On May 7th, we held Drift Meeting Round 89 at the indoor carpet course of RC shop MST in Settsu City, Osaka Prefecture.
To ensure equal conditions, we revamped the layout. Using a banked section in reverse, this course was like none other: drivers had to use the bank to accelerate firmly on the exit, initiate a solid drift to throw the car toward the outer edge, get as close to the wall as possible to maximize distance, and then flick back to hug the wall again. Despite the high level of difficulty, the participants seemed to have nearly mastered it before the start. With a record-breaking turnout of over 50 people, many highly skilled drivers gathered, and the event was split into three classes: RWD, D1, and Expert.
In the Expert class, Monmo-senshu consistently posted high scores from the beginning and carried that momentum to victory in the finals.
In the RWD class, Kirin-senshu, a powerhouse from the Kansai region, led the early stages. He put up high scores and impressed the judges with his stable driving. Team Yokomo followed suit and matched his points, but Kirin-senshu took the top spot in qualifying based on a tie-breaker. In the latter half of qualifying, drivers from outside the local area also began to break into the final tournament one after another.
The tandem drift tournament saw intense battles in every group. The final showdown was between the top Kansai and Kanto drivers, Kirin-senshu and Hayato-senshu. Starting as the lead car, Kirin-senshu faced Hayato-senshu, who gained an advantage by staying glued to his rear bumper. In the second run, Kirin-senshu attempted to retaliate while chasing, but a delayed exit on the bank allowed the lead car to pull away, securing the win for Hayato-senshu.
The D1 class featured a high-level battle including several world-class certified drivers. With almost every participant scoring in the 90s, it was a tournament that proved the 4WD class is still very much alive and kicking. The key here was also how to utilize the bank; it was a layout that set a high hurdle for 4WD cars, as overdoing it would cause the car to drift off-line. Perhaps because acceleration over a short distance was required, the counter-steer ratio also proved to be a major factor.
Top qualifier was Shunsuke from Team Yokomo. He achieved the highest score by nailing the lines with sharp driving and initiation. Following him was Hikaru-senshu, a talented up-and-comer from the Kanto region, who took second place by a narrow margin. In the tandem tournament, the semifinal match between Hikaru-senshu and Yamato-senshu resulted in intense sudden-death rounds. Both drivers refused to back down, but in the end, a slight understeer from Hikaru-senshu allowed Yamato-senshu to clinch the win. Maintaining that momentum, Yamato-senshu went on to defeat Team Yokomo’s Shunsuke, securing his first-ever D1 class victory.
