On August 20, 2017, we held the Drift Meeting R93 at the TamTam indoor asphalt course in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture.
The course layout required entering the approach line at an angle where the rear wouldn't lose grip on exit, followed by a flick-back without losing momentum. Drivers then had to draw out a shallow angle while keeping close to the wall, before flicking back again to drift toward the judges—a highly challenging setup. Despite the high level of difficulty, almost everyone seemed to have mastered it by the time the competition began. With over 40 participants, a large number of high-level drivers gathered, and the event was conducted in four classes: Sports, RWD, D1, and Expert.
In the Sports Class, the driver Rōjin dominated both the qualifying and the final with driving that left the competition behind.
In the Expert Class, multiple drivers posted scores exceeding those in the D1 Class. Drivers Shin-chan, Shin-kun, and Sakanaya displayed a sharpness comparable to the D1 Class and a high level of counter-steering, leading the Expert Class pack. As expected, these three names appeared at the top of the final results, with Shin-chan ultimately winning the Expert Class thanks to his aggressive driving style.
In the RWD class, Team Yokomo's Shunsuke took an early lead. He rattled the judges by posting a 97.5 with high-quality, mistake-free driving and consistently high scores. In the second round, Aichi's Yu, having perfectly dialed in his Ackerman settings, chased him with sharp driving that prevented front-end speed loss, scoring a 94. Fuku-chan also reached that same score but fell short due to the difference in secondary points; as a result, Aichi's Yu took 2nd place, and Shunsuke finished as the qualifying leader. In the tandem tournament, there was intense competition in each group, but the final came down to a battle between Aichi's Yu and Hayato. Aichi's Yu, whose performance improved as the event progressed, pressured Hayato by taking the initial advantage, but Hayato fought back to force a sudden death. Ultimately, Hayato edged out the win.
The D1 class saw a high-level battle including several world-class drivers. Gorgo led the first half, scoring 97 points with high-level driving in entry, sharpness of flicks, and intensity from the start. Challenging him was Nagashime, who had zero points after failing three out of four qualifying runs. He staged a comeback by nailing one exceptionally sharp run to take the top qualifying spot with 98.5 points. It was a closely contested qualifying round where rankings were decided by secondary and tertiary points due to identical scores. The tandem tournament saw a major upset with top qualifier Nagashime defeated in the first round. From the top-ranked block, FURUBOH, who nailed a perfect run in qualifying, advanced to the finals. Meanwhile, in the second-ranked block, Kanda, who found his form late in the day, defeated Gorgo with sharp, synchronized flicks and close-proximity driving to reach the final. In the end, the victory went to Kanda, who had figured out the trick to the exit and displayed superior speed and sharpness. The battle was ultimately decided by the sharpness of the flicks and speed.