Keiichi Tsuchiya or the “Drift King,” as he is more widely known, is a living legend within the drifting community. he was known also as the "DORIKIN" for his un traditional way in drifting in non-drifting race events. HE developped several drifting techniques widely used by professional drivers today. Unlike most professional drivers that come from wealthy families or have previous racing experience in other motorsports, Keiichi Tsuchiya earned his reputation and honed his drift skills from illegal underground street races. In fact, Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya had his license suspended for illegal street racing not long after he began his professional racing career in the amateur Fuji Freshman racing series.
Keiichi Tsuchiya was born January 30, 1956 in Nagano, Japan and started his professional racing career in 1977. Beginning with the Fuji Freshman Racing Series, he continued his racing career in the Japanese Formula 3 Series, Japanese Touring Car Championship driving a Nissan skyline GTR, and a Honda civic in Super Touring car championship class. Throughout the Drift King’s racing career, he made a name for himself driving, and drifting of course,and also made a name for His favourite car the "Toyota AE86 sprinter tureno" that became one of the most famous sport's car nowadays. the car is also know as the "Hachi-Roku" which means in japan "the eight-six".
TSUCHIYA'S MOST NOTABLE WINS AND RACING CAREER:
He went on to score a class win and an 8th place overall at the 1995, 24 hours of Le Mans in a Honda NSX.in 1999 in the same race, with co-driver Ukyo Katayama in a Toyota GT-One they came on second place during the last hour while co-driver Ukyo Katayama was building up pace to the leading BMW V12 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. tsuchiya also holds the record at his home course of Usui with his Honda NSX-R.
He has raced NASCAR-sanctioned exhibition races at Suzuka Circuit (Suzuka Thunder 100) and at Twin Ring Motegi Super Speedway 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. Tsuchiya’s last race was round eight at Suzuka for the (JGTC) the Japanese Gran Touringcar Championship.
At age 47, Keiichi Tsuchiya announced his retirement from professional racing, and he became the Team Director for the GT500 Class ARTA team for a year and GT300 Class of JGTC Team until the team disbanded the GT300 operation at the end of the 2005 season. Later Tsuchiya sold his aftermarket suspension company Kei Office to Ogura Racing Clutch.
After that, Keiichi tsuchiya became a judge the D1 Grand Prix and also hosts the Japanese video magazine “Best Motoring,” now “Best Motoring International,” which features road-tests of new Japanese cars, including a special section called “Hot Version,” which focuses on performance modified cars. Tsuchiya can also be seen guest staring in Video Option’s monthly video magazine “Drift Tengoku,” which covers D1 Grand Prix and other drift related events and the Super GT video magazine also in Japan. he is also an editorial supervisor on the drifting animation Initial D and appeared in episode 23 as a special guest. He can also be seen in the movie series Shuto Kousoku Trial, he advises street racers to leave the illegal racing scene behind if they are to become involved with professional racing. In 2006, Keiichi made a cameo appearance in the movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift as a fisherman.
The presence of the legend and the driftking only grows larger as the drifting becomes more popular in the world as a motorpsort. What is inspiring about Tsuchiya’s career is that he was not rich when he started racing and was not handed his legendary title of “Drift King.” Instead, Tsuchiya fought his way up the ranks and earned his skills and reputation in battle – underground street racing until he came the greatest drifter ever.
