D1 History
Where did it all start?!, The Japanese towns of Rokkosan, Hakone, Irohazaka and various hill climbs in Nagano are all steeped in legends of the origins of Drifting. No one can really pinpoint Drifting’s actual birth place but the movement started in the mid 1960’s. Like many forms of professional racing, the modern interpretation of drifting evolved from a form of illegal street racing held on windy mountain roads called ‘ Touge ‘. Touge was practised by extremely dedicated enthusiasts who’s only goal was to trim precious milliseconds off their time point to point. Eventually some of these drivers began to adopt driving techniques used by rally drivers, techniques to corner quickly without losing too much momentum.
As the drivers began to emulate the rally driver techniques, they discovered that not only did their times and driving performance improve but that it gave an exciting and intense drive – Drifting was born.
At the time that this technique became popular, drifters began to bring their sport to the towns and cities, adding their own flavour and flamboyant driving as well fantastic styling and outrageous vehicles. Eventually word spread and people began to form on the street to witness these amazing drivers and machines. But as popular Drifting had become, it was relegated to the underground scene due to the risks and image associated with illegal street contests.
Eventually the popularity of Drifting grew and competitors started organising their own events at local circuits, and off the streets. The events were fun to begin with however after time the drivers and skills became so refined that things got very competitive. From these events Video Option began to organise Driver Search events, held to allow the local driver to show off their skills and compete with each other. For a while the Driver Search events satisfied most but as skills and techniques improved, manufacturers began producing specific parts just for Drift and it was time to raise the bar on the events.
It was the vision of a car enthusiast and magazine publisher that brought Drifting to the mainstream motorsports in Japan. Mr Daijiro Inada, Founder of Option magazine and the Tokyo Auto Salon knew that the Driver Search events held a fraction of the potential that Drifting could generate and he felt strong about bringing the sport to a professional level. In 2001 with the help of Keiichi Tsuchiya, a professional Touring Car driver in Japan and the person he considered to be the father of modern Drifting, Daijiro created the D1 Grand Prix. Today in Japan the D1 Grand Prix is so popular that the drivers are now all well known celebrities. True to Daijiro’s vision, the D1 Grand Prix represents the highest level of the sport. Now established in Japan, D1is reaching out across the world, already holding events in the USA over the past 2 years and now in Europe too, with the collaboration of NRG Events Ltd, a UK company which formed the D1 Great Britain National Championship on behalf of the D1 Corporation. As well as Europe the D1 Corporation also have aspirations to hold events in Korea and further expand on the USA events with a World Series in mind for the future. D1 is now set to explode all over world!
