As of now it's safe to say that Japan is home to professional drifting. There is only one sanctioning body for drifting and that would be the D1 Grand Prix. At least that's the only one that matters. Just like many different forms of racing, to get to the big show you have to pay your due. It's easy to say you can fill Michael Schumacher's shoes but I'm sure the head cheese at Ferrari would want to see your skills before putting you in a multi-million dollar machine. Although drifting doesn't require millions, it does require you to drive inches away from the next guy in a controlled slide.
Knowing this, it was necessary for the D1 Grand Prix professional drivers to not only do an exhibition run in the States, it was also necessary to hold a U.S.-based driver search in front of a panel of Japanese judges. Before the event I was able to hang out with the drivers at their homebase in the States. A'PEXi offered their stable for the eight cars and once I got word of this, it was a three-day ordeal that led up too the big show.
FridayI heard through the grapevine that A'PEXi was to house eight of the nine J-spec drift cars. Upon my research I also found that the transport was to arrive around 6:00 p.m. I arrived at A'PEXi to find the cars being unloaded, and to my surprise I had no idea that the Vertex Soarer and Blitz Skyline were added to the mix. There were seven cars unloaded but these two particular cars were ones I'd only seen in Option videos numerous times. Now we were going to see them rumble in the States. Included in the stable was an Ogura Clutch GTR and three orange S13s. Signal Auto also brought out two S13s. One vehicle we were hoping to see was the two-time Drift champion and points leader this season, Yoichi Imamura in the A'PEXi FD3S RX-7. Little did we know, Imamura would be present but piloting a left-hand-drive 350Z outfitted for drifting. Here's the challenge on Imamura's part: He has never driven a left-hand-drive car, and the only time he would get a chance to drive it would be on the course the day before the events.
Saturday After their night of partying they ended up getting a late start on the day. That night ended up being a repair day for the cars. This included mounting and balancing about 20 sets of wheels and tires as well as suspension adjustments. Test day would be held later that evening. Once all the cars were ready to go they were loaded back on transport and shipped to Irwindale speedway, the new home for West Coast drifting. Since the A'PEXi 350Z was the only legal vehicle to roam the streets, the head of R&D, Katsuji Yakushiji, drove the car to Irwindale. Since the drivers had some time to rest, they had enough time to do a quick group interview (see Sidebar)
Before arriving at the track I was under the impression they would be running all day to become familiar with the layout. Later I found out there was actually a race event on the high-speed oval that night. My first though was, "Great, a bunch of rednecks bagging on the import thing again." To make matters worse, the group was given an area to park and work on their cars while spectators could check them out. As I suspected, hard-headed domestic fans looked on in disappointment to the invasion of their track. Remarks like, "Damn Jap crap!" and, "Wow. The Fast & the Furious!" rung more than needed. In my mind I knew this would happen and it was up to the drivers to show them what they were made of.