Back In The Day: BIG-X part I

Recently I’ve had a little bit of good luck and bad. My bad luck recently came in the form of my computer dying, suddenly. Sure it copped more abuse than most, but in either case it was sad to see it go. The good news though was I had a great reason to buy a new computer and to finally sift through just some of the images I have from my time in Japan. For this article in particular I want you all to rewind a few years back, to an event that unfortunately isn’t held any more.

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It was 2005 and what became my first pilgrimage to Ebisu Circuit. I was very lucky to have met up with a few other friends who were into cars as much as I and we had all decided to get together and check out an event called Big-X. We didn’t know too much about it, but the promise of ‘Extreme Bike’, ‘Trial’, ‘Car Stunt’ and ‘Drift Xtreme’ all in one day was enough to get us out of bed early on a chilly Spring morning.

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What we got when we arrived at Ebisu was indeed big! Put on by the owner of Ebisu Circuit and D1 champ, Nobushige Kumakubo, the day was a sweet hot mix of some the best drifters and riders pulling off some of the wildest acts in synchro for the crowd. The most popular of these groups you might know as Team Orange or Geki Kassou Dan, the other orange team from Hoshino Car Style. Their electric orange colors are a show of respect to Team Orange and Kumakubo.

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Back on the main straight, it was all drift antics  followed by car stunts, followed by driving on two wheels and even flying cars! To make matters more interesting, while the cars were drifting or on two wheels, the drivers would simultaneously weave in and out of each other or do donuts around each other, narrowly missing so many times and keeping everyone on their feet the whole length  of the straight!!

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The synchronization didn’t stop there either. Next came the bikers, including the Moto-X and Trial riders as well as the stunt riders joining in on the action and ripping up the front straight to everyone’s delight again! Of course we had to have burn outs in between sessions too to keep everyone happy, so the bikers and drivers let roar with some serious tire delaminating destruction!

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Continuing on, there was more fun for the crowd with the drifters selecting a lucky  few from the crowd to ride shotgun on the specially set up course.

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I have quite a few pictures from this event, so I’ll make this part one but I’ll see if I can dig up some of the video from the day as well! No guarantees on the quality though. It was after all 2005 and I was silly enough not to have brought a video camera.

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Stay tuned for part two guys and girls!

Update: Part II is Here!

Peter

Words/Images: Peter Horniak