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Back from our Honeymoon in Hawaii already and back in the game. Benson & I travel to the Formula D finals at Irwindale Speedway with my car and Ben's newly repainted 180, yes 180. We make our first appearances as one of the first married drifter couples.
We prep for SEMA...see you then...
September 2006Benson & I were married on Saturday, September 30th! Off to Maui, HI we go for a week...see you soon.
August 2006This could be the last time you hear from me for a couple of months. As you may already know, me and the love of my life, Benson, are getting married. September 30th is our big day. With the move to our new house, my drifting life, my accounting job, running Drifting Pretty and planning a wedding with two receptions...my plate is full. I can only say I will be back in October with Benson and his new drift car. He is revamping it for our wedding (yes, we're having the cars at our wedding and we're even doing a car mag photoshoot at the wedding haha). Time goes by so quickly. I miss the track DEARLY. I miss writing in my journal. I miss the smell of my burnt up tires. Crap I even miss changing my oil. Something has gotta give...because I'm getting married!!!! Wo hoooO!!!!!
I made a promise to Drifting Pretty that I will concentrate more on the program and our expansion plan. I am moving away from making a career out of drifting and moving towards dedicating more time in my efforts for the advancement of women in drifting. Its not about me drifting...its about getting the ladies out on the track and giving back. In the fall I will still be competing, but I will also be looking for offices for Drifting Pretty's headquarters and potential funding sources for next year's program. Every year is truly better than the last for Drifting Pretty. I'm ready for the next level. See you all soon.
8/13 Thanks to Ken Miyoshi, me and my car got a spot in the Nisei week parade to promote the Annual Nisei Week Car Show. Besides girl scouts and brownies...this was my first parade. My grandpa was in the parade too being honored for his efforts in the Japanese American community. What an awesome way to spend your Sunday afternoon. Congratulations Grandpa! Parade Tip #1 Be sure to wave to the crowd and smile!!!! Parade Tip #2 You can rev on cops all you want during the parade!!!!
8/19 Today Reiko (fresh from her Jamaican honeymoon), myself and Tino rolled to HIN LA to make appearances at the Kumho Booth. They featured our cars and made awesome new hero cards for the three of us. Car shows are crazy. I think we signed 300 cards each. Crap that's a lot of ink and paper. Benson thank you for driving my car home at 1am in the morning.
8/20 At 7am we rolled out to the Annual Nisei Week car show. Its tradition that I enter ONE car show every year...and its the Nisei Week Import Showoff. I guess its my teenage years... growing up going to car shows...I just love it. Haha! This was my second year going to Nisei Showoff. I tried really hard...bring a display of trophies and cleaning my dirty dirty car. The work paid off and I was honored as 1st Place in their Nissan class. OMG! I heart drifting and I heart the occasional car show haha. Special thank yous to Performance Nissan for the awesome booth placement. I Love you guys (not that way though ok). Hehe. July 31, 2006
7/3 Me and Ben's new house is finally vacant and we inspect the damages and last tenants left. Today marks the offical start of the remodel of the house. Crap. The house is supposed to be done in a month.
7/10 I ordered a roll of stickers in the most awesome blue. Its not blue chrome but a really pretty super metallic light blue. Fujita put the finishing touches to my car by adding my long awaited cherry blossom scheme to the body. It just completes the car. Thank you Russell.
7/17 Fujita Air took me and my car with them to the Extreme Autofest in Las Vegas, NV. Ben went along too. I debuted my new Fujita poster at the event. I've never had to sign my name so big in my life haha. Thank you for the awesome poster Fujita. Special thank yous to Brian and his brother for safely getting my car to Vegas and home. :).
7/20 Lots of drama with our new house. My auntie's house burns down. Drama!
7/23 My beloved teammate, Reiko, got married today. Reiko I wish you and Scott the best. I love you! June 30, 2006
6/1 My roof is painted so far. I give some really silly sounding art direction to Russell at Fujita over the phone and he comes up with a mock up of my new sticker scheme in a matter of minutes. I guess when you're talented you can just piss out awesome designs whenever you feel like it.
6/4 DP has a private event. I go there, car-less. We drive Ben's Sileighty up. I don't get to do much driving, but I got the privelage and joy to instruct a record amount of first-timer lady drifters at the track. The day was a success and I think the 10 newbie ladies became hooked on drifting. Mission accomplished!!!
6/7 The car gets painted. I come to the paint shop and get to see my car painted!!!! CNN calls and the Anderson Cooper Show wants to interview me with my newly painted beast. CNN shows up and we do an interview :).
6/13 My car leaves the body shop and I didn't even get to see her. The car gets shipped off to Fujita Air for some fabrication on the intercooler, radiator and intake.
6/18 I get my car Friday from Fujita. I DRIVE her home from Temecula to Arcadia. Pretty fun! Haha. Call me crazy. I didn't get pulled over! :D. Off to the track Sunday for another private event hosted by DP and Just Drift (thank you Charlie honey pie). I shake down the pink sweety pie strawberry face thing, yes, I'm talking about my car. Me, Reiko and Tino do a photoshoot for Kumho's SEMA campaign. Finally we get to play with the red smoke tires. Yum!!!!!
6/25 Off to Las Vegas for Reiko's Bachelorette party!!!! May 31, 2006
A month of waiting. Back to the frame rack goes my hot 180. The days go by and I decide that instead of going Sileighty...I'm going S15 face. Thanks to Performance Nissan, things are starting to come together a lot faster than before. A week after I figured out what to do to my car, the S15 headlights and radiator support are here. The radiator and fan shroud arrive. Origin ships the aero. Performance calls and the Ganador mirrors, the last ones they're importing to the states are there waiting for me. I spend a couple hours going through the paint swatch book and finally come to a decision. The rest of the work is left to my good friend Richard. Thank you for all your help Richard. I'm not a slave driver, it was Ben, not me!
5/20 Was Just Drift's Top Drift Competition. With no car in hand I immediately jump in Ben's old Sileighty to take a stab at their crazy configuration at the balcony. 5 cushions later I fit in Ben's bucket seat. There is a signficant different between Benson's car and mine. Its a combination of me not fitting in the drivers seat, his car being slow, his alignment and tire set up...everything...its different. So yes, I sucked in his car out there! P-U! I learned how easy I have it in my car. I appreciate my car more now that I've had to drive Ben's tired Sileighty...
I miss my car. April 30, 2006
April. A month to remember.
4/29 It was Drift Day Competition 6 at the Lancaster Fairgrounds (Drifting at the Rim of the World Rally). Finally, an event where me and Reiko can drive together. The track was fun and fast!!! I qualified #6 out of 20. I was trying different things on my initiation when I should have just been keeping it simple and consistent. I didn't make the cuts after...
4/30 Today was a test, a test of love and faith! Today was the tandem competition that me & Benson entered in, together. Ben wiped the old black sileighty off and took it to the track...only to find a slurry of problems with the car which lost him a car for the competition. Reiko was nice enough to lend Benson her car for the tandem competition. On one of our first practice runs, without really getting used to her car Ben and I started practicing our tandem runs. I spun in front and Reiko's door ended up smashing my front end. That took us out of practice for a while...after piecing my fenders and tying the intercooler back on we went back out...only to find that Reiko's fuel pump kept blowing fuses. We were officially out of luck. The boys went through Reiko's wiring harness by her front wheel and found some expose wires. We crossed our fingers and threw her car back on the track along with my rigged, smashed car for the tandem competition. All 3 runs were fabulous. We pulled it off...no spins, no messies. We got it together and drove our hearts out. We ended up coming in 2nd place!!!
The day wasn't over. In the evening they had an invitational where they invited FD top 16 drivers to compete against each other for a $3,000 cash prize. Benson has the worst luck with cars, so I lent him my car. Even though my car was smashed up, it still would definitely hold up for one last competition. I was bringing my car to the paint shop the next day anyway for a paint job. I told B it was OK to crash...just win...win the whole thing. Round after round, he made it. Killing the FD drivers, left and right. Ben was back. I was so proud of him. He was in the semi finals against Calvin. They went out...Benson had him (benson was chasing). Calvin spun at an odd spot in the track...a part where you're usually flooring the crap out of your car. They hit...long story short, it took my car out of the competition. Calvin advanced by default and ended up winning the whole thing. Calvin was nice enough to give me part of his prize money to fix my baby. Benson was really upset about crashing my car. I was too for a second...but I got over it the minute I saw him crawl out of my car with his head down saying sorry 50 times in a row. I Love You...how can I get mad at you for crashing my car. It was a bad crash, but not bad enough to total the car out. Its just a car. I Love my car, but hey...it can be replaced tomorrow. My love for you can't be replaced. I Love You. Don't be sorry, I was never mad.
Dirk at ACT was nice enough to rescue me and my car and tow it to ACT to hold until the morning.
The next day, Richard and Ben went to ACT to try to get the car into driving condition so they could get it to the shop. ACT ended up towing the car from lancaster to City of Industry for me!! Thank you Dirk & Daniel!!! Thank you Richard and B. I am fortunate to have you all. What the hell did I do to deserve you friends? March 31, 2006
March is only the 3rd month of the year yet every weekend there's something to do, somewhere to race or somewhere to go.
3/4 was D1GP. Back again at D1 in the Fujita booth I set out for another record breaking autograph session. In two hours 250 autograph cards were signed and outta there. I met a lot of awesome fans that were at the previous D1 in December and came back for their 2nd autograph at Fujita this time around. Thank you all for being so loyal. Its amazing how many faces I remembered that day.
3/10 was the premiere for a documentary that Brian Davis & David Woo, two USC Film students did on me. They premiere was at the Norris Theatre on the USC campus. It was so much like an AMC theatre! The short film was entitled "Drifting Pretty," and proved to be one of the most well-done films of the night. Congratulations Brian & David on the raving success. I was truly impressed and speechless that night.
Later that same night I bounced over to Level3 in Hollywood for Schikane's Fashion Icons Fashion Show & Club. Complete with the red carpet, media wall, media galore and hot models struttin' their stuff down the runway. It was a one of a kind event. Congratulations to Schikane.
3/18 Reiko was off to Hawaii for Hawaii's final drifting event before they close the track. I journeyed off to San Diego for the Formula D Qualifier in the pouring rain. To our luck the rain stopped just as practice began. The course was the 2nd most difficult course I've driven...the most difficult was Chicago Formula D, where over 50% of the drivers kissed the wall. Today was no different...10 cars hit that day...many were totaled and one even flipped over. Scary stuff. I got away with no close calls and OK runs. Puddles, a narrow entry lined with concrete K-rails and clipping points literally on the wall, I held back and didn't go balls out like I should have. It wasn't enough to get my license that day, but I came home with a lesson learned and there will be other opportunities in the coming months to kick some ass! Next time. Next time.
3/25 Reiko & I jumped on a plane to South Carolina for our first appearances at Kumho's Street Warriorz tour. More to be added... February 28, 2006
::New monthly format for journal entries!::
Welcome back everyone. Welcome new 2006 season sponsors: Fujita Air, Peak Performance, Swift Springs, and Kumho Tires. I'm proud to announce the continuance of all my sponsors from last year with the exception of Yokohama tires, who unfortunately has resigned from drifting to pursue other motorsports. The season promises to be another landmark year for women in drifting and I am proud to have the honor of representing such an impressive mix of quality names in the industry. I realize how fortunate I am to have the faith and support of so many reputable and well-known companies in the drifting industry. Not for one second do I take that for granted.
Heading back into the season, this month Drifting Pretty kicked off their fist workshop of the year with a record attendance of 20 ladies. Members Cindy and Michelle led the workshop with flying colors...they taught all the members about "the basics." It was such a great way to reinforce our 2006 theme "giving back what you've taken." What we're trying to instill in the ladies of Drifting Pretty this year is awareness that membership in Drifting Pretty doesn't just stop at taking and using all the resources and information we teach you, but taking it in and giving back to the next member that needs it. We want to teach the ladies about mentorship and the importance of setting a good example for other members. There's this endless circle of giving in Drifting Pretty and it will never stop.
Later this month we journeyed out to the Performance Nissan meet at Citrus College where SoCal's finest Nissans came together to strut their stuff. I traveled there with Fujita Air and got to meet a lot of enthusiasts and see a lot of fancy Nissans! The following day was my first competition of the day, Just Drift's Top Drift Battle Round 1. With new suspension set-up, new tires, new intake and more power I was anxious to hit the track again. On my first competition run, I kicked the clutch and smack crackle pop no more 3rd gear. I got pushed to safety off the track and immediately jumped into my teammate Reiko's car. First run out as I kick the clutch in 3rd gear the car comes to a hault. This was the first time ever that I've broke my car so bad I couldn't drive the rest of the day. It was really frustrating to say the least...but hey, it could have been a lot worse. On top of that it was the first time ever breaking a friend's car. I felt like crap that day...but hey, its all a part of racing and you've gotta be ready to be okay with whatever mechanical problems arise.
Back at home, I kept thinking/hoping it was a broken pressure plate or something less serious (I was using last season's clutch), but when I opened up my tranny later we found a badly blown tranny. To my surprise, ACT's extreme pressure plate amd 6-puck disc beautifully held up for the 2005 season despite my itchy clutch-kicking-whenever-I-can foot! Reiko opened her tranny up to find that I badly overheated her clutch and it went to heaven. A special thank you to ACT for rushing over a fresh new pair of clutches and ProLite flywheels for us. Just call me Ms. Destructo. One tranny and two clutches later...me & Reiko's cars are ready for battle. We'll be back at round 2 for revenge!
January 23, 2006
Dismantle-Construct
The diary is back for 2006! A recap of 2005 is in the 2005 entries. 2006 brings a new chapter to my life. I'm getting married in September. The Drifting Pretty
Program is finally expanding to Northern California. The local chapter of Drifting Pretty is "growing up." This year is also my first full season with my manager to whom
I can thank for bringing on one of my newest major sponsors, Fujita Air. With such a monumental year
ahead, my cute180 is ready...ready to get TORN up! Literally. Dismantle and reconstruct. Come February, she'll be up again...back for revenge, but wearing different shoes, clothes, glasses and
jewelry. No, I'm not talking about my shopping spree at Sacks Fifth Ave, but I'm talking about the Cute180 makeover! What am I changing? Everything. Besides my 1.09 carats, this year is also
special because Benson, the love of my life, is returning to drifting! Welcome back honey. He's armed with Manager in pocket and a new car.
We're building a set of lovebirds...no not babies, not at least yet, but a set of drift cars. His and hers. Its a really exciting thing. It takes so much time and effort to build cars, but what better way than along-side
the love of your life. We'll be debuting together probably sometime in February. My first competition is on 2/26, the Just Drift Top Drift Competition (Round 1).
So right now in my dismantling...the stickers are off. The car was taken to Fujita Air in Temecula for some intake & intercooler piping fabrication and dyno runs. Following Fujita she returns home for a
dry ice session of stripping sound deading out of the interior. Off to the body shop for some touch ups and new kit...then off to Peak Performance for a new suspension set up and alignment. A fresh new set of
wheels and tires that are NOT Yokohama!!! Some upgrades on the engine via Apexi parts...And last but not least...a fresh new sticker scheme. Its all coming up. I'll keep you updated. Thank you for taking the time
to read up!
Last update February 14, 2005
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