D1GP New Jersey ‘07: Summary

Hopefully you were among the select group of people there to witness the inaugural east coast appearance of the D1 Grand Prix USA series at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park last Friday May 4th and Saturday May 5th 2007. If so, our sincere thanks for joining us at this historic event. If not, you missed an incredibly exciting event and we’re sorry we missed you. Hopefully we’ll be back next season and we’ll see you there in 2008. We are working on the 2008 schedule and plan to release it well before SEMA this year.

Representing the northeast drifting community were 23 drivers who came out on Friday to compete in the D1 Grand Prix Ikaten (driver search) for a shot at a coveted 2007 D1 Grand Prix license. The locals put on an excellent show as drivers battled fiercely on the difficult and technical course. In the end the Nissan 240SX dominance showed as D1GP Judges Manabu Suzuki, Daijiro Inada and Hisashi Kamimoto awarded the six drivers with an average score above 94 a D1 license and a chance to move on to the qualifying session held the following morning. The six drivers who advanced were:

Rank - Name - Car - Avg Score

1. Jayitr Sritongkham - Nissan 240SX - 98.27
2. Brian Wilkerson - Nissan 240SX - 96.33
3. James Evans - Nissan 240SX - 96.33
4. Chanin Prapopyuenyong - Nissan 240SX - 95.67
5. Nathan Brasz - Nissan 240SX - 95.00
6. Chelsie DeNofa - Mazda Miata - 94.33

D1 Grand Prix would like to offer our sincere thanks and congratulations to everyone who showed and competed in the Ikaten and special congratulations to those drivers who qualified for licenses.

On Saturday morning six licensed D1 drivers from Japan, nine D1 licensed U.S. drivers and the six new D1 license holders prepared for single run eliminations that would pare the 21 car field down to 16 cars for the “Top 16″ tsuiso round. Unfortunately, engine problems during a special Option Video session on Friday sidelined the Team Falken Ford Mustang GT driven by Vaughn Gittin but not wanting to dissappoint his home crowd, JR jumped into Eric Davis’ MA-Motorsports Corolla (who didn’t qualify for a license in the Ikaten) and tore up the track with an amazing drive that put him in the Top 16 by the end of the qualifying round.

With perfect weather and a massive, standing-room-only crowd the 2PM opening ceremony kicked off right on time immediately followed by the tandem tsuiso round. Fierce door-handle-to-door-handle battles ensued through the final round between Kumakubo in the Team Orange Subaru Impreza and Yoshioka in the NOS equipped normally aspirated Droo-P Toyota Corolla until Kumakubo emerged victorious.

Between some of the practice and competition rounds, some of the top drivers got on track for 2, 3 and sometimes 5 car formation runs to thrill the crowd with their sideways antics, including one final Saturday night run under the lights as a final salute to the dedicated crowd who hung out long enough to see it.

D1 Grand Prix would like to thank the fans, sponsors, teams, NHRA and the Raceway Park staff for making this amazing event possible and we hope to see everyone there again next year.

The D1 Grand Prix USA schedule for the remainder of 2007 is as follows:

• Saturday June 23rd & Sunday June 24th - Altamont Motorsport Park, CA
• Friday July 13th & Saturday July 14th - Las Vegas Motor Speedway, NV (With the NHRA Xplod Sport Compact Drag Racing Series)
• Saturday November 24th & Sunday November 25th - Irwindale Speedway, CA (D1GP World Championship)