G1GP.

What better way to start my first post since arriving back from Japan with some coverage from the first round of the inaugural G1GP and a shot of the competing field.

After working 3 days straight building the Drift Kansai / S & S Auto 180sx for spring matsuri and driving almost 900kms up from Osaka to Ebisu (More about this car later on) it was welcome change in pace to meet up with a bunch of chilled aussies (and other assorted gaijin) at minmai course.

After getting the car ready for shane and matt to drive I wondered around taking some happy snaps. Niskid from Nissan silvia was flying the aussie flag proud on his Rb26det R32 beater. If he wasn’t driving the car he was under the car fixing it so he could keep driving.

A shot of some of the cars getting ready in the pits, those pits were on a pretty steep slope, easy to lose a socket, wheel or even car off a jack.

Christen Pickering preparing to drive in his 2nd car of the day, followed by jay from buddy parts in the Z30 Soarer, and Shane in the 180sx

After two or so hours on the minmai course practicing, solo runs were held and a top 16 battle tree was picked from there.

As it looked after round one.

Some shots from on the track looking at the jump before the front straight
Stu (A31) Vs Ben. (AE86)

Stewart (R32) Vs. Nathan (R32)

Alexi (JZX100) Vs. David (AE86)

Christen (S13) Vs. Jay (Jzz30)

Andy (JZX90) Vs. Shane (S13)

There were some awesome battles and some quite comical battles at times as well. For a bunch of foreigners to travel across the globe, get into a car they have never driven before, set it up, learn a new track (and a pretty epic hard one at that) in under 20 laps and compete would be a challenge for anyone. More impressive is the fact that almost all the cars lived to at leased the first day at matsuri.

Photo of the winners 1st to 6th (left to right), top there earned there D1 Street legal license (I’m jealous!), and plenty of prizes as well including a cooker which would of come in handy for Saturday night during the Matsuri.
Chris Dejager – 2nd
Andrew Gray – 1st
Alexi Smith – 3rd
Nathan Weissel – 4th
Stuart Stirung – 5th
Shane Bingham – 6th.

Thanks for reading,
JohnZoku.