Jake Jones in Japan preparing D1 debut
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Jake Jones arrives in Japan and begins preparing for his D1 Grand Prix debut.
First you heard the rumours, then you read the announcements, and now it's finally happening! Thanks to the support of Yokohama tyres, Jake "DriftSquid" Jones is currently in Japan preparing to enter the first round of the 2012 D1 Grand Prix, held in Odaiba in Tokyo! Without even spending a minute to enjoy the wonders of Tokyo and the blooming cherry blossoms, Jake left the airport early on Monday morning and headed straight up to Ebisu Circuit to get stuck straight into it.
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Shortly after walking into the garage where all the Team Orange cars are kept, the reality of the situation began to sink in for Jake. This was a rare chance to compete against the toughest drivers in Japan in a proven car on the best drift tyres you can get, with the support of one of the most famous drift teams in the world.
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This Impreza isn't just some retired old drift car that Team Orange is wheeling out for Jake to just have a bit of a token play in. It was up on the lift having some basic service performed on it after being thrashed by Kumakubo in drifting demonstration runs at Tsukuba Circuit's Hyper Meeting only the day before!
"The car's in good condition. It's strong." said Kumakubo.
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It didn't take Jake long to point out that Team Orange runs the same ADVAN tyres that he does.
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The office was already set up, but would obviously need a bit of adjustment to fit Jake comfortably.
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The car was wheeled outside for Jake to have a sit in so the mechanics could get an idea of how the seat and handbrake lever needed to be adjusted.
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Whenever you're dealing with an unfamiliar rollcage, there's always a bit of a question as to the best way to get into the car.
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Unfortunately, nobody ever manages to look cool doing it.
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Especially so when you're 190cm tall like Jake is!
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Even without attaching the steering wheel, we could see that some adjustments needed to be done.
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It soon became lunchtime, so everyone headed up to the restaurant of the Tohoku Safari Park, which shares grounds with Ebisu Circuit. I recommended Jake try the miso ramen, as it's quite delicious at Ebisu. It took him a bit of time to eat though, as using chopsticks aren't quite yet his strong point!
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Team Orange's leader Kumakubo and the rest of the crew were there that day rehearsing a new version of their ninja drift show that they performed at the Tokyo Auto Salon with a group of acrobatic ninjas from the "Edo Wonderland" amusement park.
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Before moving up into trying out the Impreza, Team Orange thought a bit of training in one of their drift school practice cars would be best.
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This S14 Silvia is almost stock apart from usual drift modifications like a mechanical diff, suspension and an exhaust. The boot was full of tyreless wheels though, so Jake needed to find something to put on them.
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That didn't prove to be too hard, since the entire garage was full of stack of ADVAN Neova AD08s as well as a pile of ADVAN A050 R-Specs that Team Orange had used for time-attack at the previous day's Hyper Meeting. Jake needed to save his supply of Neovas to use on the Impreza though, so we needed something else.
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Thankfully, Yokohama had sent through a few DNA S.drive tyres for Jake to practice on, so Jake fitted them up to the empty rims.
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When it came time to set the pressures, we ran into a bit of a snag. Jake only knows how to read psi, but all the gauges in the garage were in kPa! A quick check on the internet converted the numbers we needed to know.
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Amongst the stacks of Neovas were ones assigned for the competition and labeled with Jake's name written in katakana, pronounced "Jeiku".
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After strapping on his new Icon helmet, Jake headed out onto the School Course to get warmed up.
Coming up next: Jake thrashes the S14, gets shown what's what, and gets his D1 licence!
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