Changes for the 2005 season

Keiichi Tsuchiya is a Japanese professional race car driver. He is known as the for his nontraditional use of drifting in non-drifting racing events and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. In professional racing, he is a two-time 24 Hours of L ...

being the sole judge, with

Manabu Orido is a Japanese racing driver who currently competes in the Super GT series for Team apr Racing, driving a Toyota GR86 GT300 and in the Super Taikyu, driving Aston Martin Vantage GT4. He's a two-time JGTC/Super GT GT300 class champions. Racing ca ...

leaving his spot to become a D1GP competitor. * The introduction of the DriftBox being used as a judging aid. * A points scoring system is introduced which drivers are awarded 10 to 0 depending to their performance to the rival, 10-0 being the highest and 5-5 is considered a draw, as a result, it is up to the judges to call for a sudden death match, if the score becomes too close. The scoring system was used briefly in 2003 and 2004 seasons. * 10th place no longer jointly awarded points as was the case in prior seasons—1pt now awarded to the best six drivers of the best 16 tsuiso round.

2005 Schedules

''n.b. Winning Driver are mentioned on the right''

2005 D1 Grand Prix Point Series

Round 1 - February 26/27 -

Irwindale Speedway Irwindale is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 1,422 at the 2010 census, down from 1,446 at the 2000 census. The ZIP Codes serving the area are 91010, which is shared with Duarte, 91702, w ...

Irwindale, California Irwindale is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 1,422 at the 2010 census, down from 1,446 at the 2000 census. The ZIP Codes serving the area are 91010, which is shared with Duarte, 91702, w ...

, USA - Yasuyuki Kazama (S15)
Round 2 - April 16 - Metropolitan Parking, Odaiba, Japan - Katsuhiro Ueo (AE86)
Round 3 - May 7/8 - Sports Land SUGO, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan - Yasuyuki Kazama (S15)
Round 4 - August 6/7 -

Autopolis is a international racing circuit located near Kamitsue village in Ōita Prefecture, Japan on the Northeast of Kumamoto. Nippon Autopolis">F1 News - Grandprix.com > GP Encyclopedia > Circuits > Nippon Autopolis/ref> Tsurumaki ordered 30 Bui ...

Ōita Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Ōita Prefecture has a population of 1,136,245 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,340 km2 (2,448 sq mi). Ōita Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northwest, Kum ...

, Japan - Toshiki Yoshioka (AE85)
Round 5 - August 20/21 - Ebisu South Course, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan - Yasuyuki Kazama (S15)
Round 6 - October 22/23 - Fuji Speedway, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan - Masao Suenaga (FD3S)
Round 7 - November 20 -

Tsukuba Circuit is a motorsport race track located in Shimotsuma, a neighboring city of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, about north of central Tokyo. It is long, with 32 pit garages and a long back straight. There is a small chicane used only for ...

Ibaraki Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, Tochigi Prefecture ...

, Japan - Youichi Imamura (FD3S)

2005 D1 Grand Prix Exhibition Matches

D1 Odaiba Allstar Exhibition - April 17 - Metropolitan Parking, Odaiba, Japan - Youichi Imamura (FD3S)
D1 Street Legal Exhibition - August 20/21 - Ebisu South Course, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan - Naoto Suenaga (S15)
D1 UK Exhibition - October 2 - Silverstone, England - Ryuji Miki (S15)
D1 Street Legal Exhibition 2 - November 20 -

, Japan - Kazuto Ichiyanagi (RPS13)
D1 USA vs Japan Allstar Exhibition - December 17 -

, USA - Vaughn Gittin Jr. (MUSTANG)

Race Reports

USA vs Japan All Star Exhibition

This event was originally to be run at the same Auto Club Speedway as a double bill of the GT Live event, but due to unforeseen circumstances, the

JGTC Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...

organisers cancelled the event and the D1GP event were moved to Irwindale. During the USA vs Japan All Star Exhibition event in December, the organisers, rather than running the course the usual anti-clockwise route that is found in ovals, the course was run in the other direction. Many drivers had trouble adjusting to the new track change, including

Ken Nomura is a drifting driver from Japan. He made his debut in the D1 Grand Prix in the 3rd round in 2001, driving the Blitz D1 Spec ER34 Skyline which he still drives. His nickname is Nomuken (のむけん) or Monkey Magic (as a reference to his comp ...

, the Import drag racing star

Stephan Papadakis Stephan may refer to: * Stephan, South Dakota, United States * Stephan (given name), a masculine given name * Stephan (surname), a Breton-language surname See also * Sankt-Stephan * Stefan (disambiguation) * Stephan-Oterma * Stephani * Step ...

on his debut drifting season and

Rhys Millen Rhys Millen (born 6 September 1972) is a New Zealand-born racing driver. Nephew of IMSA GTS driver Steve Millen, son of Rodney and older brother of Ryan, is one of the America's top competitors in drifting. Prior to that he was a top rall ...

who all crashed during qualifying. One notable debuts was the father of Rhys,

Rod Millen Rodney K. "Rod" Millen (born 22 March 1951) is a New Zealand racing driver, vehicle designer, and business owner. He has competed in numerous genres of motorsports, including rally racing, off-road racing, hillclimbing, drifting, and super touri ...

, the rallying and

Pikes Peak Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America. The ultra-prominent fourteener is located in Pike National Forest, west of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. The town of Manitou S ...

legend, with all the thirty year motorsport experiences he gained, he broke into the last 16 on his first ever D1 outing in his Mazda RX-8. After a long break from his Last 16 appearance at round 1 in 2004 due to competing in a

Dodge Viper Competition Coupe The Dodge Viper is a sports car that was manufactured by Dodge (by SRT for 2013 and 2014), a division of American car manufacturer FCA US LLC from 1992 until 2017, having taken a brief hiatus in 2007 and from 2010 to 2012. Production of the two- ...

, which rendered him ineligible for participation,

Samuel Hubinette Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bi ...

would make a return with his SRT-10 at the last 16 along with Alex Pfeiffer and

Tanner Foust Tanner Foust (born June 13, 1973) is an American professional racing driver, stunt driver, and television host. He competes in rally, drift, ice racing, time attack, hill climb and rallycross with multiple podium placements, national champions ...

. The event was mainly noted for having a non Japanese driver and car to win over the Japanese who usually dominates all the D1 events.

Vaughn Gittin Jr Vaughn may refer to: Places in the United States *Vaughn, California, former name of Bodfish, California * Vaughn, Montana *Vaughn, New Mexico * Vaughn, Oregon * Vaughn, Pennsylvania * Vaughn, Virginia *Vaughn, Washington Name *Vaughn (surname), ...

took first place after defeating Tatsuya Sakuma, who was driving an APP Racing Silvia S15 with his Falken Tire sponsored

Ford Mustang GT The Ford Mustang is a series of American automobiles manufactured by Ford. In continuous production since 1964, the Mustang is currently the longest-produced Ford car nameplate. Currently in its sixth generation, it is the fifth-best selli ...

through a ''One More Time'' rerun. He also defeated two championship winners (Yasuyuki Kazama and Youichi Imamura) en route.

Final Championship Results

Source: D1GP
Official Site 2005 Championship table

Sources

D1GP Results Database 2005
{{D1 Grand Prix D1 Grand Prix seasons

2005 in Japanese motorsport