Wrecked Magazine
Well-Known Member
D1 Grand Prix USA will be releasing an official announcement later today on judging and the DriftBox they will be using but we are bringing you the story early on today. Each event will be scored by two American judges and one head Japanese judge. Scores for angle, speed, and g-forces will be taken from the data providede by the D1GP USA Pro 1 unit but the judges will account for line/style and producing the overall score together. The head judges will vary between one of these three profiles.
Keiichi Tsuchiya
Widely known as the “Drift King” he became famous for drifting at non-drift racing events around Japan. This brought popularity to drifting as a motorsport in Japan. He is well known for his documented togue (mountian racing) driving as well. Tsuchiya is said to be the head judge for Miami, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
Daijiro Inada
A major celebrity in Japanese automotive culture and a very recognized figure in the car scene. He is mostly known for being the founder of Option Magazine and the Option video series. He was a creator of the D1 Grand Prix Series and he started the Tokyo Auto Salon which really places him as an authorative figure in Japan’s automotive culture. He is an alternate for head judge in D1GP USA.
Manabu Suzuki
He is a former driver, journalist, sport announcers and TV presenter in the Japanese automotive industry. He competed in the Formula Toyota and Saurus Cup through the mid 90’s. He worked a ton with Option Magazine and the video offshoot Video Drift. He has been involved with Drift Tengoku which is a great Drifting only magazine in Japan. He was an original judge with Manbu Orido and Keiichi Tsuchiya in th D1 Grand Prix series of Japan.
Competition Staff
Terence Jenkins and Chiaki Goto will take over on-site personnel. Terence Jenkins will be the D1GP USA’s competition director which is a job none of us are envious over! He was the founder of Lateral G Racing and lead that team with Sam Hubinette to the first ever Formula D championship in 2004. Terence Jenkins then ran Octane TV which was a cable on-demand television series. Chiaki Goto is the Technical Director of the D1 Grand Prix series who was a former endurance racing champion and director of the 2003 JIC Magic Drift team. Goto is bringing his experiance from Japan and Drifting to the USA in 2009.
Racelogic’s Drift Box
It will be used for judging called the D1GP USA Pro 1 which utilizes new proprietary algorithms and can measure a drift angle within .5 degree of accuracy. Speed can be calculated to 0.1 mph accuracy and lateral g loads within 0.01g. Data will be collected 10x a second and transmitted from the competition car via telemetry directly to the judges stand. The video VBOX will record the action from inside the vehicle during competition and overlay graphics on screen showing angle, speed, and g-force loads. Sounds like quite a bit of fun going on during the runs for the 2009 D1GP USA sesaon.
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