Keiichi Tsuchiya
Encyclopedia : K : KE : KEI : Keiichi Tsuchiya
Keiichi Tsuchiya (土屋圭市 Tsuchiya Kei'ichi, born January 30 1956, Nagano) is a professional racing driver from Japan. He is also known as the "Drift King" otherwise as Dorikin (ドリキン) for his nontraditional use of drifting (motorsport) in non-drifting racing events, and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. He is also known for Tōge (mountain pass) driving. The car he is most famous for driving is a Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno (a.k.a. the "Hachi-Roku" in Japan (hachi-roku meaning "eight six")). A video known as Pluspy documents Tsuchiya's Tōge driving with his AE86.
Biography
Tsuchiya started amateur racing in 1977 in the "Fuji Freshman" series. Unlike many drivers who came a traditional route via wealthy families or previous motorsport background, he honed his skills from street racing becoming an underground legend. He would continue to take part in the Japanese Formula 3, Japanese Touring Car championship, the latter whilst driving a Nissan Skyline GT-R in the Group A championship and later a Honda Civic in the Supertouring car championship. He went on to score a class win and a top 10 place at the 1995 24 hours of Le Mans in a Honda NSX. In 1999 of the same race this time in a Toyota GT-One during the last hour whilst co driver Ukyo Katayama was building up pace to the leading BMW LMR he was forced into the grass by a backmarker privateer's BMW LMP blowing the tire out. They survived the ordeal and went on to score the fastest lap but were forced to settle for second. At 47 years of age, Tsuchiya announced his retirement from professional racing. His last race was round eight at Suzuka for the Japanese GT championship race. After his retirement, he remained in racing and is now an Official D1 Grand Prix Judge and was Team Director for both GT500 (for one year) and GT300 Class of ARTA JGTC Team until the team disbanded their GT300 operation at the end of the 2005 season. He used to own the aftermarket suspension company Kei Office until he sold the business to Ogura Racing Clutch in 2005. He also hosts the television show "Best Motoring", which features road-tests of new Japanese cars, including a special section called "Hot Version", which focuses on performance modified cars. He is a guest presenter in Video Option, a monthly video magazine, similar to Hot Version, which also regularly covers the D1GP and sister video magazine Drift Tengoku which deals purely on drifting.He has been an editorial supervisor on the televised anime Initial D,and appeared in episode 23 as a special guest. He also appeared in the semi biographical film Shuto Kousoku Trial 2,3,4 and Max and also presents in the Super GT magazine show in Japan. He recently made a cameo as a fisherman in
Trivia
- Keiichi Tsuchiya's Touge homecourse is the Usui
- Holds the Usui course record with his NSX-R
- When "Dori Dori" was a freshman in circuit racing, he got his race license suspended due to the illegal racing that he was still doing. In the movie, Shuto Kousoku Trial Max, he advises someone to leave the illegal racing scene behind if he is to become involved with professional racing. That is as if Keiichi as himself in the movie advises that to a fictional character using his real life experience.
- His life in driving has parallelism to the Initial D main character, Takumi, as both of them started out to explore their local Touge while doing regular deliveries for their family business.
- He has raced in NASCAR-sanctioned exhibition races at Suzuka Circuit (Suzuka Thunder 100) and at Twin Ring Motegi Superspeedway for the 1998 NASCAR-sanctioned exhibition and 1999 NASCAR Grand National Division, AutoZone West Series races at the circuit, both named the Coca-Cola 500k.
- Trademark color is Jade Green, which appears on his overall, helmet and is the adopted color of his company, Kei Office. Also is the color if the D1 Grand Prix Kei Office S15 Silvia of driver and employee Yasuyuki Kazama. On Initial D 3rd Stage the color can also be seen on a sportsbike rider overall and helmet who overtook Takumi as he was en-route to an initiation battle with Ryosuke Takahashi. The color of Tomo's racing suit from Initial D 4th Stage is also jade green, and in similar pattern to his suit.
Quotes
"I drift not because it is a quicker way around a corner, but it is the most exciting way" - Keiichi Tsuchiya
"You brake and then turn the wheel, step on the clutch, and pull the e-brake. Release the e-brake, go into countersteer mode, then wait. Wait until you know the car is facing the corner exit direction. then you smile and slam on the gas as you exit the corner." - Keiichi Tsuchiya
"This is fun! I wish that Toyota could make cars like this again!" - Keiichi Tsuchiya in the Toyota AE86
"Men with guts attack those corners!" - Keiichi Tsuchiya
External links
- [Official site]
- [Imdb profile]
- [AsianAthlete.com profile]
- [Bridgestone Automobile Radio] Japanese Only
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.