"The Drift Muscle" is the name of the new Drift league Keiichi Tsuchiya and Daijiro Inada are starting up here in Japan.
(photo credit noriyaro.com)
If you didn't know already, Tsuchiya and Dai-chan founded D1GP back in the day but split from D1 after some disagreements with the management at the end of last year.
The split left us D1 drift fans wondering what would happen to drifting in Japan. There were rumors that the pair would start their own "rival" league but there was little word as to when or what kind of league it would be.
But now it's official... "The Drift Muscle" league is starting up this year in 2011!
(kind of a weird name huh? but what else do you expect from Japan...)
And here is what the schedule for it's debut year is going to look like:
Round 1: 8th May, Nihonkai Maze CircuitWait a minute... no Drift Muscle in Ebisu?
Round 2: 6th June, Bihoku Highland CIrcuit
Round 3: 17th July, Nikko Circuit
Round 4: 10th October, Suzuka Twin Circuit
Round 5: 3rd November, Sportsland Sugo West Course
Yeah a little disappointing... I'm not sure as to why but it might be something to do with the lads from Team Orange's association with D1 and certain sponsors.
Anyway it's a shame - but we still get D1 at Ebisu and Team Orange is looking good with Kuma's 1000HP RB26 Laurel progressing nicely. (update about that coming soon)
So what's "The Drift Muscle" all about?
From what I've heard, there are going to be two classes. The "Muscle" class for middle and "Super Muscle" class for the experts.
Drivers are placed in there classes according to their skill level, not their car's horsepower level - the only way it should be IMO.
Keiichi (Dorikin) said on his site that ?It?s begun for the sake of all lovers of drifting?. Info about regulations and entry into the comps should be appearing on that site "in a couple of days".
With the addition of Drift Muscle,we now can enjoy a new flavor of drifting in Japan. Can't wait to see the action from those circuits - especially Sugo's west (go-kart) course!
Disco Stu
www.DriftInJapan.com
p.s. Thanks to Alexi at Nori Yaro for the info and use of the pic.
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