the 2022 season of D1GP has officially ended with the final round of the year being held at the newly constructed bank circuit over the back of ebisu’s infamous nishi course.

just over 12 months ago there was yet another horrific earthquake that struck the northern part of honshu (japan’s main island) up in fukushima prefecture – close to ebisu circuit causing an extremely dramatic landside from school course all the way down to the west course. converting a natural disaster into something quite beautiful within ebisu circuit the bank course was created from the landslide area. a very surreal experience to be one of the first to stand and shoot at this place especially for the concluding rounds of the 2022 D1GP season. yet another amazing year capturing thousands of photos, building more relationships and sponging up even more image training for future driving and practice.

2022 D1GP series
1st: Masashi Yokoi
2nd: Masato Kawabata
3rd: Naoki Nakamura

looking forward to the 2023 season. love alwaysss. caseyy x

scraping into winter in late 2021 we had the opportunity to test some new tires developed by VALINO tires international collaborated with the infamous magazine drift tengoku. the model that was relooked and modelled was their base grip GREEVA 08D in hopes to retain drivers feedback by holding a one-tire-make competition at fuji speedway drift course. with naoki-san being a judge next to kawasaki-san he gave us a heads up on the event a few months prior in which a whole group of us from kansai made the trip north to shizuoka.

the day ran 2-3 practice sessions and then into qualifying from there the winner would be decided based upon the highest level of points acquired during a solo run however post qualifying we had opted to the judges we run more of a competition due to there being some sunlight left. i qualified 4th with a 98.9 just scraping into battles which started and ended against ryusei akiba – a rookie D1GP driver from 2021.

an extremely fun day – the 2530 practice car has done nothing but serve its purpose over the past 3-4 months straight of driving. the end of 2021 i have managed to drive meihan a lot and also 3 new courses i have yet to drive; tokachi all the way north in hokkaido, ebisu minami in fukushima and finally doripa, fuji speedway in shizuoka in which i am very blessed for, as always. just over a month of finalising some finer details on the back end of youtube we are finally good to keep filming and uploading so here is another RAW video from this day for your viewing pleasure. photos by fujihara-san.

let’s all have a great start to 2022 and continue to spread positivity, love and kindness. i feel like we are close to the light at the end of the tunnel with things healing back to a better normal. lovee always, caseyy x

if you follow SHIRTSTUCKEDIN across our social media platforms you would have seen myself, naoki & takeda made the giant treck to hokkaido last weekend, more specifically tokachi speedway. i have only ever been up to hokkaido once which was back in mid 2019 for a very small event next to chisato airport to take photos.

fast forwarding two and a bit years it was time to go back again however this time with a truck and 2 cars. on the sunday there was an event held and organized by takeda-san (YURA MODE) – it has been a while since he has put on an event up there due to the pandemic. ever since i saw naoki drive here for the first time a few years ago from videos kicking around on youtube i have always been beyond interested to at least go and see the course in person let alone drive it. being extremely far away from nara, kansai means multiple days off work and a bit of budget needed to make it a possibility.

to put it briefly how far away this course is from kansai the trip began in nara to fukui in the truck which was a 3 hour drive to the port terminal. from there a 22-23 hours boat ride to tomakomai terminal in the south of hokkaido. unloading the truck off the boat to then another 3 hour drive direct east just past a little city called obihiro to then, tokachi speedway totalling transit time to around 54 hours.

this is the first proper shakedown i’ve done in the practice car which i purchased at the start of this year, putting most of the time and efforts into the main 3037 meihan car but with that currently having it’s engine rebuilt the practice car was the pick to take up north. it is a very simple setup car. SR20DET, step 1 cams, HKS 2530 with a 12CM rear housing, 4.3 2 way, b-knuckle, stance suspension, radiator, intercooler and R33 mission. naoki took his main S13 up in which has had some recent work and loads of maintenance done to it along with getting re-tuned last week and making just under 580HP out of a 2.1L step 3 SR20DET.

usually when i go away driving i leave the camera at home however i’ve been more motivated to take it lately even if it means getting it out and taking photos for 10-15 minutes, memories will be forever and need to continue to remember this. below are a few photos i took over the period of the trip along with a 10+ RAW youtube video i have put together which includes the trip to and from, in-car footage and some outside footage of naoki absolutely ripping apart tokachi. towards the end of the day i managed to put the camera inside naokis car however the battery died instantly. if you have the time i highly recommend watching it below.

once again thank you to each and every single one of you for your following and love through contact and purchasing goods via the SHIRTSTUCKEDIN online store, it makes doing trips and driving like this a possibility and hope to do more as soon as possible. loveee always, caseyy x

the most recent double-rounds 7 & 8 of this years 2021 D1GP series once again held at okuibuki ski-resort in shiga prefecture, kansai 2 weekends ago here in japan. post tsukuba 2000 (last 2 rounds) the following round was planned to be ran and held at ebisu circuit, minami course however due to a little spike in covid cases it was postponed until late november therefore we were back at okuibuki in no time.

there are only 4 rounds left of 2021 both being doubles. end of october at autopolis and then late next month at minami circuit, ebisu. it has been an absolute blast shooting this years season and very excited for the last 2 courses especially as the weather is starting to shift over here dramatically.

a very large congratulations to nakamura naoki and the team for coming 1st for both rounds on saturday, sunday and placing 1st in top qualifier on sunday also. an absolute humbling and pleasure of an experience to be apart of such a determined and talented team. as usual here are some selects over the course of 2 days, just under 100 or so images constantly waiting for the sunsets as you can probably tell by looking at these.

we have a very large number of exciting new and re-vamped products still in the works will be 100% released well before christmas this year, potentially from halloween onwards. your support, patience and following is always appreciated.

biggest loveeee. caseyy x

suzuka twin circuit hitomiGO practice day. enjoy 11 minutes of uncut raw footage. can’t wait to drive this car again x

the only other day i managed to get some in-car footage. onboard at tokushima kart land free practice. ¥4000 to drive the entire day. enjoy xxx

first day at motorland mikawa in the new car xxx

the drive to nikko circuit from nara early last year x

drift team SEXY KNIGHTS in motorland mikawa x

higashi-osaka parking area x