Tsukuba Hyper Meet 2010

Tsukuba Pit area..lots of stuff going on.

So it starts on April 11, 2010 waking up at 5am grabbing my backpack and going to the train station to pick my friend up from Kanagawa. After a quick breakfast we made the 2 hour drive to Tsukuba Circuit. After a quick stop to the convenience store we arrived at the track at about 9:45am, just in time for the first drift event. This event  featured Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Suzuki so there was no surprise the amount of amazing cars just in the parking lot let alone the amazing machines on the track.

2 of the 3 Team Orange Drift Cars

Once inside is was nice to hear the roaring engines and smell the burning tires and breaks.The temp was warm, about 21 degrees, and some expected humidity so it was a good day for the spectators but for the cars as we all know were probably not running at their peak performance compared to the Super Lap in December. Throughout the day there were a nice variety of things to keep everyone busy. There was the 5 Lap Time Attack Battles broken into street and open classes, Team Orange drift demonstrations, Swift / Colt Touring Championship etc and a whole lot of vendors and shop displays to visit around the pit area.

So while my friend was watching the final drift show, I stopped by one of the shop booth to see Derek Hawken who had his Evo X  with the SST in the Time Attack representing Bozz Speed. After some general conversation we talked about some of the new modifications on his car such as new Greddy FMIC, engine / transmission oil coolers and Nukabe front brakes. Seems HKS is starting to develop some goodies for the Evo’s SST which is good news for owners of the Evo X w/ SST. Derek ended up finishing 3rd with a time of 1’03.01 which wasn’t his best time 1’02.08 but I thought was great considering the stiff competition.  1st was HKS’s Evo X /w SST with a 1min flat and second was G-Force.



Since my last visit in December it was nice to see more Suzuki Swifts and Mitsubishi Colts, which Bozz is currently working on now. These cars seem to be great little track cars with the Swifts having S/C and turbo kits and the Colt Version R with a turbo out of the box.

The event was a great spectacle and it was nice to see so many people and families out together enjoying the event. I’m looking forward to my next visit there as usual, and maybe even sometime in the future to actually have the opportunity to test my driving on it behind the wheel. Till then here’s a brief video of the day’s events.

Stay tuned to WOT Magazine for more grassroots motorsports events for all you enthusiasts!