Yasuyuki Kazama

Yasuyuki Kazama
Nationality	Japan
Born	(1970-02-01) 1 February 1970 Nagano
D1 Grand Prix
Years active	2001–2006
Teams	Kei Office, DG-5, Team M.O.V.E.
Wins	7
Best finish	1 in 2005
Championship titles
2005	1

Yasuyuki Kazama (風間靖幸, Kazama Yasuyuki, born 1 February 1970, Nagano, Japan) is a drifting driver from Japan.

Kazama was first introduced to drifting at age 17 when he watched Gengo-San, who later became his spotter and mentor, drifting on a touge.^[1]

As soon as he got his driving licence he began drifting in his Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 with the proceeds of his job in a filling station. He later escaped death when his car slid down underneath a crash barrier and fell 30 feet down the mountain.^[2]

He later made a name for himself in drifting contests, driving a Nissan Silvia S14, and became one of the first drivers to use a S15 for drifting and was heavily in debt until his patience paid off when he was sponsored by Kei Office, a tuning company which was owned by Keiichi Tsuchiya whom he later worked for as a mechanic. From when he first started in D1GP series at the end of 2000, he had moderate success, but when he teamed up with Gengo, things started to pay off when he took up a runner-up spot at round 5 in 2003 and then won his first event in round 1 in Irwindale and took four other wins and a title in 2005 only beating Masao Suenaga by 1 point.

He is known as Waku Waku Kun or Rodeo Clown due to his reputation as a clown within the series and his being well known for his Rodeo Drift, a form of doughnutting by sitting on the driver's door of the car which he first practiced at the Big-X events, then later at D1GP pre-tsuiou rounds warm-ups in 2004 when he changed the side windows of his car to make it possible to perform the trick. Even though his previous employer Tsuchiya sold off his company at the end of 2005, he still continued to work at Tsuchiya's then-new company, DG-5, up until 2007. Kazama also owns his own shop called Rodextyle. Kazama is also known in the United Kingdom for his only mainstream TV appearance outside Japan in the BBC2 show Top Gear, in which he teaches Richard Hammond drifting in a stock Vauxhall Monaro VX-R. As with the rising popularity of the drifting scene there, he has made two appearances in both Autocar in April 2006, driving a Caterham Seven and February 2007 issue of the Octane.^[3]

Drifting results

(key)

D1 Grand Prix

References

External links

• DG-5: sponsor's site
• Rodextyle old official blog site.
• Rodextyle current official blog site.
• Rodexshop
• MSN Cars: How to drive sideways
• D1 Supporter profile