The long awaited round 4 of D1 Divisional East Series at Minami Circuit finally arrived.   We have been waiting in anticipation for this round as Minami is now our home circuit and Andy was looking forward to gaining some more points to contribute towards a D1 Street Legal licence.  51 cars entered the event with very capable drivers, so the competition was to be fierce. 

D1 Divisional is the platform from which you can progress into the D1 Street Legal Competition and some drivers here already have won D1 SL Licenses.

Ebisu Circuit’s own Sumika has been practicing hard in her 180sx back up car, but brought her powerful main car out for day

Andy was very fast and consistent.   Big power smoke machines always seem to grab the limelight!

Endo is a D1SL driver, which only makes the competition harder and his style and consistency means he’s always in the running

This red S15 is a champion from Sendai.  It’s massive turbo helped produce plenty of smoke

This tough looking, black JZX81 was an absolute hooligan.   Puffs of tell-tale blue/white smoke from the exhaust on the day were showing signs of turbo failure, but that didn’t stop the driver from giving it his all.

 This S15 faced S14 had really striking looks

 This R32 Skyline is a regular attendee for D1 Divisional

Even after Team Orange changed the line required from Rnd 1 slightly, Andy took it in his stride and qualified 5th

Toshihiko Mizuno had a lot to live up to as his brother won round 1.  They run almost identical S15 Silvias 

Sumika’s practice paid off as she had great angle all day and qualified 3rd.

Toshihiko Mizuno looked good and qualified for the last 16 also

The best 16 Tsuiso got off to a flying start with this all SR20 battle

Mizuno also squeezed out this black 180SX

Sumika battled hard in all her encounters…..

…and her twin drifting experience really shone through as she looked perfectly at home at such close quarters

Regardless of a brush with the infamous pit wall, the Silver 180sx still made it on to the Tsuiso battles.  Masato proved too strong for him and despite a war wound from a crash with Andy in the last 16, he progressed through in his last 8 battle

The red Hachi was a hard charger all day, and Masato took the crash with Andy well, considering he wasn’t at fault.  That’s drifting I guess!

This Semi Final went to the Silvia to make it a all S15 Final 

The final between Yoshimura in the Orange S15 and Toshihiko Mizuno in the Green S15 was very tight, but the Raja Baba machine of Yoshimura was to emerge victor.

Noriyaro’s Alexi Smith looked suave adorning this moustache/goaty combo made entirely from the tyre residue collected in the rear arches of Andy’s Mark II!

Unfortunately, Andy’s uncharacteristic mistake and resulting collision with Masato’s red AE86, left a mark or two!  Both cars only had superficial damage, however this meant Andy didn’t progress any further.  I hope we have better luck for round 5!

Not phased by his earlier collision with Andy, Masato went on to take 3rd place (Complete with a picture of K-style Mechanic Igusa on his head!).  Toshihiko Mizuno didn’t quite manage to match his brother’s position in round 1, but must be happy with his 2nd place result.  Yoshimura posed for us here as he took a deserved win and automatically acquires a D1 SL License.

Everyone ran for cover as the champagne flowed.  Even “The Boss” – Kumakubo can be seen diving out of range [Far Right] 

The lucky top 3 won New Advan Neova AD08 Tyres - Winner getting 4, and runners up getting a pair each.

More pics from the day can be found here.

Round 5 is on October 24 at Ebisu’s Nishi short course – not one to miss!

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 2:07 pm and is filed under D1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.