News
Masato Kawabata Wins 2013 D1 Grand Prix Series
18 Nov 2013
2nd Championship title for Kawabata
Toyo Tires Drift Driver, Masato Kawabata wins the season finale at Odaiba and takes the 2013 D1GP Championship. In addition to the overall win, kawabata picked up the Tansou (single car) championship win to make it a hat-trick of victories.
Entering the sixth and final round, Kawabata returned to Tokyo full of confidence having left Nagasaki at the end of round five on top of the leaderboard. However, with a top class field competing in the finale, keeping his place on the top step of the podium was always going to be a challenge.
After winning the Tansou championship, Kawabata entered the final Tsuiso (one on one) competition knowing only Naoto Suenaga could take the 2013 championship from him. Both drivers were seeded in different streams so that their final battle would decide the championship as well as the winner of round 6. However, despite performing very strongly, Suenaga lost out when down to the last four in his side of the seedings leaving Kawabata needing to win his round and progress to the next stage to take the overall championship. He duly beat Ammandio going on to master team mate Akinori Utsumi in the final to take his second D1GP series championship title. Having won the title in 2007, Kawabata joins an elite group of racers who have claimed two D1GP titles in their career.
Team mate Utsumi, second in Odaiba, finished 5th overall in the series while Toyo Tires driver Tatsuya Sakuma took third overall in the 2013 Championship.
In addition to the race performance of the racers, The Team TOYO TIRES DRIFT booth also acheived its own accolade taking first place in the year-long vote by fans for the most popular booth!
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