan Hadju Sr.
39) Kevin Phillips
40) Tony Schulz
41) Sean Forrester
42) Charles Litterst
43) Carlos Falero
44) Jerry Montero
45) Charles Thompson
46) William Barnette
47) Jeremy Lowe
48) Nathan Brasz
49) William Stenger
50) Edel Castrejon-Perez
51) Pablo Falero

If you take a visit to the Team Orange website you will see they have six of their competition cars up on the market. The cars they have on the market vary from the 2006 D1GP championship Subaru WRX to Tanaka’s overseas demo car. The most expensive car looks to be around $90,000 USD for the 2006 D1GP championship machine. Get out your piggy banks Drifting teams!

Source: http://teamorange-drift.com/e/sale.html#

Manji Style at Ebisu with Kumakubo

At the Ebisu circuit we have Kumakubo sliding around in a Nissan Silvia. A great dramatic slow motion piece shot by Speedhunters while they were out in Japan. The video looks amazing so Team Orange fans rejoice with this great piece.

Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/manji-style-at-ebisu-with-kumakubo

From our reports two Team Orange drivers will be competing in America. Nobushige Kumakubo and Kazuhiro Tanaka are the two drivers slated to attend the complete D1 Grand Prix USA series. D1GP USA staff has confirmed that Tanaka will be driving a GDB Subaru Impreza at this time. As for Kumakubo they were unable to give confirmation on a vehicle for him but they provided us with some educational thoughts on the topic. They are assuming he will be driving a Mitsubishi Evo like in the Japanese series but have always been told he could be driving a S15 Silvia.

Nobushige Kumakubo – Mitsubishi Evo or S15 Silvia (not confirmed)
Kazuhiro Tanaka – GDB Subaru Impreza

According to the D1GP Underground website Team Orange will now be attending the USA series of the D1 Grand Prix. However, we don’t have any details or further information like if they are coming for an event or the whole season because the news release on their site says only “enough said!” Hopefully soon they will shed some more light on this announcement but for now it seems some members of Team Orange could be driving in the USA series.
Source: http://www.d1gp.com/v2/myblog/team-orange-comes-to-d1gp-usa.html