Firstly, once again I want to apologise for the lack of blog posts on here recently, unfortunately it just hasn’t been high enough on the priority list of things to do over the past few months but here is the first of many updates to come; Kansai All Stars 2019 (20th Year Anniversary).

Post qualifying for Nara Precture for this years Kansai All Stars most definitely got my nerves going for the first time in a long time like nothing else. The amount of hours I used to spend back home in Australia daydreaming of running in this exact event for so many years was almost a daily thought and motivation to keep pushing forward.

The morning begins extremely early, earlier than any regular Meihan drift day purely of the fact of how many cars, entrants and spectators there are and how much there is to get through within the time frame of the sun rising and setting. After the drivers meeting you are given 1 session of practice for roughly 10 minutes in which you run with your prefecture in seperate classes which isn’t long but more or less to make sure both you and your car are ready and everything is working as it should. Immediately after the practice session you’re straight into 2 qualifying rounds which are divided into the qualifying number you came within your prefecture. I qualified 9th out of 16 which meant I was to run in the same class from the other prefectures as too qualified 9 in their prefectures.

Getting warmed up in the first qualifying session was definitely heart racing but was feeling somewhat confident in myself and the car for the most part as I had driven quite frequently prior to the event. The Kansai All Stars judging criteria is short and simple; make it as aggressive, fast and exciting as possible for the judges and spectators, the flick has to be aggressive and your 2 rear wheels on the jagged cement on the outer line around the main corner at the bottom. The entire day too is single runs only so there is definitely a brighter spotlight shining on you and your driving throughout the day for everyone.

Into the second qualifying session I got about 4 solid laps in before the car decided to break down and into limp mode around the bottom corner causing me to sit out for the remaining 10 or so minutes. Managing to get the car back into pits and check it over it was luckily just a loose bolt that holds the TPS sensor. Missing 3/4 of the second qualifying session definitely didn’t help with more chances of getting through to top 32 however the level of driving at this event is seriously hard to grasp but the urge to continue running and practicing is as high as ever.

At the end of the day there are multiple winners, prizes and what not. There is also an overall prefecture winner in which who gained the most points overall. For this years 20th anniversary Nara Prefecture managed to take the win :)).

Below is a brief summary in photos throughout the day. A huge huge thank you to Keisuke Nagashima from 86 Fighters who I leant my camera equipment to for the day to shoot with. We have both been coming to Kansai All Stars for many years in a row and to have run in this years was something I will genuinely never forget not to mention having some amazing photos to compliment.

Concluding with a group photo of Nara Prefecture for 2019 in last months Drift Tengoku. A big love to all of you who to continue to support myself and SHIRTSTUCKEDIN. Such goals, challenges and accomplishments are 100% helped by each and every single one of you. Casey xxx