this year’s 2023 D1GP series has come to an end with the final 2 rounds – 9 & 10 held in odaiba bay, tokyo. it’s been roughly 5-6 years since a round of D1 has been held here so it was something extremely special to be apart of and once again shoot & document.

friday’s practice consisted of rainy and slippery conditions causing nakamura naoki in his GR86 right into the wall leading the team to be awake until 5AM saturday morning right before practice and initiating round 9. after an extremely windy rainy & windy start to the day the event was close to being cancelled due almost all tents & booths being blown around the paddock into parked cars from the wild weather. luckily it had eased throughout the mid morning allowing D1 to continue.

shooting a drift event such as D1GP in the heart of tokyo throughout the day into the night is truly something special, here is a small selection of favorites i’ve edited for your enjoyment. 2023 series ranking #1st fujino from team TOYO, hokuto from team TOYO & nakamura naoki from VALINO N-STYLE. as always enjoyy. caseyy x

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

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

a car that i have been looking at purchasing quite seriously over the past 18 months has been in the range of GX51/61/71 however due to pricing inflation it has been a lengthy and patient process to await something suitable in all fields to pop up for sale. just like silvia’s kyusha (old cars) in japan have spiked even worse.

the newest car to add to the collection – 1983 GX61 Corona Mark II Eagle Mask. factory 1G-GE (NA) twin cam 5 speed manual.

i spotted this car around 5 months ago on car sensor by a little dealership located in aichi prefecture that specializes in GX’s, skyline’s and anything else in-between. over the years traveling and living in japan i have purchased a fair amount of cars through friends however i have yet to experience purchasing a car through a dealership in japan. for the most part dealers can be extremely expensive however my experience with PCA was nothing but a breeze and extremely thorough. if i remember correctly i drove out to the dealership roughly 4-5 times to check out the car thoroughly in their shop on the lift in hopes to make a firm decision if this was going to be something i wanted to pull the trigger on or not.

a very simple car that has very low km’s, no rust and has been looked after very well. amazing and simple suspension setup on SSR mark iii 14x9J – 27 14x10J -38 (A disk). very excited to build this into something absolutely pristine and exciting.

if you are looking for a old japanese classic car and interested in PCA’s inventory be sure to check out the website link here. once again a very big thank you to everyone at PCA for their amazing hospitality, communication and overall patience over the course of 5 months: （株）プレスト　ＰＣＡ　プレストクリエイティブオート x

another RAW youtube video now uploaded from the last run of 2021. smack bang in the middle of winter for good friend shin-chan’s CAT’S EYE free run soukoukai at meihan sports land c course. the 2530 practice car has done nothing but bring help create some amazing memories and serve its purpose during the back end of 2021. i look forward to cleaning this car up and making it even more reliable this year.

both normal and reverse running with great friends all across japan. grab a beer and enjoy 30+ minutes of RAW onboard and outside footage. love always, enjoy the weekenddd. caseyy x

a collection of photos from mobara twin circuit with nakamura naoki and both of his 2JZ S15’s at the beginning of 2020 directly after tokyo auto salon. both of these events were unfortunately cancelled this year due to the pandemic still hanging around. enjoyy x

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TEC-ARTS 2.2L 4 throttle SR20DE. 301.6PS that revs to 9,5000RPM. photos shot at nikko circuit at the beginning of winter in 2016 x

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meihan sports land yesterday for HITOMIGO free practice and mini-doricon. have been trying to practice as much as possible lately. car is feeling really good since a few things were changed over a month or so ago. the whole setup as a whole is really good at this stage especially at C course.

managed to place 3rd in expert. have to fix a few minor things which will help a lot at meihan this week before kansai all stars qualifying this saturday. also a massive thank you to everyone who has puchased items through the store as of late and your extended patience in regards to shipping times and the global pandemic. big love, caseyy x

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with both cars needing some love and driving most weekends over the past month lately i decided to head out to mie prefecture last weekend with the camera to shoot the kamu kamu festival held every year. here are a few photos, enjoyyyy xxx

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with the main event of kansai all stars getting closer and closer there are only a few prefectures left for qualifying. osaka took place yesterday at meihan sports land, c course. following this the only prefecture remaining will be shiga-ken due to run later this month.

since the last day of driving for nara and mie-ken qualifying there were a few things i needed to amend with the car. with the mechanical skills and help of Naoki-san and the boys at N-STYLE the car was ready a few days before which meant i was able to head out for more practice.

the drive from jake’s and i’s new place in nara is about 20ish minutes on low roads (free) to meihan, super close and convenient. usually there is a decent convoy going out together in a pack however this day it was just myself to soon meet a few friends at the circuit. gas stand photo on a humid, rainy morning. summer is coming.

one of those people being ryota / SPLASH in his newly finished TD-06 kouki S14 silvia. this was recently completed and ready for shake-down by the hands of both ryota and takumi from SKY MOTORS. this was ryota’s first day back in his faster car, recently driving his missile which is just completely factory engine setup. ryota has been a strong contender for kansai all stars in the previous years representing osaka and was back for this years qualifying in hopes to retain that spot.

braden was also out for qualifying in his T517 S14. residing in osaka for the past 5-6 years this was his first time having a crack at being a competitor in this years kansai all stars.

tsuneda-san from NEO STYLE cafe and tuning with no days off. here looking over settings on his wife’s S15. this is the very talented fellow that tuned my turbo, 3037 car. tsuneda has been fiddling and learning his way around multiple computers and SR20s for the past 23 years and is very known in the kansai region of japan.

hiro from MIDNIGHT GARAGE MILK TEA was also back out in force and has been back into meihan recently after a little break…

…along with yuya and naru.

akun, as always was there in his factory and reliable 1JZ S15 and managed to qualify second out of a total 16 drivers.

takumi was not only judging for osaka but was out driving also however didn’t get too much driving in with a broken 3rd gear in his NISMO cross mission 6 speed.

driving to the circuit, driving all day and driving home safely without next to no dramas will forever be a good day. another day with 0 problems. car didn’t breach 73 degrees. time for another look over and some more simple maintenance and hopefully be back out for another few practice days before all stars early to mid next month 🙂 caseyy xx