Tengku Djan

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the delay. We we’re very busy during the weekend. 2 events back to back. Here’s a summary of what went on during the weekend.

D1GP USA FINAL ROUND: Saturday’s event was pretty straight forward. As mentioned we pre-qualified and were part of the 30 cars for D1GP USA final round. In a D1 event, there is no difference between Turbo & NA cars. All participants must drift according to the criteria set by the judges. If you made the cut, you are one of the best in the world. One of the toughest for NA cars was the bank. All NA cars HAD to drift at the ENTRY to the bank. The rest as usual, 30cm from the inner and outer clipping points. Now this is DRIFT. The outer clipping point was the WALL. Not tire barriers, or water barriers, but a CONCRETE WALL. Definitely adds to the excitement for the spectators.

We had the opening ceremony, introducing the judges and the drivers. Qualifying was tough. real tough. I gave it my best and my highest score was 98.8

16th position score was 99.85. Although i had a really good 3rd run, it wasn’t enough the qualify. Oh well, main event for us is tomorrow anyway. So time to do some vehicle maintenance. We’ve been experiencing some clutch issues since yesterday. So we took this opportunity to change the clutch, main pump and slave pump. Thanks to Taka for selling us his spare clutch!

D1GP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2007: So, here we are at the main event. This is why we are here! “The World Championship Of Drifting”. A total of 12 countries took part. Holland & Mexico couldn’t take part due to custom issues. So their positions were replaced by 2 other Japanese drivers.

I went out for morning practice and realized my diff was playing up. After 2 runs it was fine again. We decided to carry on and i practiced tandem with the other drivers. It’s an opportunity of a life time to drift with the best in the world. Millen, Kuma, Nomura etc. I was amazed with the competitiveness of our car. Even JR wanted to tandem with me. Though I didn’t give him that opportunity. The car was quick exiting of the bank into the main corner. So I had to make sure i capitalize on this advantage i have.

D1 had a new format for the World Championship. A total of 26 players without qualifying to determine our tandem positions.

First up was me against Quoc Ly representing Vietnam. It was an easy run. He put the car in to the wall on our first run and couldn’t continue. Next up was Rhys Millen. He fell into mechanical problems which gave me a walk over. Here i am in the Best 8.

Next up Kumakubo. I knew i had a chance and was going to make sure i gave him a run for his money.

I made sure i didn’t lose out on the run to the bank. Controlled the amount of angle i had to make sure i carried enough speed to close up on the exit. We were side by side on the exit of the bank. I had to readjust my line going into the main corner or else we would have touched fenders and maintained that gap till the last corner. It was a good run for me giving me a 7:3 advantage. Yeah! now to keep it together in the 2nd run. BUT! as i switched into the main corner, the car wouldn’t stay in drift! I had it on full throttle in 2nd coming into to main corner but the car started to push into understeer. I had to pull the handbrake to initiate the drift again which allowed Kuma to overtake me. That was the end of it! It’s not normal though. It felt like when we had diff issues last year.

I discussed this with Taka and the banking adds alot of stress especially on the diff. It can only last 3 events max due to the load & must be rebuilt after to maintain reliability. We learn something new every year.

I’m very happy with our result this year. We made it to Best 8 with 26 competitors and losing out to D1GP 2006 Champion, Kumakubo. I believe our final position is 5th again. Mana-P was impressed with my performance throughout the weekend and has requested our team to be present in the 2008 World Championships. We proved our performance last year wasn’t a fluke by producing spectacular tandem battles and earned a spot among the best in the world.