Katsuhiro Ueo

Ueo Katsuhiro
Nationality	Japan
Born	(1972-05-26) May 26, 1972 Tamana, Kumamoto
D1 Grand Prix career
Debut season	2001
Current team	Garage SIFT
Best finish	1 in 2002

Katsuhiro Ueo (植尾勝浩, Ueo Katsuhiro, 26 May 1972, Tamana, Kumamoto) is a Japanese professional drifting driver, who used to compete in the D1 Grand Prix with an AE86.

He was into cars from a young age, and started out competing in gymkhana events. At one of these events one of his younger colleagues took him to the touge runs and challenged him saying that he couldn't do it. So he went out and proved him wrong, and this got him started in drifting. As well as his drifting he is also the owner of tuning shop and used car dealership Racing Garage SIFT.

He has been competing in the D1 Grand Prix since the first year in his Toyota Sprinter Trueno (AE86). He has always done well, getting his first win in 2002 and going on to take the championship. Ueo had switch to two different Truenos starting 2003 up until 2004, he used an AE85 while his GTV was used as a backup car. The AE85's chassis strength had started to weaken since the reinforcement method done to it was by the use of rivets, compared to the GTV which was using a stitch-welding method along with seam-welding, additional reinforced plates, etc. At this point, Ueo went back to the GTV from 2005-2006.

His first AE86 was a Corolla Levin, which he had owned from 1998-1999, before getting a Sprinter Trueno, starting with a black SR trim AE85 (which was converted to an AE86 and used at the 2000 Kyushu Ikaten, later repainted white in late 2000 with revised changes), before buying an official AE86 GTV and swapping parts out of the AE85, in which the GTV would later become the 'Professor machine', 2002 D1 Series Car, 2003 D1 USA Round Winner, and the 2005 and 2006 Series Car. Easier way to tell the chassis apart was by looking at the inner shell and engine room; Ueo painted his AE85s inner shell and engine room to a dark grey, while his AE86s inner shell and engine room were paint in white.

During Round 7 of 2006, he attempted to pilot his NKB Nissan Fairlady Z Z33, but had trouble during the qualifying round having the trunk fly open.

In 2007 he has changed team and car, moving to Team M.O.V.E's Nissan Silvia (S15), the car that won the 2005 championship at the hands of Yasuyuki Kazama. He has not adapted well to the new vehicle and finished the season down in 20th place. In 2008-on wards, Ueo started competing in Drift competitions outside of Japan like, Red Bull Drifting World Championship, Formula D, WDS (World Drift Series) with the Driftspeed S15 (later using his own for WDS). After he stopped using the Driftspeed S15, he had built his own S15 and recently competed in Formula D Japan 2014 at Fuji Speedway with his D'SIFT S15 Silvia.

Up to this day, Ueo still owns his old machines like the AE86 GTV, AE85, KE72v Corolla Van (KE70), and still has the famous Tomei 4A-GE (currently in the Corolla Van since '07). Ueo announced that he would be making a new AE86 (Blue Levin Coupe) for 2015.

Complete Drifting Results

(key)

D1 Grand Prix

References

• Superstreet
• D1 Grand Prix

External links

• Official Site (Garage Sift)
• D1 Supporter profile
• D1 Supporter profile (D1SL)