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During eliminations, however, Russakoff fell on hard times. In the most spectacular crash of the weekend, he powered into the tires, and the car launched several feet into the air on the rebound. Russakoff says he wanted to push the limits and please the judges. While Russakoff's first two passes were adequate, he says, his entry speeds were low. With a dearth of horsepower to play with, entry speed determines the entire run for the smaller cars. Despite this catastrophe, Russakoff managed to qualify 16th of 16. The crash took out his radiator and tweaked the front suspension, but he said it wouldn't be too expensive to fix. Though, even with parts from a friend's car, Russakoff couldn't get it back on the track in the four-hour window before Eliminations.

Twenty-four racers competing for 16 slots in the final leads to all manner of carnage. Weekend-ending crashes from Russakoff and Tiger Racing's Chanin earned them "good job" reprimands from the judges. Battles of attrition from Tiger teammate Jaytir and Kure racing's Fixmer's cars left a rich potpurri of car parts across the track from each of their three passes. But that wasn't enough to guarantee anyone a spot without fighting for it. In the end, the highest qualifying score was 99.9 and the lowest a hair's-breadth 99.0, with entry speeds ranging from 79.5 mph to 89.5 mph. Newcomer Forrest Wang made a crowd-pleasing drift, but only earned a 98.5. We have no doubt he's someone to keep an eye on in the future.

It wouldn't be a car show/race without a standard collection of garden-variety bikini babes. In addition to typical arm candy these events encourage, there was a bikini contest right after the main event. But it may have been most notable for its crowd-control benefits; the on-stage proceedings kept the crowd from migrating en masse to the parking lot like at most other events.

With eight pairs of drivers selected for the elimination round, the entire event shifted in tone. Where the qualifying round was like a demolition derby, the main event was more like The Magic Flute with burning rubber. All in all, only one bumper went flying, and that was due to unsportsmanlike contact between Ueo and Yoshioka. Apparently, Ueo has a reputation for taking opponents down with him, but tonight it only cost Yoshioka a rear bumper.

Because of the way that elimination pairs are chosen (#1 with #16, #2 with #15 and so forth) pitting both Team Orange drivers against each another provided counterpoint to the two's tandem runs they'd been practicing all weekend. Unfortunately, it made judging the two similar drivers with similar cars virtually impossible, causing seemingly endless sudden-death matches with neither driver flinching. Finally, Kumakubo, last year's series champ, slipped up and let his teammate progress to the semi-finals.

Ryan Hampton and his Corvette spun out, leading to a score of zero and his elimination, which was something of a disappointment, because his car was probably the best sounding car on the track and the only domestic model.

The final came down to Yoichi Imamura's widebody Nissan Z and Hideo Hiraoka's Silvia. In the end, Imamura made an unpopular victor. The crowd turned on him during the semi-final showdown against Yoshioka. He'd been passed spectacularly on the inside of a tight drift, only to have his opponent spin out and lose the heat. Regardless, to the victor goes the spoils. In this case, a $5,000 purse.

Best 16
Toshiki Yoshioka defeated Ernie Fixmer.
Katsuhiro Ueo defeated Kazuyoshi Okamura.
Yoichi Imamura defeated Michihiro Takatori.
Ken Nomura defeated Justin Pawlak.
Kazuhiro Tanaka defeated teammate Nobushige Kumakubo.
Tetsuya Hibino defeated Ryan Hampton.
Hideo Haraoka defeated Daigo Saito.
Takahiro Ueno defeated Quoc Ly.

Best 8
Toshiki Yoshioka defeated Katsuhiro Ueo.
Yoichi Imamura defeated Ken Nomura.
Kazuhiro Tanaka defeated Tetsuyo Hibino.
Hideo Hiraoka defeated Takahiro Ueno.

Semi-final
Yoichi Imamura defeated Toshiki Yoshioka.
Hideo Hiraoka defeated Kazuhiro Tanaka.

Final
Yoichi Imamura defeated Hideo Hiraoka.

(Results courtesy LVMS.com.)

Related:
Jalopnik at the D1 Grand Prix, Day One: Practice [internal]

Let the Kids Drift
Drifting is also wildly popular. The key difference is at the drift events we've been to there are many more spectators buying coilovers, RC cars, and churros then there are swilling beer and falling over. We politely remind Karin Rivard, the woman in the video complaining about alleged post-race track activities, and who looks as if she may be constipated, that she moved in next to a race track. A motorsports facility. A place where people go to race machines. These people that come to race also occasionally stay overnight in the same RV they used to tow their race cars to the race track. Overnight camping is another activity which Karin, her Hubby, and their Lawyer also want banned.

Watch The KTVU News Video

Not a Motorsports Fan
Thus two people and their lawyer have somehow forced the Board of Supes to potentially uphold a drifting and overnight parking ban at the race track. Mark and Karin Rivard seem to be the sole members of a group called "Community for a Better Altamont". Despite the images of eagles and baby foxes on their web site and in their newsletters, these folks seem to have a personal vendetta against Altamont Speedway, which they moved in next to in 2005. The race track was established in 1966. The ultimate irony is that Mark Rivard himself evidently cared nothing about the baby foxes when he constructed a personal motocross race track on his adjacent to Altamont Speedway property. The board of supes already ruled drifting and overnight camping were OK back in March, but the Rivards appealed the decision.

This excerpt from the Tracy Press back in March.

"The Rivards purchased a plot of land next to the track in 1999. Rivard, an executive at a staffing firm as well as a self-proclaimed former motocross racer, built a motocross track as well as a house on the property. He and his family moved there in December 2005, shortly after Lakeside Motorsports-Altamont, LLC — a group of investors that includes Bay Area businessmen and a Burbank developer — purchased the track.

Neither Rivard nor other members of Community for a Better Altamont returned calls seeking comment. Condren said he expects them to continue fighting the track.

'To the Rivards, Altamont Motorsports Park is an absolute," he said. "There is no middle ground — they want it absolutely gone. And that is not an option.'"

Source: Tracy Press March 23 2007 [tracypress.com]

Everything lay in the balance today. The drifters involved plan to win this battle, and take it all the way to the Governator if the Rivards and their Lawyer manage to pull baby foxes through loopholes. The irony of all this is that the time-proven way to get racing off the streets is to give people a place to do it - such as a race track. The commercial at the beginning of the KTVU news video states: "There are endless choices of where you can drive in California." Not for long with people like Mark and Karin Rivard. Always support your local race track. If you don't like racing, then building a house next door to a race track is probably not a great plan. – Mike Bumbeck

KTVU News Video [ktvu.com]
Community for a Better Altamont [betteraltamont.org]
County to Decide on Appeal Over Altamont Drifting [tracypress.com]
Alameda County Board of Supervisors [acgov.org]
Contact the Governator [gov.ca.gov]

Related:
SUPER GLOBAL ALL-STAR DRIFTING BATTLE! [Internal]

[Thanks to the Starlet obsessed at KP61.net for the tip]

Related:
Greco Dorifto! Grecian Hoons Prefer Starlet! [Internal]

NOPI Drag and Drift [Nopi.com]; Drift Fury [DriftFury.com]

Related:
Are You A NOPI Chic? Dubspeed Driven's Choose Your Own Adventure Photo Galleries; Team Orange Cleans Up at D1GP Final Round; SUPER GLOBAL ALL-STAR DRIFTING BATTLE! [Internal]

As announcer, translator, and judge Toshi Hayama later informed us all, the hachi-roku is the sworn nemesis of eventual D1GP All-Star event winner Ken "Nomuken" Nomura and his 533HP R34 Skyline. Hachi-roku is Japanese for eighty-six, which in itself is the latter part of the Toyota Corolla's AE86 chassis designation.

At the heart of the hachi-roku is the twin-cam Toyota 4AG. Note individual throttle bodies for maximum effective air-flow and sonic amusement. The symphony of rotaries, inline-sixes, fours-bangers, and V-8's is what makes the drifting soundtrack worth listening to.

The focus of the All-Star event was for Japanese and US drivers to host drivers from other parts of the globe. Flag waving was thereby encouraged.

Representing Malaysia was Tengku Djan, who had encountered the wall on Saturday. D1GP founder Daijiro Inada empowers repairs by way of stylish suit. Find more Tengku in the gallery.

Team Orange drivers Kumakubo and Tanaka opened the D1GP All-Star Match at Irwindale Speedway by hurtling around the course Joie Chitwood Thrill Show style - in opposite directions!

Katsuhiro Ueo absolutely refuses to take his foot out of the throttle of his hachi-roku for any reason.

Closeup of Ueo's personal tire smoke ventilation removal system.

Djan's hachi got a straightaway spanking at the hands of Yoichi Imamura's Nissan 350z.

2005 All-Star winner Vaughn Gitten Jr. got his supercharged Mustang into the running but went out first round against Djan.

Ireland's Darren McNamara absolutely slayed in his turbocharged AE86. Watch for this man in the near drifting future.

Samuel Hubinette took the hemi-mo-powered Dodge Charger into the All-Star in a big way.

Rhys Millen disabled his turbocharged Pontiac Solstice during practice on Friday. The team rolled down to the shop and affected repairs for a return to the All-Star on Sunday.

Hey Pal, look where you're going. Actually Daigo Saito is looking back to see where his cobbled-by-a-cone opponent went. Low slung coolers and apex cones don't mix well.

The sound of the anti-lag system on Tsuyoshi Tezuka's R32 Skyline is alone worth the price of a ticket. The bumper is here showing effects of a wall grazing. The gallery holds more drifting goodness. – Mike Bumbeck

Related:
Team Orange Cleans Up at D1GP Final Round; Jalopnik Hits the D1GP [Internal]

Unlike other more circular forms of motorsport the rain did not stop this vehicular battle from proceeding. Many ponchos were sold and umbrella girls were cold at the asphalt bowl of echoing individual throttle bodies. Wet surfaces did bring some wall contact and a few drivers getting knocked out of the program before they could get in. Halfway through eliminations the skies opened once more but no matter to Tanaka. One by one the worthy competitors fell at his hands. Even Carl would have dug it. – Mike Bumbeck

Related:
Jalopnik Holiday Gift Guide: Kumakubo and Tanaka Endorse Antonio's Drifting Book [Internal]

Drifting: Sideways from Japan to America [driftingbook.com]

Related:
EXTREME SIDEWAYS AMUSEMENT: Antonio Alvendia on ABC

Your friend and ours, the inimitable Starlet-hustling Starion lover, the enviable and thoroughly-mighty Bumbeck went and checked out the Drift vs. Grip event at Irwindale. Motorsports enthusiast and champion thrower of barbecues, Cole Coonce tagged along and summed it up thusly:

"Those who knew NASCAR were underwhelmed by the sophistication of the real D1 drifters, oblivious to the concept of style points, and seemed puzzled as to all the braking and turning and why a lap around the circuit took so long. It was like pouring ketchup on mochi ice cream."

Drifting Meets NASCAR at Irwindale [MoparMax]

Related:
Doriftorama! NASCAR Gets Sideways at Irwindale [Internal]

We swear, our brain is so muddled these days that we'd forgotten to mention that the D1GP boys take on the NASCAR guys in the Drift vs. Grip challenge tomorrow. When the D1GP hit Las Vegas over a month ago, Toshiki Yoshioka, driver of the driftastic Malcontent Bee AE86 took the win from a certain Kumokubo-san in a Subie with over twice the horsepower. Let's see if he can rock Kasey Kahne's world this time out. And we wonder how many of the NASCAR boys will pit, complaining their cars are "pushing"? [Thanks to Pen for the reminder.]

Drifting and NASCAR Stars Set to Make History in 'Mopar D1 All-Star Duel' [via Autoblog]

Related:
Toshiki Yoshioka Wins Vegas D1GP Event [Internal]

We love Toshiki Yoshioka. When other guys are out on the pro drifting circuit making anywhere from 300-500hp, Yoshioka still kicks it old-school Initial D-style in an AE86 literally held together with tape, zip-ties and Bondo. Coming out of Irwindale's bank during last winter's D1GP event, his wee car sounded like an angst-ridden, steroidal wasp. But hot damn can that boy drive. Yoshioka and Kobushige Kumakubo (another favorite of ours in his badass rear-drive WRX) placed 1-2 at the inaugural D1GP event in Vegas. Now that's a battle we would've loved to have seen. Results after the jump.

1. Toshiki Yoshioka (Hiroshima, Japan) - Toyota Corolla
2. Nobushige Kumakubo (Fukushima, Japan) - Subaru Impreza
3. Kensaku Komoro (Niigata, Japan) - Toyota Corolla
4. Kazuhiro Tanaka (Ibaragi, Japan) - Nissan Skyline
5. Daigo Saito (Kumamoto, Japan) - Toyota
6. Vaughan Gittin Jr. (Annapolis, Md.) - Ford Mustang
7. Hideo Hiraoka (Tochigi, Japan) - Nissan Silvia
8. Takahiro Ueno (Kanagawa, Japan) - Toyota Soarer
9. Ken Gushi (Okinawa, Japan; resides Calif.) - Ford Mustang
10. Hiro Sumida (Anaheim, Calif.) - Nissan Silvia

Related:
Jalopnik Hits the D1GP [Internal]

We've gotta admit, we've been kind of skeptical on the whole drifting thing here in the US. Sure, we love sideways hoonage as much as the next guy. We've seen the demos at SEMA and the coverage on TV which kind of led us to believe it was big with the yoyo boys, but Bumbeck convinced us to come out and check out last weekend's D1GP competition at Irwindale, and at the risk of sounding hopelessly pedestrian, hoo boy, are we glad we did even if the parking people at Irwindale charged us eight bucks, claiming the media lot was full when it wasn't. Dear Irwindale Parking Officials: we're so in the mood to hop on our Motobecane and chase y'all around saying, "Eight dollars! I want my eight dollars!"

The Drift King speaks!

First off, with the exception of the parking lot woes, we found Irwindale to be a great facility; a half-mile oval with the amenities of a much larger track. And the paved infield makes it perfect for figure-eight races and, of course, drifting. While we love watching cars get sideways, we'd always been a little wary of attending a drifting event because of what's termed out here as the "909 Factor" (i.e. bro-hams with lifted trucks, librets and Roxy-clad girlfriends) but it was conspicuously absent. Mostly, the crowd consisted of dorks who could rattle off by rote all of those confusing Japanese engine designations we can never get straight. A few punk bands played a stage set up in the manufacturers' midway, the spokesmodels were friendly and polite (and oh do we wish we had that one Falken girl's phone number), and the cars were, to put it mildly, awesome in a completely nerdtastic, DIY-gearhead kind of way.

You, the Amazon on the right. Yes, you. Can we buy you like, uh, everything?

Not that there's not some serious tech going on here: Witness Team Orange's Shige Kumokubo's rear-wheel drive Impreza: no front diff, radiator relocated to the trunk, 550hp, and torque for days. Kumokubo's car was consistently the first car to get tire haze going, and his driving was ridiculously smooth. On the other end of the scale was crowd favorite Toshiki Yoshioka, the one man in the field still reppin' the Drift King's classic ride the Corolla (or Trueno if you wanna get all JDM about it) AE86. Between rounds, we got up close to the car and checked it out. Literally a good half-inch of cracked Bondo under the taillight. Body panels held on with zip ties and duct tape. And the thing sounded like God's own hornet. It would've been comical if Yoshioka weren't so damn good.

The mighty rear-radiated, rear-drive Subie!

So what of the Americans? After all this was The D1 Grand Prix Series All-Star Exhibition Match: USA vs. Japan. Well, Rhys Millen cracked up his GTO in practice. And although he was fine, the car was in no shape to run the next day. Mopar's Sam Hubinette went out early. But the exit of the sport's two biggest American stars left a hole for Vaughn Gittin, Jr. and his holy terror of a Ford Mustang. Gittin knocked down challenger after challenger, even managing to cause two rivals to spin, including his opponent for the win, Tatsuya Sakuma. Gittin prevailed in a sudden-death final, becoming the first American driver to win a D1GP event in the series' history, and he did it in American car.

Gittin while the gittin's good: Vaughn smokes his way to victory.

Our thoughts on the whole thing? An absolute blast the crowd's enthusiastic and appreciative, the driving's incredible (although as a whole, we thought the Japanese to be smoother than the Americans, especially during the very technical solo runs), the D1GP people are great to deal with, and the best part about it is all manner of different cars duking it out against each other. Where else are you gonna see an '80s Corolla taking on a Viper going up against an RX-7? Inline fours, V-8s, rotaries, boxer fours, inline sixes, V-10s; the mix makes it that much more interesting. And when a driver makes a killer run, you know it. Something in your gut tells you that something spectacular a cut above the already-outrageous mayhem just happened. It's a fantastic spectator sport, and hopefully Gittin's victory will help it grow here in the States. Just please keep the 909'ers out.

Besides bracket racing, drifting may well be the only sport in the world where an AE86 can go up against a 180SX with over twice the horsepower and win.

[Photos by Mike Bumbeck, who drove his Starion from Montrose to Irwindale, rather than ride his bad motor scooter.]

D1GP

Related:
Inside the Falken '69 Camaro Drifter [Internal]