Quite big news from the weekend – Mr Tsuchiya and Mr Inada, the two public faces of D1GP have publicly announced they are leaving the iconic series because of disagreements with the way the championship is run, it’s treatment of fans and drivers, and ‘irresponsible management’. Keiichi posted on his blog the following statement:
“Thank you so much for always supporting D1. Today I have an announcement to make.
I, Keiichi Tsuchiya, and Daijiro Inada, the founder of D1GP will resign from the D1 Corporation.
This decision was made due to the irresponsible management such as ignoring fans, participants and sponsors. In order to make the D1GP beneficial to everyone, we have persistently asked for improvement but they have rejected our demands and have come up with this unwilling consequence.
Please accept our heartfelt apology and forgive us for our act. We will restart our career and do our best for the future of drift.
We plan to realize drift events so that fans, participants and sponsors could all be satisfied with. We appreciate your everlasting support and understanding.
We will continue to provide information about further activities through our homepage.
Sincerely yours,
Keiichi Tsuchiya”
It has long been speculated that there was disagreement in D1GP, alleged bribery and favouritism and other things. This is not the first time drivers have left D1GP to start other events, notably the MSC Championship for high level grass roots drivers who normally would never have had the finances to compete at D1 level. It is also rumoured that many of the drivers have also resigned.
It will be interesting to see how this pans outs, and how D1 licenses are used.
What are you thoughts?
Devistating news to some, but i agree with one reason why they resign…
i herd they aremaking a new drift series BRING IT ON!
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heard it before, they have problems in the “system” but its already here. hopefully D1 change their mind and get back the big guns to work together. if DK quit, racers will follow him.
we will see.
I’ve heard it some time ago and even through it wasnt that big of a surprise to me, its still a shock. I wonder how the D1 is going to work now. Daijiro was the founder and owner, so I guess the D1GP name is all over now. But im more interested in that “new series” they talk about. They have whole off-season time to do it. I just hope it wont end like the D1 US …
You must be frickin’ joking.
I honestly didn’t expect them to quit, I reckon the racers will follow him. Kinda sad imho.
At least the issues have been high lighted by the departure of tsuchiya.. To support the sport in keeping itself clean, honest and fun. Rather than twisted, organised crap. No doubt something awsome will come from this.
Sad to see but i guess they have good reason. Personally i look forward to seeing what comes next for them, no doubt it will be more ace material:)
A shock initialD, I mean initially but then when you read the article you immediately understand, recognise the reasons for, and support both their decisions!
Every think is swallowed up by greedy corporate business these days, to maintain drifting’s spirit and purity, these men have challenged the corporate pigs and we all know who the people will follow! THEE DRIFT KING!
The fact drift evolved by showing off to please and entertain the crowd of fans, shows were the passion lies, it’s essence is getting involved not getting rich!
Can i just add…..who cares!?!?
Finally we might see drifting evolve a little around the world, instead of everyone copying what they do in japan for the fear if they did something different format wise, that it wouldnt catch on, because those two above say its wrong!
Almost all sports in japan are rigged… Google mafia and sumo wrestling … Money runs japan… Even the local small events are like that here in Okinawa… Even if a driver is good… If he didn’t help sponsor the event or if he is not Japanese… He wont progress it’s the way of japan… That’s one of the reasons no Americans were in the d1gp here in japan… They usually have one or two… But not this last season… It’s been known for awhile this would happen… Good on them
Думаю, это правильный шаг. Если в системе возникают напряжения, то эта система разрушится. Самое главное, что есть люди, которые хотят дальнейшего развития дрифта, как самого по себе процесса.
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