late 2022 nishi nihon (all west japan shootout) down south at the very infamous and weathered setonaikai circuit located in ehime prefecture on the island of tokushima.

this competition in short ranges from mie prefecture all the way down south to kagoshima including the entire island of tokushima where the top 16 drivers of each prefecture go into battle with one another spread across the whole west of japan annually. the competition is spread across 3 titles, tanso (single runs), twin (twin drift paired with a partner of your choice, not a battle but to put on the most aggressive and closest performance possible) and finally an overall, regional winner from a prefecture.

below are some videos from the day, spread across 2 separate ones dividing saturday’s practice and sunday’s competition day. plenty of onboard and outside RAW footage for you to enjoy

final results
tanso (single) overall 6th place
twin dori (twin) overall 3rd place
regional winner (nara) overall 1st place

a very large thank you to drift tengoku for the amazing action photos, also featured in this month’s 2023 february issue. love alwayssss 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