Crunch time, the best battle it out to see who would be the D1 GP  2009 Round 5 Champion.  Smart money would be on Hibino.  Prior to the finals as he was attacking the hump in a style all of his own as usual and was driving flawlessly but with a field including Daigo Saito, Kumakuba,  Tezuka, and Noumuken amongst others, anything is possible.

First of the battles was between the Tag S14 and Hibino

Hibino jumped his way through to the quarters

The next battle was an all Team Toyo Drift affair.  This time Kuroi in his Onevia saw off Kawabata to progress

Nomuken put Takayama out

This was the one we all wanted to see in the 1st round.  Ex champion (Imamura) Vs Reigning Champ (Daigo Saito).  Both looked great all weekend but it was Imamura who progressed as Daigo pushed too hard when chasing and struck the S15 causing him to spin out in his “Monsta” JZX100 Mark II.

M.Suenaga V’s Inose

Masao Suenaga eliminated Inose in the Friends Racing S15

Another eagerly anticipated battle saw Track owner and Team Orange Leader Kumakubo take on Yashio Factory’s Okachan.  Kumakubo got the win in this one.

Tezuka [BNR32] Vs Takumi [S14]

Tezuka muscled his way to a win in this one

Team Orange’s Tanaka squeezed out the Drift Samurai in their battle.

The 1st quarter saw Kuroi attempt to beat an on-form Hibino, but despite this side by side run, Hibino progressed.

Two of the old-guard battled it out in the next quarter. 

Imamura in the S15 was victorious

Kumakubo tips it in…..  

this time though he couldn’t beat M.Suenaga who was looking better each pass.

The next quarter saw Tezuka battle it out with Tanaka.  This was a hard one to split and took a couple of sudden-death bouts to split them

Tezuka never allows his opponent to open up much space on him 

Here’s Tezuka getting as close as is possible on Tanaka

Both drivers battled hard in the closest battle of the day

and even though Tanaka managed to lose his opponent in the smoke in this pic, the ever consistent Tezuka progressed to the Semis

The Flying Hibino was too good today for Imamura and deservedly made it to the finals

First Semi paired M.Suenaga with Tezuka

This was another close call

But M.Suenaga beat Tezuka to the finals

Hibino went even harder in the finals…..  there is plenty of clear daylight under the front of his car in this series of pics

Not to be out done though M.Suenaga chased well and never let up 

He then went on to pull away from Hibinos NA Ae86 on their reverse run and went on to take the title

M.Suenaga’s crew celebrate their win as they head down the track to receive the Judges decision

Congrats to M.Suenaga on his win.   Now it’s even tighter at the top of the championship table with 4 drivers all close to each other at the top.

Some action from Sundays Finals soon!

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