Nobushige Kumakubo is the 2006 Japanese D1 Grand Prix Champion and the owner of the legendary Japanese drift track Ebisu Circuit. Kumakubo is the lead driver for drift Team Orange and the creator of Big X, which is an insane drifting event that combines drifting, freestyle motocross, street bike stunts, and car stunts. Kumakubo is also a fan of RC drift cars and recently announced that an indoor RC drift track would be built inside the Ebisu Circuit facility.

Nobushige Kumakubo, born February 10, 1970 in the Fukushima Prefecture of Japan, was born to a wealthy family that owns a large portion of land in the Fukushima countryside. Fukushima, Japan is roughly three hours, by train, north of Tokyo. There you will find lush forest, rice paddies, green rolling hills, and most noteworthy to drifters - twisty mountain roads or touge. It is in these Japanese mountains, on the Kumakubo’s family land, that Nobushige has built Ebisu Circuit. Nobushige not only designed Ebisu Circuit on paper, he also drove the bulldozer that carved the touge. Ebisu Circuit is legendary in Japan because of the numerous drifting events that have taken place there like Carboy Dori-Con, BM Cup, Big X, and D1 Grand Prix.

When Nobushige Kumakubo first entered D1 Grand Prix in 2005, he was driving the Team Orange Nissan S15 Silvia; but when Kumakubo won the 2006 D1 Grand Prix, he was driving a rear-wheel-drive JUN Auto modified Subaru Impreza WRX – the first Subaru ever to enter the D1 Grand Prix series. When Super Street magazine asked Nobushige Kumakubo why he chose the Subaru Impreza WRX platform, he said, “Well, you’ve seen the huge stack of Japanese drifting and rally magazines in my office. I have always thought rallying was cool, especially since Ebisu is covered with snow in the wintertime. And since there are a lot of people who have Imprezas now, I wanted more Subaru owners to come and drive at Ebisu.”

Nobushige Kumakubo has already secured his legacy within the drifting community by winning the 2006 D1 Grand Prix and by creating Ebisu Circuit, which contains some of the world’s greatest drifting tracks. Being the first driver ever to enter D1 with a Subaru and willing to build a RC drift tack on his course at Ebisu Circuit, shows that Nobushige Kumakubo not only has a love for drifting culture, but that Nobushige also has a vision for the future of drifting and that he is not afraid to take chances to help further the sport of drifting. Nobushige Kumakubo may be one of the greatest pioneers of drifting today.

Official Team Orange Website:
http://www.teamorange.jp

Official Ebisu Circuit Website:

http://www.ebisu-circuit.com