Kawabata to reclaim the D1GP throne in 2015?
D1GP’s opening round in Odaiba featured firsts like the silent slide of a Tesla Model-S and the debut of Yoichi Imamura in the controversial Lexus LFA, but one thing remained very familiar – a dominant and untouchable Masato Kawabata.
Despite the tight course, the updated 2015-spec R35X demonstrated a burly agility under Kawabata’s influence, which the master exploited to take three from three competition day wins and claim victory in the season opener.
Showing off a new ducktail wing that gives the ominous GTR a svelte street style, Kawabata slid to third place in his initial solo run to establish rank with 98.17 points.
Skip to 12 minutes in for the #35 GTR smoke machine on its solo run.
As tsuiso stages commenced, he looked hell bent on scrubbing the sixth place in the 2014 championship from his record.
Barely dropping a point in the first stage, he cleaned up Matsui Yuki in the FD3S RX-7.
Layering smoke over the 30,000 strong audience, day two and three tsuiso rounds saw Kawabata overwhelming Team Orange’s Naoto Suenaga and Fujino Hideyuki in the blue Wisteria RPS13, in their respective final battles.
With deep angles and smouldering Proxes, the R35X leered over other drivers as Kawabata stuck to their doors, blasting out of their reach during lead runs.
Kawabata said that the cars specification was updated to achieve greater steering lock, which while not ideal for the Odaiba course, he feels a strong sense of unity for a car now synonymous with his name.
In clean form, he was excited to claim the win.
“Being able to win the series, first of all, I’m happy. Thank you all!”
Kawabata was joined in Odaiba by Toyo Tires Drift team mates, old and new.
2015 Team Toyo drifters include:
Seimi Tanaka in the Taka Neostyle N-Body D-MAX S15
Yoshifumi Tadakoro in the Takdaoro AE86
Akinori Utsumi in the famous gold RC926 S15
Michie Mimoto in the Quartermaile Racing 180SX
Tasuya Sakuma in the Toyo Tires and GP Sports, Drift S15
Daychapon Toyingcharoen AKA Pond in the Kleers/Toyo Tires 350Z
The Toyo-shod team was also joined by Steve ‘Baggsy’ Bagioni is the 750hp Monster Energy JZX100, a bloke from the UK living the drift dream (and racing alongside Kawabata’s foil, Daigo Saito in a matching JZX100 MK2).
Team Toyo Tires Drift Trust Racing leads the D1GP team point score, with Toyo rubber heavily populating the top ten results. On to Suzuka!
