I’m not going to bother doing a big event report on this year’s Nikko Queen event, since a lot of the stuff I shot would be more fun as part of a few mini-features, so look forward to those.

Just to get the formalities out of the way though, here are the ladies who placed in the Expert Class competition!

First Place was Akari Nagasawa. It’s rare to see anyone drive Nikko Circuit’s first corner as neatly and consistently as she did all day. A quick flick in, stomp on the brakes to settle the car and full acceleration right out wide towards the judging stand with not a single bit of visible handbrake correction.

I have something new to try next time I drive at Nikko, I think…

Keep in mind, her boyfriend is D1 Street Legal driver Hideyuki Fujino, so you can imagine the sort of conversations that go on between those two.

Second Place was Rie Niimi, who drove her Kids Heart-supported R34 GT-t four-door up from Nagoya early that morning to compete.

Actually, it’s more like Tsuyoshi Tezuka drove her car on the back of a loader up from Nagoya early that morning. More about this and Michiko’s S14 in another post.

Third was Naoko Matsumoto, a local girl with a ridiculously cute pink helmet and ridiculously late braking technique.

Yeah, they can kick your arse at drifting.

Photos & Words: NoriYaro