D1 LIGHTS 2024 rounds 6 & 7 meihan sportsland c course

what a wild few weeks or even months leading up to this event and competition. D1 LIGHTS is a series formerly known as D1 Street Legal one rank down from D1 Grand Prix (D1GP). last year i did 3 out of 4 rounds of the D1 Divisional series (one step down from LIGHTS) placing 3rd in the series. the previous year i also drove at a senkoukai (license day) at Autopolis Lakeside circuit coming 1st obtaining my D1 LIGHTS license. a few years later and here we are with the V2 reformed and properly built 3037 D1 spec S13 silvia.

rounds 6 & 7 (dual) for this year were held at home course meihan sportsland c course in which myself, jake from Australia, fujio-san & nakamura ryuu debuted in. the lead up to the event was multiple all-nighters and an insane amount of work not only in our shed but other friends such as Takuzo (SKY MOTORS), Naoki (N-STYLE) & Satoshi (PRO SHOP DIVERSION) for D1 regulations, painting & tuning before coming back to Nara to test & finish the car just in the nick of time to be ready and presentable for D1.

results for saturday weren’t anything to write about – not passing qualifying definitely hurt however the car was having very small issues with boosting where it should be which didn’t help from the morning. best run in round 6 was a 95.8 which put me around 25-30th qualifying position.

sunday was a much better and brighter day after changing front suspension setups back to what i was used to in the V1 3037 S13 and diff final change from 4.6 to 4.3 to help get extra legs after the flick for the longer extended meihan course. i ended up qualifying 6th with a 98.25 on my 2nd run putting me into the top 16 battles which felt amazing especially after saturday’s results. pushing through my top 16 battle with more surfacing car issues into the top 8 being knocked out by koga-san in his RPS13 180SX from kyushu. i was chasing initially and upon flicking behind him the car did a giant missfire and cut out causing the car to not flick at all anywhere near 100% making it seem like a very ‘weak chase’. next was my lead and i knew the position i was in so tried to lay down one of the best runs i’d done all weekend which felt amazing however obviously wasn’t enough to get through to the top 4. final results overall on sunday round 7 was 5th overall. a lot learnt, for sure.

i want to say a giant thank you to:

N-STYLE
STANCE USA
KOYORAD
DMAX
PRO SHOP DIVERSION
SKY MOTORS
STACKED RACING
GCG JAPAN
PARTS SHOP TAKA
SUPERWOW FACTORY
GKTECH
REMS
I DREAM FOR YOU
GP SPORTS
JADE
JAKE
JORDAN
KEISUKE
MACEY
JOEL
SHANE

and each and every single one of you, especially those who purchased one of our D1 LIGHTS support packs, it helps tremendously. very excited to get straight back into practicing in the newly built S13 and get on the rails to go as hard as possible this year at Kansai All Stars in a little over a month. what a wild experience and to say i’ve got the bug for D1 would be an understatement. a little more testing and confidence in the car i will be looking forward to competing in more rounds in 2025.

enjoy a gallery & full video of the lead up to the event itself and everything in-between. love always. caseyy x

there hasn’t been much updates in the last little while due to things behind the scenes being extremely busy and freezing cold here in japan. good news is everything is progressing well and things are starting to warm up finally. below are 3 of the newest youtube RAW videos from driving so far this year. full preparations are underway for this week’s THRASH RACING event at bihoku circuit hyping up to be the largest event of the year. as always, enjoyy x

SHIRTSTUCKEDIN YOUTUBE

a lot of driving lately means a lot of new RAW video’s on the SHIRTSTUCKEDIN youtube. below are the 3 most recent driving events & videos i have attended, competed and put a video together:

– D1 divisional series – mobara twin circuit making it to the top 16
– Meihan Sportsland K.STRUE competition day – winning #1st place
– Gunma Sports Cycle Center – GUNSAI HARDCORE TOKYO event

plenty more videos up and coming from so be sure to subscribe to the SHIRTSTUCKEDIN youtube
click here to subscribe x

meihan sportsland c course – seimi school drift & mini-competition day. placing 2nd in expert class. enjoy a 20+ minute onboard youtube video below x

almost 3 exact years since driving meihan E course – first day back driving in the 3037 S13 for 2023. enjoy plenty of onboad & outside footage from the day – very big thank you to joel, satoshi-san from Kansai Dori for the invite and brendan for the outside footage x

the lead up to summer every single year in japan is by far without a doubt the busiest and craziest time of the year due to multiple events clashing together, one being kansai all stars in which for the most part everyone involved in this sport does what they can to prepare both the car and mentally for this event.

this year is my 4th year in a row driving this event, qualifying 1st for nara prefecture 2-3 weeks prior to kansai all stars at the end of july had put me in a good, somewhat confident mood for this years all stars!

i have stated this before on the blog but want to re-write it to give a little insight on how the event works and ran over the course of the day:

roughly 128 cars who attend the event.
– 5 minute practice sessions within your prefecture
– 1st session of qualifying which runs for 10 minutes (approximately 12-15 cars in each group and a total of 3-4 go through to the next round)
– 2nd session of qualifying pending you made it through the first round which once again goes for 10 minutes and 3-4 cars once again go through to the 3rd and final round of qualifying.
– lastly before the tournament (top 12) is the 3rd and final round of qualifying
– tournament (top 12) which is the battles but tanso (single runs only). this is the part that is usually shown on the kansai all stars videos on youtube released every year.
– prefecture dantai (5 cars together)
– super dantai where anyone is free to go out and take place in the extremely high number of cars running all together sun as the sun sets and the event is finished.

this year i managed to get through practice, 1st, 2nd and 3rd qualifying into the tournament (top 12) up against naoki nakamura then into top 6 against fukuyama and then into top 3 (finals) with nakagawa, hiro and myself finishing in 1st place.

below is the youtube video from the day – all outside footage from morning to PM – giant thank you to macey and keisuke for all the footage. photos are by keisuke, drift tengoku & cooper. i will do my best to be a little more mentally prepared next year to get some onboard footage.

a very large thank you to each and every single one of you lovely customers, fans, supporters globally who watched the kansai all stars live on youtube along with the insane amount of lovely messages showing love and support. this was a day i will never forget and i think will never feel real no matter how much time goes on. i will continue to keep pushing the limits with this brand and driving along with day to day life. level up forever, loveee always, caseyyy x

since kansai all stars it has been reasonably quiet on the driving front over here in japan. as usual the lead up to kansai all stars every year is very full-on for all participants and garages involved so it is very common to have some down time post the event.

fast forwarding a month last event nakamura naoki, his son nakamura ryuu, aki fujio & friends had a very small, intimate and rainy day at meihan d course. a little day to give the next generation some time to practice and get some seat time and drive with some of the best.

below are a few photos i took over a 20 or so minute period, rain was pretty full on. i have also put together an 8 minute RAW POV onboard video from my little action cam on youtube in which i will embed into this post also. be sure to check it out – naoki and his son properly driving together for the first time which was amazing to watch and capture. PS if you want to see any photos larger just right click and open in new tab – have laid them out this way as there are a few in this post.

big love, always. caseyyy x