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Last Sunday I was invited to the Guam International Raceway for an opportunity that really, I should’ve lined up amongst a crowd for. Racing Legend Nobuteru Taniguchi, also known as “NOB,” was stopping by the weekend’s drift practice for a meet and greet! The D1GP champion visited Guam for a vacation and had met up with Tom Akigami, his good friend and colleague, to celebrate his birthday and play some golf. Judging by the pictures on his blog (http://ameblo.jp/nob-
I don’t drift, but if I did, i’d be honored to have a guy of his caliber spectate. None the less, I felt good for the drift community of Guam. This, to many people around the world, was an opportunity that many may never have. It was a real nice gesture for NOB to come out and say hi to everyone (especially while on vacation.) Thanks for bringing him out to the track, Tom! More on NOB’s visit in a bit. In the meantime, let’s have a look at what went down at Sunday’s drift practice!
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Rex and his badass drifting girlfriend Jomarie debuted what they call the “Tiffany Teal” 180SX, but i’m calling it the HafaDaze Teal 180SX, lol. Shout outs to you guys, great teamwork!
Rex changing out the wheels to get in on some drift action. Check out the HafaDaze watermark in comparison to the car, almost identical! Woot!
Drift practice + BBQ = Good time. This was probably the best smelling drift session i’ve ever been to.
Toys, toys everywhere! Those Abunai guys man, always have expensive toys and wear nice pants to drift, what the heck?
The Garcia brothers were reunited at the track! Welcome back, Ben!
This S14 sounds real nice on the track. It looked more complete the last time I saw it though, looking forward to seeing more from this car.
I already knew i’d see this car out there. Shout outs to Von for rocking a HafaDaze decal @ the Smokin’ Wheels 2013 drift event. This guy represented Guam very well vs. Japan’s Ota Isao!
Ronald Avelino’s RX-7 that he sold just this week I believe. Getting in one more drift session before he let her go!
This car looks familiar… yeah? http://hafadaze.com/2011/06/08/abunai-girly/
Abunai’s Roswell ripping it up!
Literally ripping it up! Hahahahaha
And his car kept peeing! Lol. Shout outs to Roswell! Looking good out there buddy! (Note: Check out nice pants)
Brian Garcia’s HFDZ Special Edition Skateboard. Not. He brought his 240 to the track but was on his skateboard all day. Lanya.
Something to note about this car is that a woman was drifting in it! Shout outs to all the women getting into the sport!
Abunai’s Ben and Rowell tuning Ben’s suspension. (Note: Nice pants, Nike Frees, too! Deeeng!)
Jomarie’s 240 taking on a corner
The drift queue.
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SO, ABOUT THIS DRIFT LEGEND….
Right! Tom brought NOB around in his NSX. He wanted to take the Honda out for a spin and out of it’s slumber. If we could communicate any better with each other, he’d probably tell me something along the lines of “Best motoring on Guam.” I guess we’ll save that for his next visit. According to Tom, this wasn’t his first visit to Guam, but at the same time, it’s not his last!
Wait, back track, how again does Tom know a D1GP champion? Here’s what I found out:
I was introduced to him back in 2006 by another friend and GT driver Takayuki Aoki when we were doing work for Aoki’s TV show in Japan called Car X’s. I’ve been friends with Taniguchi since. Our first time to work together was in 2009 for the Lateral Drift Championships in Manila where we were brought out to be judges and NOB put on a show. NOB and I meet every now and then when I’m in Tokyo for a meal or drinks to catch up. He is among many of the professional drivers I’m connected and work with.
Upon his arrival at the track he took the opportunity to check out some of the cars on the scene. He seemed to have taken a liking to the Abunai guys.
I could feel Brian Garcia’s smile go from ear to ear when he saw NOB taking a snapshot of his car. Good job Brian! You’re doing it right!
The stance champ exchanging words with the D1GP champ.
Brian capitalizing on the opportunity! So prepared this guy!
Poor guy must’ve been burning. In Japan just a month ago I was freezing in low 40 degree weather. Perhaps NOB needed sun, but maybe got more than what he was looking for!
Again, it was a little difficult for me to communicate with NOB as he isn’t much of an english speaker. Tom offered to translate but I didn’t wanna put all of us in an uncomfortable situation asking questions under the sun. I did, however, ask Tom a couple questions about some of the things NOB had to say about what he observed on Sunday:
Was this drift practiced planned around NOB’s visit? Or was it just coincidental?
It was actually coincidental. He notified me last month he’d be coming over and after checking the schedule, it so happened we had some stuff going on the same weekend.
Any idea what his overall thought was of Guam’s Drifting “Stomping Grounds” and if he had any comments that drifters (from Guam) should probably hear?
Well, it was the second time I’ve taken him up to the track. The last time was about 2 years ago but nothing was going on. This time he was able to catch Auto-X and drifting. He pointed out that Ron Avelino in his yellow FC was “umai jyan” – “he’s pretty good”.
His visit was supposed to be low key but I had him come up to the track to meet our local enthusiasts.
NOB also mentioned that the cars didn’t look too safe, suggesting that the drift community on Guam should get up to Par with safety equipment.
NOB posing with several members of the Guam’s drift community. Though the group rallied for a regular drift practice, they were treated to a visit by a very special guest!
I gave him some gifts on behalf of car enthusiasts on Guam.
A short visit but an awesome gesture by NOB to stop by while on vacation. Thanks for stopping by, sir! It was an honor!
Special thanks to Tom for contributing to the article, who also mentioned that the next drift event is Round 2 of the 2013 Proline Drift series on June 9th. I have a couple shots of the NSX but purposely didn’t post it cause I wanted to share the following feature by Fatlace’s Anton Ngata!
http://vimeo.com/63920788
Thanks for reading!
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