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The , abbreviated as D1GP and subtitled ''Professional Drift'', is a production car drifting series from Japan. After several years of hosting amateur drifting contests, Daijiro Inada, founder of '' Option'' magazine and
Tokyo Auto Salon The is an annual auto show held in January at the Makuhari Messe, Chiba City, Japan for Performance and custom aftermarket parts and technology displays. Hosted by the Nippon Auto Parts Aftermarket Committee (NAPAC), the Tokyo Auto Salon is one ...
, and drifting legend, Keiichi Tsuchiya hosted a professional level drifting contest in 1999 and 2000 to feed on the ever increasing skills of drifting drivers who were dominating drifting contests in various parts of Japan. In October 2000, they reformed the contest as a five-round series. In the following year for the following round, the introduction of the two car tsuiou battle, run in a
single-elimination tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...
format, a common tradition for
tōge Tōge or Touge may refer to: * The Japanese word for mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role i ...
races which became popular with car enthusiasts. Since then, the series has spread from the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
to
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and
Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
to
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
with an ever increasing fanbase all over the world. The series has become a benchmark for all drifting series as its tsuisou format became widely adopted in drifting events throughout the world and is the most highly regarded of all series. The series helped to turn not just its personnel but also many of its drivers into celebrities with appearances in TV shows and car magazines all over the world along with scale models and
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
appearances for their cars. It was credited for the increase several-fold in tuning businesses specialising in drift set-ups.


History

The art of drifting can be traced to the early days of motorsport when pre-war Grand Prix and
dirt track racing Dirt track racing is a form of motorsport held on clay or dirt surfaced banked oval racetracks. Dirt track racing started in the United States before World War I and became widespread during the 1920s and 1930s using both automobiles and motorc ...
drivers such as
Tazio Nuvolari Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari (; 16 November 1892 – 11 August 1953) was an Italian racing driver. He first raced motorcycles and then concentrated on sports cars and Grand Prix racing. Originally of Mantua, he was nicknamed ("the Flying Mantuan") ...
used an at-the-limit form of driving called the four-wheel drift. The bias ply racing
tire A tire (North American English) or tyre (Commonwealth English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide Traction (engineeri ...
s of the 1960s-1980s lent themselves to driving styles with a high
slip angle In vehicle dynamics, slip angle or sideslip angle is the angle between the direction in which a wheel is pointing and the direction in which it is actually traveling (i.e., the angle between the forward velocity vector v_x and the vector su ...
. As professional racers in Japan drove this way, so did the street racers. As street ''
tōge Tōge or Touge may refer to: * The Japanese word for mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role i ...
'' racing became increasingly common, one of the first drifting contests was hosted by the Japanese '' Carboy'' magazine in 1986 and then in 1989, the year after the first introduction of the
Video Option is a monthly direct-to-video magazine version of the long-running '' Option magazine'' introduced in March 1988 by Sunpro. Programme format The video has always been presented by Daijiro Inada, who did many of the tuner car road tests, either ...
series Daijiro Inada ''(稲田大二郎)'' decided on introducing a rival drifting event which was judged by Keiichi Tsuchiya known as the ''Ikaten''. Through the years, the standards of drifting drivers has risen rapidly and drivers began to dominate the series. As a result, Inada decided on a new series to accommodate the more experienced and skilled drivers. In 2000, a new series called All Japan Professional Drift Championship (全日本プロドリフト選手権, ''Zen Nihon Puro Dorifuto Sensyuken'') consisting of Keiichi Tsuchiya ''(土屋圭市)'' and Manabu Orido ''(織戸 学)'' as judges, and Manabu Suzuki ''(鈴木 学)'' as commentator. Other personnel consisted of Kitahara, as the tech inspector, and Takayasu Ozaku ''(more commonly known as Zaku the perverted cameraman)'' as the series' long serving cameraman. Racing driver Tarzan Yamada made appearances in earlier rounds and Inada himself would usually make guest appearances in the opening ceremony and judging stand. The first ever event was at
Ebisu Circuit is a motorsport racing complex located in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Overview The Ebisu Circuit complex has seven individual tracks and two skid pad type circuits. The circuits are Nishi (West), Kita (North), Higashi (East), M ...
in Fukushima, Japan, in October 2000 with an entry of forty and a crowd of three thousand. Drivers were judged individually and were treated as the first round of the season, shortly renamed as D1 Grand Prix. From round two onward, the series took a different turn. Unlike drift events which judged the cars individually each round then eliminating the rest, the series introduced the one-to-one round battle called the tsuiso (''twin run'') round which has been the tradition for
Tōge Tōge or Touge may refer to: * The Japanese word for mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role i ...
races and has since been adopted for drifting events all over the world. Aftermarket parts manufacturers BLITZ, HKS and A'PEXi soon began to get involved by sponsoring drivers entering the competition. In , the number of cars competing in the tsuiou rounds was reduced from ten to eight, and was reduced to 6 by round two, as the second tansou rounds increased to twelve. That was increased to sixteen by round four which stands to this day. The series remained domestic until 2003 when an exhibition round was hostedin Southern California at
Irwindale Speedway } Irwindale is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 1,472 at the 2020 census, 1,422 at the 2010 census. The ZIP Codes serving the area are 91010, which is shared with Duarte, 91702, which i ...
, produced by American marketing company, Slipstream Global. That same year, '' Grassroots Motorsports'' also presented the D1 Grand Prix with the Editors' Choice Award. Slipstream Global would later create the
Formula Drift Formula DRIFT (also known as Formula D or FD) is an American drifting series, and was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that introduced D1 Grand Prix to the ...
Championship in 2004. With a sellout crowd of ten thousand, which broke the record for the venue and the series, this venue became the series' opening round in 2004. The California round saw the introduction of the English speaking commentator Toshi Hayama, who also dealt with the organisation of the non-Japanese events. That year also saw the car accessories store
Autobacs () is a retailer of Automotive industry, automotive parts and accessories based in Japan, with branches primarily in Asia and stores also located in France. Etymology Autobacs was given a backronym as follows, which reflects the products the c ...
as the title sponsor, and brought the first non-circuit event at
Odaiba is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge (Tokyo), Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially built for defensive purposes in the 1850s. The land was dramatically expanded during the late 20th centur ...
in Japan in January , held in a
Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...
car park. It also later ran as a championship round. In December 2004, the D1GP was held in the infield road circuit of the
California Speedway Auto Club Speedway (known as California Speedway before and after the 2008–2023 corporate sponsorship by the Automobile Club of Southern California) was a , D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, ne ...
in
Fontana, California Fontana is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Founded by Azariel Blanchard Miller in 1913, it remained essentially rural until World War II, when entrepreneur Henry J. Kaiser built a large steel mill in the area. It ...
, as a non-championship US vs. Japan event, running alongside the JGTC race as part of the non-championship GT Live event. Manabu Orido resigned as a judge at the end of the season to become a driver. The other regular staff for the season were D1 girls Kazumi Kondo ''(近藤和美)'' and Hatsuno Sugaya ''(菅谷はつ乃)'' who previously had careers as JGTC race queens. For the 2006 season, Hatsuno was replaced by Jyuri Tamashiro ''(玉城珠里)''. As the series has always been Japanese dominated with few non-Japanese making it to the best 16, in the first round of the season, after narrowly beating Masato Kawabata who spun during their tsuiso round battle,
Rhys Millen Rhys Rodney 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 to ...
became the first non-Japanese driver to advance to the best 8 round. He lost to
Yasuyuki Kazama is a drifting driver from Japan, formerly competing in D1 Grand Prix, well known for using the Nissan Silvia S15. He is also known as Waku Waku and Spin Benz Dokan. Biography Kazama was first introduced to drifting at age 17 when he watched G ...
after a sudden death tsuiso battle. That year saw the introduction of the D1 Street Legal category which was unveiled at the
Odaiba is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge (Tokyo), Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially built for defensive purposes in the 1850s. The land was dramatically expanded during the late 20th centur ...
round, for cars which are built to be driven on the road. The series' only guest commentator was the TV presenter, singer,
Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is the top level of ...
driver and amateur drifter Hiromi Kozono ''(ヒロミ; real kanji name 小園 浩巳)'' who guest commentated at the 2005 Odaiba Allstar event. In October 2005, the D1GP ventured to Europe with an exhibition round at
Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...
,
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...
, UK. This event provided an upset, as after putting on a good performance in the first run, the Irishman Darren McNamara advanced to the best 8 round after overtaking the series regular Hiroshi Fukuda on the first run. Like
Rhys Millen Rhys Rodney 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 to ...
in the first round, McNamara fell victim to Kazama after losing four to six then tying in the other round. With a crowd attendance of five thousand, in the following year the D1GP ran its own national series in the UK. At the non-championship D1 USA vs Japan Allstar Exhibition at Irwindale Speedway in December 2005, the series had its first non-Japanese winner for both car and driver: Vaughn Gittin Jr. with his Ford Mustang GT. At the following season opener in March ,
Samuel Hübinette Samuel Hübinette, a.k.a. The Crazy Swede (born 15 September 1971, in Jokkmokk, Norrbotten County), is a Sweden, Swedish professional Auto racing, race car driver and Cinema of the United States, Hollywood stunt driver. He started working as a tes ...
with his Dodge Viper SRT/10 took things further by making it into the best 8 by beating Gittin in a sudden death tsuiso battle, Hubinette made it to the semi-final when he defeated Takahiro Ueno, only to be beaten by
Nobushige Kumakubo is a drifting driver from Japan who competes in the D1 Grand Prix series and racetrack and land owner. Nicknamed ''Kuma'', he is commonly referred to as one of the pioneers of drifting. Biography Born to a wealthy family who owned a large por ...
in his Subaru Impreza GDB. Kumakubo went on into the finals to be beaten by
Yasuyuki Kazama is a drifting driver from Japan, formerly competing in D1 Grand Prix, well known for using the Nissan Silvia S15. He is also known as Waku Waku and Spin Benz Dokan. Biography Kazama was first introduced to drifting at age 17 when he watched G ...
, who won his third successive first round championship event. In 2006, the D1GP ventured into the highly lucrative Asian market by hosting a feeder series in
Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
, as well as in New Zealand, both of which are currently only running a drivers' search event, which gives the drivers who do well in any of the national series a chance to compete at the final non-championship event held in Irwindale in addition to the final round which only the three UK series drivers was invited by Tsuchiya, who was impressed by their skills during the UK exhibition event. McNamara, the only of the three drivers to qualify in the points-scoring final round and to enter with his own car, finished in the last 8 in both events, only to lose to
Nomura Nomura (written: 野村 "field village" or 埜村 "wilderness village") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * , Japanese volleyball player * , Japanese-American baseball agent * , Japanese voice actor, including in t ...
in both through a sudden death match. As that was the only year to have a franchise in the UK, McNamara would compete in the US series. In , the former D1GP driver, Hisashi Kamimoto retired from driving to join as judge. The D1 Gals of 2006 was replaced by the "''D1 Sisters''" who were audition winners and representative of the agency ''D-Sign'', consisting of Hiromi Goto, Yuria Tachiki, Asami Kikuchi and Ayaka Tashiro. Since the series began, ''
Video Option is a monthly direct-to-video magazine version of the long-running '' Option magazine'' introduced in March 1988 by Sunpro. Programme format The video has always been presented by Daijiro Inada, who did many of the tuner car road tests, either ...
'' has always covered all of the official D1GP events. Its English language sister title ''JDM Option'', which was established in 2004, also covers the events. In 2007, the sports channel, '' J Sports
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
'' began screening highlights of the series with Suzuki and Nomura as presenters, with the D1 Sisters making guest appearances. For the 2009 season, the US arm underwent a new management team to kickstart a new domestic series Tsuchiya, who was also on the executive board, stepped down when the organization went under new management. In December 2010, Keiichi Tsuchiya and Daijiro Inada both decided to resign from D1GP due to consistent irresponsible management. The following year saw the first time D1GP will continue without Tsuchiya nor Inada, Hisashi Kamimoto who was part of the judge is promoted to chief judge and assisted by
Akira Iida is a Japanese racing driver currently competing in the Super GT series in GT300 class with LM corsa, one of the teams under Toyota Motorsport's GAZOO racing arm. Iida won the 2002 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship GT500 class with Ess ...
,
Shinichi Yamaji was a Japanese race car driver. He formerly raced in the Japanese Grand Touring Championship, currently known as Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred t ...
, Eiji Yamada and Ryusuke Kawasaki, the Tanso Champions is awarded for the driver with the best Solo run driver and Tanso Winner is awarded for the best qualifier for each round. In the same year Youichi Imamura winning his 4th and last title making him driver with the most D1GP title. 2014 saw the ban on
nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide (dinitrogen oxide or dinitrogen monoxide), commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous, or factitious air, among others, is a chemical compound, an Nitrogen oxide, oxide of nitrogen with the Chemical formula, formula . At room te ...
, a gas commonly seen to add power to engines in motorsport, causing teams to use larger turbochargers or displacement engines. Since 2018 D1GP has streamed all of its round and its feeder series D1 Lights from YouTube for free with Japanese and English language stream on their official channe
D1GP MOVIE CHANNEL
In 2022 D1 Grand Prix started the "Next 10 Years" Project in order to develop an appeal for D1 for the upcoming 10 years by creating a competition that could be enjoyed even more and make an environment which makes it easier for the teams and drivers to compete in the competition and at the same time creating new standards for safety and fairness and competition.


Road to D1

Usually, drivers in Japan have to make it to the top of the championship table in one of four major national drifting series': *Advan Drift Meeting *A'PEX Cup *ORC Drift Championship *BN Sports D1 Drift Championship Outside Japan, drivers have to enter a Driver Search. Once they have qualified, they receive a D1 License, which enables them to enter the qualifying rounds and the newly introduced national series, plus the exhibition events that they are invited to. In a championship event, usually entries are restricted to one hundred cars. Each car gets an allocation of three individual tansou (''solo run'') qualifying runs: only the best one counts. At the end of the day, the top twenty qualifiers join the ten seeded cars who are determined by the top ten on the D1GP championship tables. The seeded drivers are usually a red background on their number to identify them. On race day, after two sets of practice runs are done through, competitors will go through a starting ceremony which they will be introduced to the crowds and then a driver will be rounded up in group of fours and be given a set of three qualifying runs to make it into the best 16 tsuiso (''twin run'') round battles, which involves two cars drifting simultaneously. The Tansou groups would be given, Priority A, B and C. "A" indicates seeded drivers and "C" indicates as qualifiers. The Tansou rounds always starts with the series leader and then goes through to the last driver with the highest number, which usually indicates that he is a qualifier. At the end of the drivers three rounds, only the best run counts and on each run, they are judged with an assistance of a '' DriftBox'', which determines angle, keeping to the correct racing line and speed. That will be given a score up to a maximum of 100.0, should a driver score that point, he will be given a bonus score of 1 point which will be added to his score they accumulates during the tsuiou round. At the end when all drivers are judged, the judges picks the sixteen drivers for the tsuiou round, the highest scoring driver will be paired up against the sixteenth highest scorer, the second highest will be paired against the fifteenth highest and so on. Between this and the following tsuiou round, there is a ''pit walk'' session at the paddock area for spectators, usually off-limits to them, where they can get close to the D1 personnel, drivers and cars. This usually lasts up to an hour which the crowds disembark back to the crowd area ready for the tsuiou round. During a tsuiso round battle, one car follows another through the course, attempting to keep up with or even pass the car in front. It does not matter if the drifting line is wrong: it matters who has the most exciting drift. Normally, the leading car usually produces a maximum angle drift, but still closes off the inside line to prevent passing. The chasing car usually drifts with less angle, but very close to the lead car. However, the chasing car does not even have to keep up. In fact, in some cases, if a car that was left behind on the straight manages produces a beautiful drift, it could win that round. A spin, under-steer, or collision, results in a disqualification and a zero score for the offending party in that battle. At the
final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...
round, the two finalists will be gathered in front of the judging stand, which they park up together and stand by their car to be formally addressed by the judges, the driver would return to the starting line to continue with their last sets of tsuiou rounds. Until 2004, there was a third place playoff for the losing semi finalists, which has been dropped. Should there be no sudden death rounds being called up, the finalists would return in front of the judging area with the losing drivers, who would return from the starting line; where the winner's name will be called up be the lead judge, which a large trophy and bottle of
champagne Champagne (; ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, which demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, spe ...
will be presented to them by the D1 Gals. A cheque would usually be presented to the top 3 drivers, the winner's cheque is usually worth ¥1million or $5000 in US events. After the name is announced, in some event, the driver would be given a toss-up by competitors, a common tradition in some sports and usually the spectators will be invited onto the track. Each D1 Licence is valid for an entire season. Drivers who finish in the top 16 of points will retain their licence for the next year. Drivers who finish below are relegated and must attempt to qualify for a licence at a qualifying school (such as Driver Search or a national drifting series).


Typical D1GP vehicle regulations

Considering the fact that the D1GP is a series geared towards production cars only, there are a number of different race regulations that the vehicle must undergo in order to be eligible to compete. They are: *Only rear wheel drive is permitted. The vehicle must be a standard production, road-going model from a major vehicle manufacturer. It may also be converted from
front-wheel drive Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of internal combustion engine, engine and transmission (mechanics), transmission layout used in motor vehicles, in which the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel-drive vehicles feature ...
, or
all wheel drive An all-wheel drive vehicle (AWD vehicle) is one with a powertrain capable of providing power to all its wheels, whether full-time or on-demand. Types The most common forms of all-wheel drive are: ;1x1 : All unicycles Reflects one axle with ...
. **Vehicles constructed by a vehicle manufacturer solely for the purpose of racing are prohibited. *The vehicle must retain the original chassis/body—only stock body constructed from a vehicle manufacturer is allowed. ** No tube frame vehicles or tube frame chassis extensions are permissible unless part of the OEM structure ** Space frame chassis are not permitted, additional triangulation and bracing of suspension turret/mounting points is allowed so long as the car vehicle contains its original monocoque chassis. ** Vehicles must retain their original VIN in its OEM position as well as the OEM chassis plate where applicable -- VIN must not be altered, clearly visible and readable. ** Convertible vehicles must have a hard top installed and a roll cage which will be effective in the event of a vehicle rolling onto its roof. The hard top must be securely fastened to the body. ** The vehicles appearance must be similar to that of the original vehicle. *Semi-Slick Tires/DOT-R Compounds (S-Tires) were prohibited after the first season as they are not road legal, after Nobuteru Taniguchi used them to win the championship in 2001. The series now only permits commercially available road tires approved by the organization. *Catalytic converters must be installed to keep the vehicle to the maximum noise limit at race circuits. In the past, Drivers’ Search rules were more lenient to that of the championship rules until 2005, which the same rules apply to this day.


D1 Street Legal

As the D1GP category was moving away from its grassroots during the earlier days, and budgets and development costs were getting higher, the organisers introduced the D1 Street Legal (''D1ストリートリーガル ( in
katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...
), as D1SL'') category at the
Odaiba is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge (Tokyo), Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially built for defensive purposes in the 1850s. The land was dramatically expanded during the late 20th centur ...
round in 2005 for road driven cars which were different from the main category as they are trailer driven between races. Being a budget series, this meant that there is tighter restrictions on how a car can be modified. For example, the car must have a working car stereo system and must have the original engine which it was originally supplied with. Also there is no wide body extension and wings must be within the width of the car. The car must also retain many of its original features, especially dashboard, doors, etc. which sometimes can be replaced/removed/modified in the D1GP category. In all the car has to prove its road-worthiness by its entrant providing a '' shaken'' certificate. Initially, the new series was treated to two exhibition rounds in 2005, and was given a full seven round the following year. Although the series is geared towards novice drifters, it also attracts D1GP star drivers including the Suenaga brothers,
Masao Masao (written: 正雄, 正夫, 正生, 正男, 正郎, 雅雄, 雅央, 雅夫, 雅勇, 雅男, 昌雄, 昌夫, 昌男, 昌朗, 昌郎, 昌大, 政雄, 政夫, 政男, 政於, 征夫, 優夫, 聖雄, 利生, 将雄, 将夫 or 眞男) is a masculine ...
and Naoto, many of its former D1GP regulars, and fan-favourites like Ken Nomura. In 2006, the organisers started a divisional series called D1SL Divisional Series which does not require a D1 License and is broken up in four regions: north, south, east, and west, with rounds that consist of 3 to 4 events in each region and a point scoring system that is the same as the other series'. The winner of the series at the end is awarded a D1 License. In 2017, the organisers announced the end of the D1 Street Legal series, being replaced by the D1 Lights series from 2018 onwards.


Typical D1 Street Legal vehicle regulations

Although the items that are prohibited in D1GP also applies in D1SL, additional prohibited items in D1SL cars include: * Sequential transmission. *
Fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...
s. *
Carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...
/beamless/ FRP door replacements, must be OEM doors with side impact bars intact if possible. * Airjacks. * Tubbed fenders/one-off metal body components, must be one that is available to the public. * Custom/standalone relay/fuse switchboxes. *
Acrylic glass Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a synthetic polymer derived from methyl methacrylate. It is a transparent thermoplastic, used as an engineering plastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and bran ...
/
polycarbonate Polycarbonates (PC) are a group of thermoplastic polymers containing carbonate ester, carbonate groups in their chemical structures. Polycarbonates used in engineering are strong, toughness, tough materials, and some grades are optically transp ...
window inserts and replacements, must be OEM glass. * complete dash replacement parts, must be stock. Other restrictions in the category are that: * Spoilers must stay within the width of the vehicle. * Brakes must be stock dimensions; no swaps from other models of same make are allowed. * Vehicles must retain OEM parts ( ac/
navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the motion, movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navig ...
/heater) * A functioning car audio system must be in place. *A 6-point roll cage with 4-point harness must be in place (same as that of D1GP). * Restriction of engine swaps from other model into other model, as S15 Silvia Spec-S to Spec-R specification ( SR20DE→SR20DET) may be permitted but a RB26DETT into an HR32 Skyline GTS-t is not unless the model is a BNR32, nor even is converting an AE85 to AE86 is permitted. Engines from other manufacturer's car (e.g. Darren McNamara's 13B-REW powered AE86) are not permitted as well. A bolt on
turbocharger In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (also known as a turbo or a turbosupercharger) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake air, forcing more air into th ...
or
supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement (engine), displacement. It is a form of forced induction that is mechanically ...
is permitted, the engine in the car can be determined by the VIN plate


D1 Lights

D1 Lights replaced D1 Street Legal from 2018 onwards, unlike D1 Street Legal the car now must be a competition only car and no longer street registered. This were implemented to help better bridge the gap between D1 Grand Prix and its feeder series. The safety of the series is also increased after a spotter was fatally struck by a wheel that came loose during a practice session in the final round of 2016 D1 Street Legal. This accident led to the round being completely cancelled and the D1 Street Legal not continuing in 2017. The series kicked off with a pre-season event at Nikko Circuit, followed by the first round at Maze Circuit. Daisuke Saito became the first winner of D1 Lights, the first series champion was Junya Ishikawa who graduated to D1GP the following year, while Naoki Nakamura who won twice regained his D1GP license and also graduated to D1GP. In 2019 for the first time D1GP and D1 Lights were held in the same venue during same weekend at
Autopolis is a international racing circuit located near Kamitsue, Ōita, Kamitsue village in Ōita Prefecture, Japan on the northeast of Kumamoto. Nippon Autopolis">F1 News - Grandprix.com > GP Encyclopedia > Circuits > Nippon Autopolis/ref> Tsurumaki ...
, which was the final round for both series. The same would happen again twice in the following year, with the season opener and in Ebisu West. D1 Lights initially live streamed on D1GP Movie Channel but moved to Video Option's YouTube channel in 2023. On final two round of 2024 season, D1 Lights experimented with Top 24 tournament last seen in 2014 D1GP season and targeted to be use from 2025 and beyond. As of 2024, all D1 Lights champion had graduated to D1 Grand Prix with 2024 season had all previous Lights champion up to 2023 competed in the series which was not seen with D1 Street Legal.


D1 National Series

During the 2005 exhibition event at
Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...
, a domestic series was announced with a plan to run the UK round as part of the world series for the following year, though plans for a point scoring round at that location never materialised. The series took over where the Autoglym Drift Championship left off, which was formerly run by the OPT Drift Club, an offshoot of a tuning business called Option Motorsport. The club held a championship in 2002 called D1UK (the previous moniker), though not related to the magazine, for the 2004 season, the business was forced to drop the Option and D1 name for legal reasons. The difference between the Autoglym series, which was sponsored by the car care product manufacturer, and the D1GB is that the former had a separate championship for beginners called Clubmans which was run in a tansou (''solo run'') format only and did not require the common safety amenities (e.g. rollcages), and the latter is a main championship for experienced drivers which consists of the usual tsuiso (''twin run'') rounds. The other difference is, D1 regulation is more stringent on car modifications. The club was since absorbed into the D1 franchise as a national series. The GB series, was followed by a Malaysia series (''D1MY''), though the series and drivers' search began earlier than its UK counterpart due to the difference in climate with its first round in March, compared with the UK series in May. The MY series tends to have the privilege of having Tsuchiya to judge the rounds, whereas the UK series only had Dorikin and Manabu Suzuki as judges in Round 2, on the weekend of the D1GP exhibition event. The New Zealand series are currently run as a drivers' search rounds, which awards a D1 License to the winners and allow the top four to compete in the world exhibition event in the US in December. At the end of the season, the series went through a major technical hitch as the D1 organisation refused to foot the fee to import the top 5 cars to Irwindale as promised, therefore the organizers of the D1GB dissolved its association with the D1 organisation and formed the European Drift Championship (EDC) which uses the same rule as the series itself. As a compromise, the D1 organisation instead gave the top three drivers a chance to compete in US based cars for both the point scoring and World All-Star round. The D1 franchise would itself move to the US after three seasons of being opening points scoring round.


Drifting team list

*Team Orange D1 world drifting champions is led by
Nobushige Kumakubo is a drifting driver from Japan who competes in the D1 Grand Prix series and racetrack and land owner. Nicknamed ''Kuma'', he is commonly referred to as one of the pioneers of drifting. Biography Born to a wealthy family who owned a large por ...
and directed by Hiroki Furuse aka "Sleepy" - Team Orange's Manager. He is also EDC Judge for European Drift Championship. He was consultant for the
Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer and former publisher based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts and managed under the EA Sports ...
video game, Race Driver: Grid and also with Team Orange. They played as stunt drivers in the feature film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, produced by
Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company that is a subsidiary of Comcast ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of N ...
. In 2011, they did a Tuning Film Documentary written and directed by Diego Vida and produced by FanVision.


Broadcast

D1 Grand Prix coverage were never televised but the event coverage covered in
Video Option is a monthly direct-to-video magazine version of the long-running '' Option magazine'' introduced in March 1988 by Sunpro. Programme format The video has always been presented by Daijiro Inada, who did many of the tuner car road tests, either ...
and separate playback in
VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...
and
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
format. However the production of it stopped as Sunpros DVD product such as Video Option and Drift Tengoku were shifted to YouTube in 2018. Live Stream of the event initially started in
Niconico , known before 2012 as , is a Japanese video sharing service based in Tokyo, Japan. "Niconico" or "nikoniko" is the Japanese sound symbolism, Japanese ideophone for smiling. As of 2021, Niconico is the 34th most-visited website in Japan, accordi ...
platform but also moved to
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
in 2018 with the stream available as VOD after the stream is finished. Initially the livestream was stream o
D1GP MOVIE CHANNEL
but in 2023 the channel only stream for paying membership with free livestream moved t
Video Option
channel. Manabu Suzuki is in charge of main commentator since the series first started. He usually accompanied by Naoki Tsuji but he is moved to YouTube commentary for the free livestream. Ryusuke Kawasaki and Ken Nomura also often accompanied Suzuki in commentary booth. Free livestream is also available in English with Japan-based Australian YouTuber Alexi Smith aka Noriyaro and American D1 Divisional driver Kyle Cooney as commentary, voicing over the Japanese stream on same channel. Live stream for DOSS Scoring system also available for free.


Championship winners


By Year


By Driver


D1GP


D1 Street Legal & D1 Lights


Tanso (solo run) champions


(Non Championship) All Star winners


Statistics

* Youngest Driver to compete —
Ken Gushi is one of Japan's top competitors in the sport of drifting. Born in Okinawa, Japan but raised in San Gabriel, California, he was taught by his fatheTsukasa Gushiat the age of 13 with a Toyota AE86. Ken has become the youngest competitor in both ...
, age 16, 2004 Round 1. * Youngest Driver to enter Best 4 — Emmanuelle Amandio, age 20yrs 10mths, 2013 Round 4 * Youngest Driver to win (D1GP) — Youichi Imamura, age 24yrs 5mths, 2000 Round 1. * Youngest Driver to win (D1 Lights) — Ryuu Nakamura, age 18yrs 2mths, 2024 Round 7. * Youngest Championship Winner — Youichi Imamura, age 27yrs 5mths, 2003 Season. * Oldest Driver to enter Best 16 (Non-Championship) —
Rod Millen Rodney Kenneth 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 rallying, off-road racing, hillclimbing, drifting, and super touring. ...
, age 55, 2005 D1 USA vs Japan Allstar Exhibition. * Oldest Driver to compete (D1SL) — Daijiro Inada, age 59, 2006 Round 2. * Oldest Driver to win (D1GP) — Katsuhiro Ueo, age 51yrs 1mths, 2023 Round 3. * Oldest Driver to win (D1SL) — Kazuyoshi Okamura, age 47, 2006 Round 5. * Oldest Championship Winner — Hideyuki Fujino, age 49yrs 4mths, 2023 Season. * Most Wins in a single Season — 5 wins, Daigo Saito, 2015 Season; Masanori Kohashi, 2020 Season. * Most Tanso/ Solo run in a single Season — 6 wins, Masato Kawabata, 2018 Season. * Most Points in a single Season — 206pts, Naoki Nakamura, 2021 Season. * Most Championship Wins — 4 wins, Youichi Imamura (2003, 2009–2011) * Narrowest title margin — 1pt;
Yasuyuki Kazama is a drifting driver from Japan, formerly competing in D1 Grand Prix, well known for using the Nissan Silvia S15. He is also known as Waku Waku and Spin Benz Dokan. Biography Kazama was first introduced to drifting at age 17 when he watched G ...
(97pts) over
Masao Suenaga is a retired Japanese professional drifting driver. He is the younger brother of Naoto who both were taught by Nobushige Kumakubo. He began his motorsport career racing minibikes in the Kyūshū area, later winning a title. Following this, h ...
(96pts), 2005 Season and
Nobushige Kumakubo is a drifting driver from Japan who competes in the D1 Grand Prix series and racetrack and land owner. Nicknamed ''Kuma'', he is commonly referred to as one of the pioneers of drifting. Biography Born to a wealthy family who owned a large por ...
(110 pts) over Ken Nomura (109 pts), 2006 Season; Masato Kawabata (100pts) over
Nobushige Kumakubo is a drifting driver from Japan who competes in the D1 Grand Prix series and racetrack and land owner. Nicknamed ''Kuma'', he is commonly referred to as one of the pioneers of drifting. Biography Born to a wealthy family who owned a large por ...
(99pts), 2007 Season. * Widest title margin — 45pts; Masanori Kohashi (174pts) over Masashi Yokoi (129pts), 2020 Season. * Highest number of entries – 124 (Rd 6, 2005). * Lowest number of entries – 25 (Rd 5, 2001).


All-Time winners list

''excludes non-championship, D1SL & non-Japanese National events''


Driver


= Drivers all-time winning table (Tsuiso)

=


= Tanso all-time winning table (Awarded since 2011 season)

= Bold : Active Drivers ''Italics :'' Active in other series


Car all-time winning table

(Tsuiso = dual run; tanso = solo run)


Gallery

File:Kawabatas15.jpg, Masato Kawabata's, Nissan Silvia S15 File:MikiS15.jpg,
Ryuji Miki is a racing and drifting driver from Tottori Prefecture, Japan. Miki was the D1 Grand Prix champion driving the Top Secret (company), Top Secret Nissan Silvia, Silvia S15. Miki also competed in the Net'z Cup, a one-design, one make series f ...
's, Nissan Silvia S15 File:Kumascooby.jpg,
Nobushige Kumakubo is a drifting driver from Japan who competes in the D1 Grand Prix series and racetrack and land owner. Nicknamed ''Kuma'', he is commonly referred to as one of the pioneers of drifting. Biography Born to a wealthy family who owned a large por ...
's Subaru Impreza GDB File:Blitzer34.jpg, Ken Nomura's Nissan Skyline ER34 File:RE Amemiya FD.jpg,
Masao Suenaga is a retired Japanese professional drifting driver. He is the younger brother of Naoto who both were taught by Nobushige Kumakubo. He began his motorsport career racing minibikes in the Kyūshū area, later winning a title. Following this, h ...
's RE Amemiya
Mazda RX-7 The Mazda RX-7 is a front mid engine, Rear-wheel drive, rear-wheel-drive, rotary engine-powered sports car, manufactured and marketed by Mazda from 1978 through 2002 across three generations, all of which incorporated the use of a compact, light ...
File:BeeR324R.jpg, Tsuyoshi Tezuka's Nissan Skyline BNR32 (B324R) File:Osaka Auto Messe 2014 (175) HKS RACING PERFORMER 86.JPG,
Nobuteru Taniguchi is a Japanese racing driver and drifting (motorsport), drifting driver who currently competes in the Super GT racing series. Taniguchi is commonly nicknamed "NOB" (first three letters from his name, meaning "No One Better") or "The Pimp" as a ref ...
's HKS built
Toyota GT86 The Toyota 86 and the Subaru BRZ are 2+2 (car body style), 2+2 sports cars jointly developed by Toyota and Subaru, manufactured at Subaru's Gunma assembly plant. The 2+2 fastback coupé has a naturally aspirated boxer engine, Front-engine, rea ...
File:Osaka Auto Messe 2019 (688) - D-MAX S15 SILVIA.jpg, Masashi Yokoi's Nissan Silvia S15 File:Osaka Auto Messe 2020 (271) - No.90 Team TOYO TIRES DRIFT GR Supra.jpg, Masato Kawabata's
Toyota GR Supra The Toyota GR Supra (model code J29/DB or A90/A91 for marketing purposes) is a sports car produced by Toyota since 2019. The fifth-generation Toyota Supra, Supra, the GR Supra was sold under and developed by Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) brand in ...
File:Osaka Auto Messe 2020 (267) - Infiniti Q60 (V37) D1 Grand Prix ver. participated by SHIBATA R31HOUSE.jpg, Koudai Sobagiri's Infiniti Q60 File:TEAM TOYO TIRES DRIFT GR86 in 2022 D1GP INTERNATIONAL DRIFT CHAMPIONSHIP (1).jpg, Masato Kawabata's Toyota GR86 File:Nagoya Auto Trend 2011 (11) VERTICE DESIGN D1 BMW.JPG, Takahiro Ueno's BMW 3 Series (E90) File:Osaka Auto Messe 2016 (52) - No.60 DUNLOP OTG 86.jpg, Yoichi Imamura's
Toyota GT86 The Toyota 86 and the Subaru BRZ are 2+2 (car body style), 2+2 sports cars jointly developed by Toyota and Subaru, manufactured at Subaru's Gunma assembly plant. The 2+2 fastback coupé has a naturally aspirated boxer engine, Front-engine, rea ...


See also

*
Formula D Formula DRIFT (also known as Formula D or FD) is an American drifting series, and was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that introduced D1 Grand Prix to the ...
* Drift Allstars * British Drift Championship


References

{{D1 Grand Prix All articles to be expanded Awards established in 1999 1999 establishments in Japan