meihan sports land some years ago with team burst and friends. canon eos 30. film: unknown. days i’ll never forget x

Magic streets x

During my last few weeks in Japan I thought it would be worthwhile to get out and see as much action as possible, or as my wallet could handle. Having a hire car for 2 weeks at the end as well as 2 weeks at the beginning helped lots, especially getting out to circuits. One day Shingo-San and I from LOWBRAIN found out there was a practice track day at Mobara Twin Circuit which is located around the bay of Tokyo in the Chiba prefecture. Rather than posting one singular photograph I thought I’d try something new – a sequence. I hope you enjoy this slammed, pink 4 door JZX 90 throwing down on the last corner of the Twin Circuit x

Sunset at Meihan, 2011 x

I don’t think I would go as far as saying this is my best drift photo ever taken, but it’s definitely an image that has glued to my head since the day it was captured. This photo is of a very famous driver who goes by the name of Takamiya-san which of course drives this aggressive Team Magician JZX 110. I have to say it was pretty incredible watching this guy throw around such a large car at a reasonably tight circuit, the amount of noise this car produces is absolutely magic. Over the years the amount of media content I’ve reviewed on the internet of Team Magician is ridiculous, arriving to MSC on our 3rd day on my first trip in Japan all 4 cars were there sitting in the pits of Mobara Twin Circuit in Chiba, once again it was a complete blow away. Desktop anyone?

To those of you who requested more photos of Naoki Nakamura, this is for you. This particular day was special as it was the first time I had ever been to Meihan, and look what I was blessed with! As you may know I travelled north of Japan late last year, through Tokyo and also up in Fukushima for the Autumn Matsuri. The guys up there have that much guts they don’t really care how close they are to one another as their cars are far from straight chassis. This case is different. Two fantastic drivers side by side on one of the tightest tracks in their D1 cars. I remember Shane Bingham was speaking to Nakamura and he mentioned that they try not to think what will happen if they crash, they just want to get as close as they can and if anything happens they’ll worry about it then.

This reversing demon goes by the name of 西尾光芳 Nishio Mitsuyoshi, normally when you think of backwards entries at Meihan Sportsland you’d picture Naoki Nakamura. This fellow was spotted by Jesse Streeter around 6 years ago practicing and was surprisingly good off the bat. He is currently attending 1 track and the mountains at least once a week and it sure seems to be paying off.

Jesse showed me a little something from a few years ago from a Drift Tengoku publishment on Mitsuyoshi-san, take a look here. I have a perfect run that I filmed which I will edit up for you guys very soon, for now enjoy these few photos of another Burst master.