February 1, 2024 • 45 mins
Sung and Emelia sit down with drift champion and driving legend, Dai Yoshihara. Dai shares his journey, from a self-taught driver on local canyon roads in Japan, through his highly accomplished career in Formula D and to his recent passion of stunt driving for film and television. They also talk about personality traits for success, financial perspectives, and the impact of having kids.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of Car Stories
with Sun.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
King and Amelia Hartford.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And today we get to talk to our dear friend
Die Yoshihara, living legend, his story of how he came
to the United States, how he got into drifting.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, it's a story about where he came from nothing,
having moved from Japan, coming to the US, winning a
championship and more than that, he raises gript driving, has
done Pike's Peak, which is a famous mountain course in
Colorado Springs, and he's.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Just so zen.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
You know, he just has this piece about him and
it's very hard for him to talk about himself and
maybe that's the Japanese thing. But having this conversation to
hear his story, you learn about why the community respects
him so much.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, and I think a good takeaway is to treat
others with kindness.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, and then you'll be able to surround yourself with
the people that that will help you pursue your dreamy. So,
without further ado, mister Dai Yoshihara, So let's talk about
your your origins with drifting. Yeah, can you tell us
how you started and where'd you learn it? Like, where'd
(01:19):
you fall? In love with it. How you became a
professional jurist driver.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
It's kind of long story, but uh, you know, I'm
from Japan and I was one of those street racer
back in the days. But also I've been always looking
up to US culture ever since I watched Top Gun,
like back in that was eighty six, but I watched
the movie like maybe early nineties. But anyway, it's like
those are two like my interests, like driving and you know,
(01:46):
US culture. Right after Fast Inferiors in Japan spoke compact
culture was kind of popping. It's kind of like a
us DM custom cars, not just like a you know,
like drift cars or anything like that. It's more like
Honters and so basically the cars from the past and furious.
So around that time, I was like really into that.
(02:09):
And then I met the guy from the US and
who did the car show in the US at the time,
and he's like, oh, maybe drifting will be the next thing,
And I took me to the Japanese Mountain Road.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
He really liked it.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
A few months later he invited me to compete in
the US drifting competition.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
That was my beginning. So can you give us your
history of your first car. Were you always into cars
growing up? And like where did you learn how to drive?
Because and also togay for the listening audience, can you
first let's explain what togay is.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Okay, So togay is basically a mountain roll. So yeah,
I will stay tokay as a Kenyon road, I guess.
So my first car was eighty to eighty six Corolla
and yeah, I always wanted to, you know, get a
car ever since I was a kid. So as soon
(03:09):
as I get a driver license, I already had the car,
which was two hundred bucks. And then just every now
I just put like ten ten liter gas because gas
is the most expensive thing, you know, at the time
for me, So just put like a ten litter which
is like four garrow maybe, and then just drive mountain
(03:30):
all night until it gets empty and then come back.
So that's how I practice myself, maybe like a year
or so.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So you're self taught pretty much. Really, Yeah that's crazy.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Yeah wow, Well but I watched a lot of videos.
One of the popular one is the Drift Bible from
ka Who is who is people called drifting?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Maybe you guys can explain who he is? Kg Suchiya
is he's actually in Tokyo Drift yes, all right, so
he is essentially known as the drift King. And he
started driving the A eighty six when he was young.
And there's a manga called Initial D very famous manga,
(04:22):
and it's about this character Takumi that lives in the
Togay mountains and he delivers Tofu and he was a
consultant on this manga. And that's why this you know,
nineteen eighty five eighty six Hachiroku Corola A eighty six
has become the grandfather of drift cars, right, and so
Suchiya san is still alive, and he would be like
(04:45):
the Michael Jordan of drifting. All right, that's a very
good way to say. Yeah, I mean, did he inspire
you to get the A eighty six? Was he like
a hero of yours? Yes?
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yes, I mean at the time I didn't really like
it was like more like no choice because it was
super cheap. It's not like this is a car I
wanted to drive back in the days, right, But now
this is still my favorite cars just because that's the
car I learned how to drive. But yeah, so for sure,
(05:15):
suggestn't helped a lot of people to you know, knowing
this car, it's so different and be inspired.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, Now where are you from in Japan?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
I'm from Tokyo but east I'm sorry, west side of Tokyo,
which is a little bit countryside in a way, so
it's pretty easy to access to the togi which is
a canyon roads.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Which toga would you drive?
Speaker 4 (05:40):
I have a few different, but it's called those togi
and then old that me.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
So is that like saying Mulholland canyon out there much?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah? Yeah, so there's a few in the area, so
just go there, like and.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Would you drift or would you just drive really fast?
Speaker 4 (05:58):
I did drift specifically in the beginning. Now is it
Are there a lot of police up there? Yeah? I
don't know if this kind of touchy subject, but because
I think we should say like no street driving, right absolutely,
But yeah, back in the days there's a.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Lot of cops.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
But you know, we of course run away, and here
in japan's a little different like here, I think it's
more more crazy, but Japan, like if you run away,
then I don't think most police will really chase you
too hard because it's it gets dangerous for the driver
(06:40):
and then other people as well, right, so they just
let you go you know where. But also we never
really do, you know, when you have a lot of
traffic with a lot of people around. So I mean
there's a you know, a few people do that too,
but most of the time I try to pick most
like like quiet like thing around no home, so trying
(07:02):
not to like, you know, kissed people off kind.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Of thing, not to like disturb the piece.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's very Japanese. Yeah, I guess you're
breaking the law, but you're doing it. What drew you
to start drifting opposed to like drag racing or track racing,
track driving? Like what was the thing that called to
you to become a drifter?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
So before I get a driver's license, I got a
I was riding a motorcycle. In Japan, you get the
license driver's license when you get eighteen, but you you
can get a motorcycle license at sixteen. So those two years,
I was riding a motorcycle and I was riding on
(07:49):
the mountain one night and then I just saw the
call is drifting coming at me, which is kind of
kind of scary, but it was so cool to see that,
and from that moment, I'm like I have to do this.
So that's how I got into it.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Was that car in a eighty six.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
No, I can't remember what was, but it was super
cool moment, right, So and then I started like watching
those videos and kind of like study the culture.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
What did your parents think about you getting into cars
and pursuing this like journey and.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, of course they were like a typical parents, so
they didn't like it at all.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
A long time. What were they hoping you were going
to do with your life, just.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Like the regular stuff, like, you know, go to the
college and you know what got I don't know, like
some cool big company or something like that.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
What did your parents do for work?
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Actually, my dad was working with his brother who had
the used car dealer. Okay, so he likes cars as well,
so he kind of understood. But at the same time
he was key telling me like just get the you know,
normal job and kind of things.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So, so, how did they feel about you coming to
the United States and giving up your life in Japan?
I mean, for the for our listeners too, I'd love
you to maybe share like that journey of how you
ended up in America, right, because it is like an
almost an American dream. Success story.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, well, so kind of back to what I told
you guys, I had one chance to come to the
stage to compete for drifting. So actually a guy named
Kim Yoshi who had the car show back in the days,
and he you know back in the days. Of course,
I didn't have money, so he got me a ticket
to fly here, and he got me a place to stay,
(09:45):
which is his house. And then I did one competition
and I did pretty good. I got like top eight,
So that kind of opened up my opportunity. And back
back then, I was working for used car dealer in Japan,
but I thought that was a good opportunity. So after
that I quit the job and then I started coming
to the States, but of course I didn't have a visa,
(10:07):
so I have to stay here for like two months
and go back to Japan. I was basically back in
a fall at what it was, I was twenty four
and then slowly getting sponsors and stuff, and maybe a
few months after a former drift just started. So that
was back in two thousand and three, and then Formula
(10:29):
D was started at the two thousand and four and
I got sponsors and the team to compete for the season.
So that was kind of a second chance, and I
just keep back in forth and yeah, it's a long
story show. Four years after I finally got a visa
and then around that time, finally I was able to
(10:50):
make some money. And so that's kind of like when
I'm like, Okay, this is my this is going to
be my career. Until then, I wasn't even sure. And
then back to your question, my parents are like, what
the hell you're doing. They understand that I like cars
a and I like the US, but they didn't think
(11:12):
it's going to be a career. So it was kind
of tough time to be honest.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yeah, So when you say sponsors, like, because I have
no experience on like what it takes to get a sponsor, right,
And do they pay? Do they give you a salary
so you're able to like pay rent and eat or
do they just pay for your racing season to maintain
the car? Like how does that work? Especially when you're
starting out right to do a race, it's going to
(11:40):
cost you, right. So I was driving for a team
the team called Pacific RIM. So some are just the part.
For example, like the tires.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I was sponsored by Yokohama Tire back in the day,
so they surprise tires and then some company give you
some budget as well, so those are like the beginning
of the drifting. And then I think slowly the dollar
amount got bigger so that the left doorver will be
the team owners salary.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
I guess, yeah, so you're not making money really for
a long time, a long time. Now, Yeah, there are
professional drifters today actually making a good living.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
I wouldn't say all of them. Maybe in the States
is still one of the biggest series, so I think
maybe half who we're making some money.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
So then how do they actually stay competitive with the
guys that are making money? What do they do?
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Yeah, so that's kind of like a tough part of
you know competition, right, because if you're good, you get
more support, so yeah, you can get even better. But
if you don't have a supports, it's hard for you
to improve for you know, doing a practice and getting
better cars. It just everything is cost you, right. I think,
you know a lot of new guys and watching the
(12:55):
Formula drift drift these days, a lot of new talented
driver and they're doing good. So I think eventually they're
going to get bigger sponsors, and then that's how you
kind of rotate.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
I guess.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Mm.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
A lot of drivers also on top of driving, do
they not also run their own businesses to try to
help supplement the cost, right.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Right, So I think that's a lot of a lot
of people like that. If they have a shop, they
have a brand, and that's kind of like, yeah, offset
some of the cost of doing the race.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
So when you moved over to America, did you experience
America being what you thought it was going to be
in your head? Yeah, I guess so, yeah, Yeah, it
was it easy transition. No, no, because I couldn't really
I mean, I still I'm not really good at English,
but even worse back in the day, so it was
hard to even communicate. Just to go to drive through,
(13:53):
you know, it took me a while to order some
stuff that I wanted to But yeah, it was really
cool to be here.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
But at the same time, I think at one point
also I realized, you know, Japan is such a cool
country too, Like you know, sometimes you kind of like
look back and kind of see from the outside.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
It's like a different perspective.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
And yeah, I remember, like one time I was like, oh,
maybe I should go back to Japan.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
How come we never went back.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Yeah, I don't know why, but yeah, that was like
one of the phase. And then after a while, I'm
now I'm more comfortable in a state. So it's been
like fourteen fifteen years since I moved to the states.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Now and you started a family now right right?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:39):
How many how many kids?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Ye?
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Two boys?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
How old are there?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Eight and a five?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Are they into driving?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Not really?
Speaker 4 (14:46):
No, you know, And I'm not really trying to push
them to do it neither. And again it's you know,
it's an expensive hobby and it's really hard to make
living out of it, So I don't want to push them.
If they want to do it, I would try to
support as much as I can, but it's not cheap.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, the saying is in racing, it takes a big
fortune to make a small one.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
But you know, die, you're fairly still very young. Like
why did you retire? Like how old are you? Like
forty forty five?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I mean that is that like way beyond like the
prime of a drift drivers? Like is that why you retired?
Like I don't understand why you retired. When you announced
your retirement, I was like, where's it going? That's I
gonna do.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
So I retire from Formula Drift, one of the biggest
drifting series in the world, and I've done since day
one and it's been eighteen years for me, so you know,
I'm doing the same thing for a long.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Time, and I kind of wanted to change it up.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
So, I mean, I still love drifting driving wise, but
the format of competition.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
You knows, there's.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
A lot lot of stuff going on like sponsors and
judges and everything. So I kind of wanted to stay
away for a little bit at least and see what
the other opportunity. So, for example, I did a movie
as a stunt driver last year and then with you. Yeah,
that wouldn't happen if I was still competing in the
(16:21):
Formula dred because you know, like we're on a shoe
for like a few months, yeah, and you.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Can be out for that long.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Like, once you're into this in a series, you have
to commit, right.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
And bless your heart, you were telling me when you're
out there that you go straight from the movie to
then go back for Sema for a car that you built,
to then go to another project, right right. Definitely keeping
busy with with a lot of things yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So, yeah, those are actually kind of new thing to me. So, yeah,
how was your experience like working on a movie? It
was super cool.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
One of the coolest experience as I had, especially that
was a racing movie, so like on the truck, driving
with a lot of people, and every single day on
the race car and getting paid.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
That was super dope. People think, like, you know, they
watch a movie, they think, like all the driving stuff
(17:31):
must be so fun, but there's a lot of waiting around.
Oh yeah, it is kind of boring at times.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
So the sayings, hurry up and wait right now.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Yeah, but I think this movie was one of the
fun one because this was my first movie.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
I've done many commercials, but.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
This was your first movie.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah for the movie?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah, really, I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, so that was super cool.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
But I worked with a lot of the movie industry
stunt drivers, the guys that done so many like Fast
Inferiors and all the big movies. But they say this movie,
the one we did was really fun to do because
not so much waiting. Pretty much every day was driving,
so and once we were off, like a couple of
days off and just don't even go to the set.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
We had some free times and stuff like that. Did
you get to drive in the movie?
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I did not?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
You didn't, no.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
I so how they shot it? And I imagine they've
done things similar for Fast was there was a cage
on the roof of the car and there'd be a
driver on the roof controlling everything and the gas steering
and put and then I'm an actor in the driver's
sept and I can't see in front of me because
they have like screens to protect light from being too
harsh on the face, and a bunch of cameras and
(18:42):
I'm turning the steering wheel trying not to get nauseous,
acting like I'm driving when there's actually a driver on
the roof of the car.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
How did that feel? Actually?
Speaker 4 (18:50):
I was curious about that, especially you know how to drive. Yeah,
it seems like it's hard to act because you don't
know what really the car is going to do.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
It was definitely nauseating, And there'd be times where the
director would be like, all right, someone's passing you on
your right, and because you can hear everything, the director
in our case, Neil blomb Camp, was saying, yeah, but
maybe it wasn't natural and racing for someone to pass
you on the right in this turn, so you'd still
(19:19):
be acting that's the job. But as a driver, you're like,
but no one would pass me on the right. This
doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
It was like perfect casting to have Amelia in that movie, right,
But it's frustrating that you don't get to actually drive. Yeah,
did you tell them you drive?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
They trust me. I tried to let them. I wanted
to drive the cage car. I wanted to be on
the roof and get to drive, do donuts, no matter.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Something for the listening audience. A cage car that you
want to kind of explain what that is.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yeah, it's it's basically where the driver's sitting on the roof.
Nowadays throttle and break. It was an automatic car, so
throttle and brake are now it's called drive by wire.
It's basically electronics, so they can move the pedals wherever
they want on the car and it still does the
same thing as if it were in the car and
someone's just driving on top of the roof with steering wheel,
(20:10):
and you have a steering wheel that doesn't really do
anything on the inside.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
And they have to make like seven versions of the
car because they you know, they if you need like
a rear view, they cut the back of the car,
They cut the roof of the car. Sometimes the cars
like lift it up onto like a frame and then
the camera's on the floor to get all these reactions right.
And it's funny because people, you know, they meet me
(20:34):
and they go because of the fast and fears movies,
they just assume that I'm this, i'mute, like I.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Can drift, and then what do you mean you can't?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
But the movies make it look like I know what
I'm doing right, But it's all pretending. So I mean
for the listeners out there, it's like, you know, they
do a great job with the special effects to make
us look like, you know, we know what we're doing.
But you know, I think, you know, stunt drivers they
do not get the credit that they deserve because when
(21:03):
you see the cars actually drifting on the track or
on the on the togay. I mean, there are real
people like yourself driving and putting their you know, lives
at risk. So I always try to give the people
that make us look good, you know, the credit. We
had Samuel Hubinet, he was my double for Tokyo Drift,
you know, and he would always have a wig on
(21:25):
and they put all this like brown makeup on him
to make him look like me. But he's the one
that made me look like Han look great at drifting,
you know. So you know, thank you for what you're doing.
And you guys deserve so much credit.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah, you guys are put in your lives
in danger.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, you know there's this, there's these conversations about you know,
people talking about how hard it is to pursue your dreams, right,
and that the idea, the notion of like the American
dream is over right, that you know, it's impossible to
like pursue your dreams today, right, And for those people
(22:05):
that have those type of like complaints like you are
a perfect example of the American dream happening, right, And
if you were to give advice or share some of
your philosophy of how you approach things in your life
and how you go and attack it.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
Yeah, it's very hard, right. Even like myself, I didn't
really have like specific goal I want to be here
so I want to do this. I was like super
lucky to know a lot of people that who were
able to help me. At the end, I was I
got to the you know the spot that I wanted
to be, which was I'm super fortune. But I guess
(22:45):
you got to be out there and you got to
tell what you want to do or you know, many
people as possible, and promote yourself in a way because
you can't really achieve by yourself.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
You got to tell people what you want. Yeah, I'm
not saying like begging to help.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
But surround yourself with good people. Yeah, not be afraid
to share what you're trying to do. You must have
had different mentors throughout your life.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
I guess yeah, yeah, but I have. I always have,
like a lot of good people helping me for some reason.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
But what I mean for some reason?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:18):
What is the reason? I mean? I know it's hard
to talk about yourself die, but you're going to help
the listening audience kind of find a template or a
road that they could follow to pursue their dreams. Right, Like,
how did you surround yourself with these good people that
helped you?
Speaker 4 (23:36):
I don't want to say I'm lucky, but I guess
you know, i'd be cool to those people. Try to
be cool so that people can cool back to you. Right,
That's one thing I've been trying to be nice to
you know, all the people, I admit, I don't know
if that's just the reason.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
You're also a championship driver. So there's more than networking, right,
there's hard work that goes into it. Do you feel
like you have a different front work ethic than others
which helps you to be as successful as you are?
Speaker 4 (24:04):
When I won a championship was twenty eleven, which is
a long time ago, so maybe the level was not
as crazy as these days, which is kind of lucky
for me, right, I was there in the beginning, like
learning drifting as the series growing up.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
So so if.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
I even me compete now, there's no way I can
do well.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I think you're just really humble, am I?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah, I know it's so hard to talk about yourself
when I've gotten to know you over the years. Die
and the people that surround you, you know, they have
so much respect for you. You know, not only are
you like easy to just hang out with and you
know it's nice to like crack a beer with you
and to shoot the ship and just hang out, there
is this like reverence. There is this like wow, this
(24:56):
is dye, you know, and I think it's like something
and in the way that how you carry yourself and
your kind of approach to like, you know, not only driving,
but then your approach as a person. That's something that
for any aspiring like professional driver or anybody with like
(25:16):
a dream in their life. It's not just how you
conduct yourself on the track, but how you conduct yourself
in daily life.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
And something that I've always like really respected about you
is this balance that you have with your family, you know,
and like how did you like I know a lot
of people when they career oriented, they just think about
their career and they pretty much abandoned like their family responsibilities.
Can you speak on that, like how you approach balancing
(25:46):
your career and your family.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Oh yeah, it's been like almost ten years being the
family man, so it definitely changed. Back back then, I
was more focusing on my career. But also I have
a really uh, well understanding wife, so that's a good
help as well. She's basically dealing with the kid like
twenty four seven. I mean, of course I help as
(26:09):
much as I can, but it's it's really compared to
her nothing. So I realized I have a really good
understanding wife. Yeah, in this kind of career, that's kind
of like a necessary way because you're always away.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yeah, has having kids changed you in any way?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Yeah, having a kid, it's basically your priority, right So
to me, in a way, when I was competing, in
a way, I lost my hunger a little bit. So
that's kind of part of the reason why I decided
to quit competing inn FD as.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Well, hunger for winning or racing. No, no, I shouldn't
say that. It's Maybe it's different.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Hunger to stay up at four o'clock in the morning
making sure the cars.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Got Yeah, maybe something like that.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Like now it's a balance, right, Like if you if
I was when I was single and when I was
like hunting for the championship, but now I have a
family and kids, so in a way, I couldn't be
like as hungry or as like focused on this. Maybe
that's a bad thing, but it's not a bad thing.
I think that's a that's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Of course. Yeah, shows your priorities with your family, not
with winning and racing.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
I mean that's what I might. I would say I
have very few regrets in life, right, Like I try
to live in the moment and just keep moving forward.
But when I was in my thirties. You know, my
wife had asked me, she said, you know, do you
think we're going to have children? And I will never
forget what I told her. I looked at her in
her eyes and her parents. Her mother actually said that
(27:46):
if you guys have kids now or a child now,
I'll help you raise this child because I know you
guys still have to go and pursue your career and
you know, and and time is tight, money is tight.
And I looked at my life and I said, do
you think I came to like La or I'm staying
in La to like have a family, Like I came
(28:07):
here to like make it in Hollywood. And until I do,
I am not going to have children. And that's why
I have no kids. And I wouldn't say like I've
made it, but you know, now the fact that you know,
like I've had a career and you know, and I
can afford to like raise a family, the fact that
I don't have it. In hindsight, I go, this was
(28:28):
like the biggest mistake I've ever made in my life
having kids. Yeah, And I think about like legacy, like
you go, what is my legacy? It's going to be
being in a bunch of like fast and furious movies.
Like I thought that was important, but today I realized, like, yeah,
that's cool, but it's not every day I wake up,
(28:49):
you know, and I have to like search for like
a purpose to like continue. You know. I think when
you have children, naturally, priorities change or focus change. The
way you see the world changes. You know, for most people,
you know, they have their head on straight right, and
that's something that on a daily basis, like I'm looking
for to go, like what is my reason to be
(29:11):
alive on this earth? And definitely being in a bunch
of fast and furious movies is not it?
Speaker 3 (29:17):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
And I have a wife that, just like your wife,
would have been supportive even if we had no money,
even if I was working at McDonald's. I mean, she
would still support me pursuing my dream, you know. And
you know, I share this with a lot of people
that you know that are younger and say, well, you know,
I'll wait till one day, but one day we'll show
(29:39):
up and it's going to be too late.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
My wife, we can't have kids because she got cancer
and that put her into menopause and life, you know,
fucking punches you in your face and then kicks you
in your balls, and then you wake up one day
and you go, yeah, I might have this, but I
don't have the stuff that is important. And a lot
times I feel like completely like lost guys is really
(30:04):
because and I that's why I search for people like you, right,
and like ask these questions of like, you know, how
did you change? Like and I can see that there's
just this natural peace with you, you know, because I'm
sure your children and your family give you like this,
you know, like sure footing. They give you a foundation,
(30:25):
you know, and they give you like this north star, right,
which I feel like I don't have, you know. I
meet you know, men that are good fathers and they
walk differently than I do, you know, and I'm still
searching for it, you know. And people say, yeah, you know,
why don't you adopt and stuff, But you know, I'm
in my fifties now, and my wife she does not
(30:45):
want to adopt because she doesn't know if the cancer
is going to come back, you know, and she doesn't
want to have a child go through this stuff like
you know, with a parent. And it's it's really weird
because I think about it and I go, you know,
when I become older, right, and I become like a
senior citizen, and let's say I get sick or you know,
(31:07):
I can't even wipe my butt one day, like you
know who's going to be there? Right, And that's really scary.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
That's why in many ways, like if my wife passes
away before me, I don't really want to be around
too long because I don't have a reason to be alive.
And that's why I'm always searching. That's why the whole
point of this podcast is to like find these answers
because I don't have them, you know what I mean? Well,
thanks for sharing that. Yeah, I mean I urge people
(31:37):
out there if like they're afraid to have kids and
they're using excuses like you know, I have to wait
till I make money or I have this, and that
one day it's going to be too late.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah, I'll admit that that's a weight on my shoulders
about about having kids or not because I don't think
I'm ready and I don't know what that ready is.
I weigh those same options that I'm scared to get
older or not have anyone someone to raise or take
care of, and also to take care of me when
I get to old, and it is the legacy of
what you want to leave behind on this earth, because
(32:08):
at the end of the day, like a lot of
stuff that you think matters when you're young, like it
really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
I fortunately still have time. I just turned thirty. I
don't know look at that, but it's definitely something that
as I'm getting older, I'm like, Okay, I need to
put this on my radar if it's going to happen,
and make sure I'm conscious of it, because I'd rather
(32:39):
want the opportunity to have children and choose not to
then want them and not be able to I think
that's my biggest fear, so weighing that. So it's interesting
to hear you talk about that being when your larger
regrets in life. Yeah, because I fear that time going
by too quickly and I'm so excited about what I'm
(33:01):
doing today that as a guilder, that window closes or
that door closes.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
And you know, outside looking in, like, how amazing would
it be to have you as a mother? Really? I mean,
I mean, like what you represent just as a person, right,
and you know, like you know how you approach your
life and what you also represent to other women, and
(33:26):
you know the car community, and you know, I think
like if you had some daughters, man, they would be
like they would have like a badass mom.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Right.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
So growing up I used to always think I'd want
a boy, But now that I go older, I'm like, yeah,
I'd want to raise some badass checks.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Are you hard on your sons? Are you strictening still?
I think so? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Are you going to make them by their for car?
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Yeah, I'm not going to buy them.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Kind of back to like, you know, if you ask,
like if my kids likes cars, I say, if they
if they like it, I want to support, But financially
I don't think I would. It's just the way, you know,
my parents didn't help me, so I don't think that's
the way to do.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Yeah. So that's how that's my style in a way.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Yeah, I think because seeing what happened to me growing up,
I almost would prefer my children to want to learn
the value of a dollar, to want to understand what
hard times are and to have to go through it
to ground themselves, because I'd be too scared of having
(34:45):
someone who is just expectant of things.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
I'm with you on that one for sure.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Like I like, I wouldn't want to expect a first car,
to expect the new mom the Nintendo switches out and
I have to get it, but you already have one.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
It's like, well, if this is how much it would cost,
this is how you'd have to work, This is what
minimum wage is now, if you work to X amount
of hours, how long until you could afford? This is
this where you'd want your money to go? Or do
you think it's better to invest? But it's also hard
to do because I know they give you little puppy
eyes and they're like book please.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
But who taught you that? Like fiscal responsibility, I.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Had to teach myself when my dad took his life.
I went to school the next day because I didn't
know what else to do. You know, no one tells
you those things. And I was actually sitting in a
finance class, but I just had this very vivid thought of,
oh God, like I don't have a parent to teach
(35:39):
me these things. I don't have someone that I can
go to who knows finances, Like I'm on my own
when it comes to money. And then shortly after that,
the principle came and pulled me out of class. I
was like, oh my god, I just found out what
had happened. And I started calling therapists and to come
talk to me and all that. But that was a
very pivotal point, was sitting in that class and being
like I got to start learning because no one's going
to teach me.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
That's good. You learned that really young.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah, I'm thankful for that.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Yeah, because I was I was raised like to be
afraid of money, right, and as soon as like I
had an opportunity to have some money, like I would
spend it all. Oh really yeah, because I was raised
in scarcity. You know, like my mother was so like
afraid of not having money because you know, she was
(36:26):
a war child from like the Korean War, so they
grew up super poor. Like her idea of having like
white rice was like a luxury, right, so you know
she made sure like we had nothing, and like everything
was about saving. But then saving for what, right, Like
it's not we're not going on family vacations or anything,
and it's you know, there's there's no purpose for that
(36:48):
money except for just to hoard it. Because because you're
living in scarcity. And then I remember in college they
were giving out like these five hundred dollars credit cards
to students just like this, and I spent that day,
really and it took seven years to fix my credit
because I didn't have the money to pay that back.
It was just five hundred dollars. I mean five hundred
(37:08):
dollars when you're in college is a lot of money, right,
And it ruined my credit and it took seven years
to fix that. And that's where you know, having a
responsible like partner like my wife, who was raised with money,
so she was not raised in scarcity, so she's not
afraid of money, but she knows how to use money
to make money, right, which that concept that never made
(37:30):
sense to me.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
I think I'm the opposite where I'm actually very scared
to spend money because I'm scared of not having it.
But obviously for what I do, I also have to
buy cars to modify them. And it's so hard for
me to check out on sumit or wherever I'm buying
my car parts or whenever I'm buying a car, because
it's it's just so difficult to spend it.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
How about you die. Is it hard to spend money
on your cars? H? Yes and no. Yeah. I guess
I'm more like your site in a way irresponsible.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
Yeah. And my wife is opposite. Yeah, she's like saving
and saving kind of thing. So yeah, maybe because of that,
I have a good balance.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
So you spend until she tells you, hey, maybe you
should put your money down a little.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah. I wish somebody had taught me like how to
invest and how to spend money and what where to
spend money when I was younger, because it took a
long time. Like that credit thing, like people.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
That's a scary thing to have.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah. Yeah, people don't realize like how important credit in
America is. I mean you're trying to like buy a
house or trying to like go get a a new car.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Credit card scared me. I didn't get a credit card
until maybe five years ago. I debit or cash everything.
So then when I needed the money to buy like
a reliable priests to drive around, I couldn't get a
loan for four or five thousand dollars because I had
no credit.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yeah, credit, guys, is so important in this country, right,
So what are you doing now that you've retired?
Speaker 4 (39:03):
So I still race cars and drifting demos. So for example,
I'm going to a Formula drift event and then do
ride along. And also I've been competing this series called
TC America, which is a road racing series, and I'm
doing the whole season.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
So this is like an amateur like it's a professional
such per So you're still racing. Yeah, so that's what
You're not.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Retiring retired from Formula drift specifically.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I just retired from forma drift. That's it. I'm still
doing everything the same. I do pikes Peak. Okay, for
the listening viewers that don't know what pike Speak is,
can you share explain.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Pike Speak is the hill crime race held in Colorado
Springs once a year. It's one of the biggest hill
crime in the world.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Can you explain to me what the deal with pikes
Peak is, Like, why why is this so famous and
why is it part of like motor sport law and history.
Why is it such a big deal. Pike Speak is
one of the oldest race in the States, I think
a second oldest or something. So they just did the
one hundred times, so it's been over one hundred years
(40:17):
and they used the street. Basically it's a like I
said that toge the canyon road. They just closed that
from nine thousand feet to the summit. The Pikes Peak
is the name of the mountain and the summit is
like fourteen hundred feet, which is pretty high, fourteen.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
To fourteen thousand. So yeah, because I think it's using
the street, not the race druck. And then one of
the oldest racing in the US. That's why I think
the Pike Speak is one of the famous race in
the world.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
I think too when cars were carb rated and there's
so basically the elevation of air as you know people
listening no, just as a reminders of the higher you
get an elevation, the less oxygen there is. So it's
also a test to the engineering the mechanics of the
car too, because you can't just pull over and tune
it for different oxygen or airflow as you get higher.
(41:16):
So I think that was a big part of the
difficulties of racing Pike's Peak. Am I right in saying that?
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
So that's one of the biggest challenge for the race.
And also you have to deal with the weather and
from the start to the finish like a big difference
on the weathers and even like a temperatures and stuff
like that, and you don't know until the day off,
So there's a lot of like unknown boundaries compared to
(41:46):
like a racing on the truck, and very often people
die racing this. Back in the day, always hear about
somebody like yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Going off, going off the class.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
I've seen videos of it.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
But now there's cars are a lot safer too, So
I think square less than back in the days, I.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Hope, assuming you have someone who did a good cage.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, the page is very important.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Right, cage seats harnessed, But now you're looking at that.
Speaker 4 (42:12):
More exactly, so therese like a little detail. I start
more paying attention because that's like saving my life.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
What makes a great driver die?
Speaker 4 (42:22):
In your opinion, I think that who can perform your
best anytime you wanted to, Like you say, you kind
of have to be in the zone and you can
control that. That's very like internal thing I think, especially
like a drifting, you only have a one shot. If
you have a mistake in the one run, you're out.
(42:45):
You have to like put you one hundred percent to
the run. So put people who can provide that when
they need to, which is like a strong inside. I
think that makes you a great driver.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Yeah, when young folks talk about, like, you know, like
how hard things are in life, it's supposed to be hard,
and just like you know, you know, in driving, it's
like if it was easy, all these weekend warriors on
the track would be doing what you're doing. Right, That's right,
it's supposed to be hard.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
I do you think a lot of hard work has
gone into where you are today, whether you talk directly
about it or not. I don't think you give yourself
enough credit. But I think a lot of people look
up to you because you're a phenomenal driver, not just
with drifting but with also road racing. Thank you, And
that's not that doesn't you don't just wake up one
day with that skill. You know, you got to learn it.
You're self taught. You come from another country, and you've
(43:39):
really built this successful family and business and career that
you have.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Yeah, it's interesting with you, Die is that you know,
you're so resistant on talking about yourself, right, And the
reason we wanted you as a guest is because there's
this like patience with you. There's this like kind of
you know, stoic, kind of zen to you, and it's
(44:04):
you just do instead of talking, right, And I think
that's why, like, you know, so many people in the
community like respect you and look up to you. You know,
when you bring up Die, there's never like, you know,
a response of like I hate that fucking guy. Think
I was full of shit? No, there isn't people respect you. Yeah,
(44:29):
you know, I think the more people and you know,
younger folks that are around you that are aspiring to
like be like in the driving community or go into
professional driving, you know, it's just to be patient, right
and just you know, just keep doing instead of talking.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
I don't know, I guess I guess I don't have
a confidence and I'm still searching you know, who am
who I am? So maybe that's why I couldn't really
talk about myself. And I really think I have a
lot of what do you call it, right right moment,
right people, right timing kind of thing. Just appreciating all
(45:07):
the people around around, including you guys as well.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Thank you, appreciate you, We appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Awesome
Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of Car Stories
with Sun.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
King and Amelia Hartford.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And today we get to talk to our dear friend
Die Yoshihara, living legend, his story of how he came
to the United States, how he got into drifting.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, it's a story about where he came from nothing,
having moved from Japan, coming to the US, winning a
championship and more than that, he raises gript driving, has
done Pike's Peak, which is a famous mountain course in
Colorado Springs, and he's.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Just so zen.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
You know, he just has this piece about him and
it's very hard for him to talk about himself and
maybe that's the Japanese thing. But having this conversation to
hear his story, you learn about why the community respects
him so much.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, and I think a good takeaway is to treat
others with kindness.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, and then you'll be able to surround yourself with
the people that that will help you pursue your dreamy. So,
without further ado, mister Dai Yoshihara, So let's talk about
your your origins with drifting. Yeah, can you tell us
how you started and where'd you learn it? Like, where'd
(01:19):
you fall? In love with it. How you became a
professional jurist driver.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
It's kind of long story, but uh, you know, I'm
from Japan and I was one of those street racer
back in the days. But also I've been always looking
up to US culture ever since I watched Top Gun,
like back in that was eighty six, but I watched
the movie like maybe early nineties. But anyway, it's like
those are two like my interests, like driving and you know,
(01:46):
US culture. Right after Fast Inferiors in Japan spoke compact
culture was kind of popping. It's kind of like a
us DM custom cars, not just like a you know,
like drift cars or anything like that. It's more like
Honters and so basically the cars from the past and furious.
So around that time, I was like really into that.
(02:09):
And then I met the guy from the US and
who did the car show in the US at the time,
and he's like, oh, maybe drifting will be the next thing,
And I took me to the Japanese Mountain Road.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
He really liked it.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
A few months later he invited me to compete in
the US drifting competition.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
That was my beginning. So can you give us your
history of your first car. Were you always into cars
growing up? And like where did you learn how to drive?
Because and also togay for the listening audience, can you
first let's explain what togay is.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Okay, So togay is basically a mountain roll. So yeah,
I will stay tokay as a Kenyon road, I guess.
So my first car was eighty to eighty six Corolla
and yeah, I always wanted to, you know, get a
car ever since I was a kid. So as soon
(03:09):
as I get a driver license, I already had the car,
which was two hundred bucks. And then just every now
I just put like ten ten liter gas because gas
is the most expensive thing, you know, at the time
for me, So just put like a ten litter which
is like four garrow maybe, and then just drive mountain
(03:30):
all night until it gets empty and then come back.
So that's how I practice myself, maybe like a year
or so.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So you're self taught pretty much. Really, Yeah that's crazy.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Yeah wow, Well but I watched a lot of videos.
One of the popular one is the Drift Bible from
ka Who is who is people called drifting?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Maybe you guys can explain who he is? Kg Suchiya
is he's actually in Tokyo Drift yes, all right, so
he is essentially known as the drift King. And he
started driving the A eighty six when he was young.
And there's a manga called Initial D very famous manga,
(04:22):
and it's about this character Takumi that lives in the
Togay mountains and he delivers Tofu and he was a
consultant on this manga. And that's why this you know,
nineteen eighty five eighty six Hachiroku Corola A eighty six
has become the grandfather of drift cars, right, and so
Suchiya san is still alive, and he would be like
(04:45):
the Michael Jordan of drifting. All right, that's a very
good way to say. Yeah, I mean, did he inspire
you to get the A eighty six? Was he like
a hero of yours? Yes?
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yes, I mean at the time I didn't really like
it was like more like no choice because it was
super cheap. It's not like this is a car I
wanted to drive back in the days, right, But now
this is still my favorite cars just because that's the
car I learned how to drive. But yeah, so for sure,
(05:15):
suggestn't helped a lot of people to you know, knowing
this car, it's so different and be inspired.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, Now where are you from in Japan?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
I'm from Tokyo but east I'm sorry, west side of Tokyo,
which is a little bit countryside in a way, so
it's pretty easy to access to the togi which is
a canyon roads.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Which toga would you drive?
Speaker 4 (05:40):
I have a few different, but it's called those togi
and then old that me.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
So is that like saying Mulholland canyon out there much?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah? Yeah, so there's a few in the area, so
just go there, like and.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Would you drift or would you just drive really fast?
Speaker 4 (05:58):
I did drift specifically in the beginning. Now is it
Are there a lot of police up there? Yeah? I
don't know if this kind of touchy subject, but because
I think we should say like no street driving, right absolutely,
But yeah, back in the days there's a.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Lot of cops.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
But you know, we of course run away, and here
in japan's a little different like here, I think it's
more more crazy, but Japan, like if you run away,
then I don't think most police will really chase you
too hard because it's it gets dangerous for the driver
(06:40):
and then other people as well, right, so they just
let you go you know where. But also we never
really do, you know, when you have a lot of
traffic with a lot of people around. So I mean
there's a you know, a few people do that too,
but most of the time I try to pick most
like like quiet like thing around no home, so trying
(07:02):
not to like, you know, kissed people off kind.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Of thing, not to like disturb the piece.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's very Japanese. Yeah, I guess you're
breaking the law, but you're doing it. What drew you
to start drifting opposed to like drag racing or track racing,
track driving? Like what was the thing that called to
you to become a drifter?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
So before I get a driver's license, I got a
I was riding a motorcycle. In Japan, you get the
license driver's license when you get eighteen, but you you
can get a motorcycle license at sixteen. So those two years,
I was riding a motorcycle and I was riding on
(07:49):
the mountain one night and then I just saw the
call is drifting coming at me, which is kind of
kind of scary, but it was so cool to see that,
and from that moment, I'm like I have to do this.
So that's how I got into it.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Was that car in a eighty six.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
No, I can't remember what was, but it was super
cool moment, right, So and then I started like watching
those videos and kind of like study the culture.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
What did your parents think about you getting into cars
and pursuing this like journey and.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, of course they were like a typical parents, so
they didn't like it at all.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
A long time. What were they hoping you were going
to do with your life, just.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Like the regular stuff, like, you know, go to the
college and you know what got I don't know, like
some cool big company or something like that.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
What did your parents do for work?
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Actually, my dad was working with his brother who had
the used car dealer. Okay, so he likes cars as well,
so he kind of understood. But at the same time
he was key telling me like just get the you know,
normal job and kind of things.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So, so, how did they feel about you coming to
the United States and giving up your life in Japan?
I mean, for the for our listeners too, I'd love
you to maybe share like that journey of how you
ended up in America, right, because it is like an
almost an American dream. Success story.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, well, so kind of back to what I told
you guys, I had one chance to come to the
stage to compete for drifting. So actually a guy named
Kim Yoshi who had the car show back in the days,
and he you know back in the days. Of course,
I didn't have money, so he got me a ticket
to fly here, and he got me a place to stay,
(09:45):
which is his house. And then I did one competition
and I did pretty good. I got like top eight,
So that kind of opened up my opportunity. And back
back then, I was working for used car dealer in Japan,
but I thought that was a good opportunity. So after
that I quit the job and then I started coming
to the States, but of course I didn't have a visa,
(10:07):
so I have to stay here for like two months
and go back to Japan. I was basically back in
a fall at what it was, I was twenty four
and then slowly getting sponsors and stuff, and maybe a
few months after a former drift just started. So that
was back in two thousand and three, and then Formula
(10:29):
D was started at the two thousand and four and
I got sponsors and the team to compete for the season.
So that was kind of a second chance, and I
just keep back in forth and yeah, it's a long
story show. Four years after I finally got a visa
and then around that time, finally I was able to
(10:50):
make some money. And so that's kind of like when
I'm like, Okay, this is my this is going to
be my career. Until then, I wasn't even sure. And
then back to your question, my parents are like, what
the hell you're doing. They understand that I like cars
a and I like the US, but they didn't think
(11:12):
it's going to be a career. So it was kind
of tough time to be honest.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yeah, So when you say sponsors, like, because I have
no experience on like what it takes to get a sponsor, right,
And do they pay? Do they give you a salary
so you're able to like pay rent and eat or
do they just pay for your racing season to maintain
the car? Like how does that work? Especially when you're
starting out right to do a race, it's going to
(11:40):
cost you, right. So I was driving for a team
the team called Pacific RIM. So some are just the part.
For example, like the tires.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I was sponsored by Yokohama Tire back in the day,
so they surprise tires and then some company give you
some budget as well, so those are like the beginning
of the drifting. And then I think slowly the dollar
amount got bigger so that the left doorver will be
the team owners salary.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
I guess, yeah, so you're not making money really for
a long time, a long time. Now, Yeah, there are
professional drifters today actually making a good living.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
I wouldn't say all of them. Maybe in the States
is still one of the biggest series, so I think
maybe half who we're making some money.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
So then how do they actually stay competitive with the
guys that are making money? What do they do?
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Yeah, so that's kind of like a tough part of
you know competition, right, because if you're good, you get
more support, so yeah, you can get even better. But
if you don't have a supports, it's hard for you
to improve for you know, doing a practice and getting
better cars. It just everything is cost you, right. I think,
you know a lot of new guys and watching the
(12:55):
Formula drift drift these days, a lot of new talented
driver and they're doing good. So I think eventually they're
going to get bigger sponsors, and then that's how you
kind of rotate.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
I guess.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Mm.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
A lot of drivers also on top of driving, do
they not also run their own businesses to try to
help supplement the cost, right.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Right, So I think that's a lot of a lot
of people like that. If they have a shop, they
have a brand, and that's kind of like, yeah, offset
some of the cost of doing the race.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
So when you moved over to America, did you experience
America being what you thought it was going to be
in your head? Yeah, I guess so, yeah, Yeah, it
was it easy transition. No, no, because I couldn't really
I mean, I still I'm not really good at English,
but even worse back in the day, so it was
hard to even communicate. Just to go to drive through,
(13:53):
you know, it took me a while to order some
stuff that I wanted to But yeah, it was really
cool to be here.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
But at the same time, I think at one point
also I realized, you know, Japan is such a cool
country too, Like you know, sometimes you kind of like
look back and kind of see from the outside.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
It's like a different perspective.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
And yeah, I remember, like one time I was like, oh,
maybe I should go back to Japan.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
How come we never went back.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Yeah, I don't know why, but yeah, that was like
one of the phase. And then after a while, I'm
now I'm more comfortable in a state. So it's been
like fourteen fifteen years since I moved to the states.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Now and you started a family now right right?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:39):
How many how many kids?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Ye?
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Two boys?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
How old are there?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Eight and a five?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Are they into driving?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Not really?
Speaker 4 (14:46):
No, you know, And I'm not really trying to push
them to do it neither. And again it's you know,
it's an expensive hobby and it's really hard to make
living out of it, So I don't want to push them.
If they want to do it, I would try to
support as much as I can, but it's not cheap.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, the saying is in racing, it takes a big
fortune to make a small one.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
But you know, die, you're fairly still very young. Like
why did you retire? Like how old are you? Like
forty forty five?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I mean that is that like way beyond like the
prime of a drift drivers? Like is that why you retired?
Like I don't understand why you retired. When you announced
your retirement, I was like, where's it going? That's I
gonna do.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
So I retire from Formula Drift, one of the biggest
drifting series in the world, and I've done since day
one and it's been eighteen years for me, so you know,
I'm doing the same thing for a long.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Time, and I kind of wanted to change it up.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
So, I mean, I still love drifting driving wise, but
the format of competition.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
You knows, there's.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
A lot lot of stuff going on like sponsors and
judges and everything. So I kind of wanted to stay
away for a little bit at least and see what
the other opportunity. So, for example, I did a movie
as a stunt driver last year and then with you. Yeah,
that wouldn't happen if I was still competing in the
(16:21):
Formula dred because you know, like we're on a shoe
for like a few months, yeah, and you.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Can be out for that long.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Like, once you're into this in a series, you have
to commit, right.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
And bless your heart, you were telling me when you're
out there that you go straight from the movie to
then go back for Sema for a car that you built,
to then go to another project, right right. Definitely keeping
busy with with a lot of things yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So, yeah, those are actually kind of new thing to me. So, yeah,
how was your experience like working on a movie? It
was super cool.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
One of the coolest experience as I had, especially that
was a racing movie, so like on the truck, driving
with a lot of people, and every single day on
the race car and getting paid.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
That was super dope. People think, like, you know, they
watch a movie, they think, like all the driving stuff
(17:31):
must be so fun, but there's a lot of waiting around.
Oh yeah, it is kind of boring at times.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
So the sayings, hurry up and wait right now.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Yeah, but I think this movie was one of the
fun one because this was my first movie.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
I've done many commercials, but.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
This was your first movie.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah for the movie?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah, really, I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, so that was super cool.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
But I worked with a lot of the movie industry
stunt drivers, the guys that done so many like Fast
Inferiors and all the big movies. But they say this movie,
the one we did was really fun to do because
not so much waiting. Pretty much every day was driving,
so and once we were off, like a couple of
days off and just don't even go to the set.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
We had some free times and stuff like that. Did
you get to drive in the movie?
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I did not?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
You didn't, no.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
I so how they shot it? And I imagine they've
done things similar for Fast was there was a cage
on the roof of the car and there'd be a
driver on the roof controlling everything and the gas steering
and put and then I'm an actor in the driver's
sept and I can't see in front of me because
they have like screens to protect light from being too
harsh on the face, and a bunch of cameras and
(18:42):
I'm turning the steering wheel trying not to get nauseous,
acting like I'm driving when there's actually a driver on
the roof of the car.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
How did that feel? Actually?
Speaker 4 (18:50):
I was curious about that, especially you know how to drive. Yeah,
it seems like it's hard to act because you don't
know what really the car is going to do.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
It was definitely nauseating, And there'd be times where the
director would be like, all right, someone's passing you on
your right, and because you can hear everything, the director
in our case, Neil blomb Camp, was saying, yeah, but
maybe it wasn't natural and racing for someone to pass
you on the right in this turn, so you'd still
(19:19):
be acting that's the job. But as a driver, you're like,
but no one would pass me on the right. This
doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
It was like perfect casting to have Amelia in that movie, right,
But it's frustrating that you don't get to actually drive. Yeah,
did you tell them you drive?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
They trust me. I tried to let them. I wanted
to drive the cage car. I wanted to be on
the roof and get to drive, do donuts, no matter.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Something for the listening audience. A cage car that you
want to kind of explain what that is.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yeah, it's it's basically where the driver's sitting on the roof.
Nowadays throttle and break. It was an automatic car, so
throttle and brake are now it's called drive by wire.
It's basically electronics, so they can move the pedals wherever
they want on the car and it still does the
same thing as if it were in the car and
someone's just driving on top of the roof with steering wheel,
(20:10):
and you have a steering wheel that doesn't really do
anything on the inside.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
And they have to make like seven versions of the
car because they you know, they if you need like
a rear view, they cut the back of the car,
They cut the roof of the car. Sometimes the cars
like lift it up onto like a frame and then
the camera's on the floor to get all these reactions right.
And it's funny because people, you know, they meet me
(20:34):
and they go because of the fast and fears movies,
they just assume that I'm this, i'mute, like I.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Can drift, and then what do you mean you can't?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
But the movies make it look like I know what
I'm doing right, But it's all pretending. So I mean
for the listeners out there, it's like, you know, they
do a great job with the special effects to make
us look like, you know, we know what we're doing.
But you know, I think, you know, stunt drivers they
do not get the credit that they deserve because when
(21:03):
you see the cars actually drifting on the track or
on the on the togay. I mean, there are real
people like yourself driving and putting their you know, lives
at risk. So I always try to give the people
that make us look good, you know, the credit. We
had Samuel Hubinet, he was my double for Tokyo Drift,
you know, and he would always have a wig on
(21:25):
and they put all this like brown makeup on him
to make him look like me. But he's the one
that made me look like Han look great at drifting,
you know. So you know, thank you for what you're doing.
And you guys deserve so much credit.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah, you guys are put in your lives
in danger.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, you know there's this, there's these conversations about you know,
people talking about how hard it is to pursue your dreams, right,
and that the idea, the notion of like the American
dream is over right, that you know, it's impossible to
like pursue your dreams today, right, And for those people
(22:05):
that have those type of like complaints like you are
a perfect example of the American dream happening, right, And
if you were to give advice or share some of
your philosophy of how you approach things in your life
and how you go and attack it.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
Yeah, it's very hard, right. Even like myself, I didn't
really have like specific goal I want to be here
so I want to do this. I was like super
lucky to know a lot of people that who were
able to help me. At the end, I was I
got to the you know the spot that I wanted
to be, which was I'm super fortune. But I guess
(22:45):
you got to be out there and you got to
tell what you want to do or you know, many
people as possible, and promote yourself in a way because
you can't really achieve by yourself.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
You got to tell people what you want. Yeah, I'm
not saying like begging to help.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
But surround yourself with good people. Yeah, not be afraid
to share what you're trying to do. You must have
had different mentors throughout your life.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
I guess yeah, yeah, but I have. I always have,
like a lot of good people helping me for some reason.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
But what I mean for some reason?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:18):
What is the reason? I mean? I know it's hard
to talk about yourself die, but you're going to help
the listening audience kind of find a template or a
road that they could follow to pursue their dreams. Right, Like,
how did you surround yourself with these good people that
helped you?
Speaker 4 (23:36):
I don't want to say I'm lucky, but I guess
you know, i'd be cool to those people. Try to
be cool so that people can cool back to you. Right,
That's one thing I've been trying to be nice to
you know, all the people, I admit, I don't know
if that's just the reason.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
You're also a championship driver. So there's more than networking, right,
there's hard work that goes into it. Do you feel
like you have a different front work ethic than others
which helps you to be as successful as you are?
Speaker 4 (24:04):
When I won a championship was twenty eleven, which is
a long time ago, so maybe the level was not
as crazy as these days, which is kind of lucky
for me, right, I was there in the beginning, like
learning drifting as the series growing up.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
So so if.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
I even me compete now, there's no way I can
do well.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I think you're just really humble, am I?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah, I know it's so hard to talk about yourself
when I've gotten to know you over the years. Die
and the people that surround you, you know, they have
so much respect for you. You know, not only are
you like easy to just hang out with and you
know it's nice to like crack a beer with you
and to shoot the ship and just hang out, there
is this like reverence. There is this like wow, this
(24:56):
is dye, you know, and I think it's like something
and in the way that how you carry yourself and
your kind of approach to like, you know, not only driving,
but then your approach as a person. That's something that
for any aspiring like professional driver or anybody with like
(25:16):
a dream in their life. It's not just how you
conduct yourself on the track, but how you conduct yourself
in daily life.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
And something that I've always like really respected about you
is this balance that you have with your family, you know,
and like how did you like I know a lot
of people when they career oriented, they just think about
their career and they pretty much abandoned like their family responsibilities.
Can you speak on that, like how you approach balancing
(25:46):
your career and your family.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Oh yeah, it's been like almost ten years being the
family man, so it definitely changed. Back back then, I
was more focusing on my career. But also I have
a really uh, well understanding wife, so that's a good
help as well. She's basically dealing with the kid like
twenty four seven. I mean, of course I help as
(26:09):
much as I can, but it's it's really compared to
her nothing. So I realized I have a really good
understanding wife. Yeah, in this kind of career, that's kind
of like a necessary way because you're always away.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yeah, has having kids changed you in any way?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Yeah, having a kid, it's basically your priority, right So
to me, in a way, when I was competing, in
a way, I lost my hunger a little bit. So
that's kind of part of the reason why I decided
to quit competing inn FD as.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Well, hunger for winning or racing. No, no, I shouldn't
say that. It's Maybe it's different.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Hunger to stay up at four o'clock in the morning
making sure the cars.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Got Yeah, maybe something like that.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Like now it's a balance, right, Like if you if
I was when I was single and when I was
like hunting for the championship, but now I have a
family and kids, so in a way, I couldn't be
like as hungry or as like focused on this. Maybe
that's a bad thing, but it's not a bad thing.
I think that's a that's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Of course. Yeah, shows your priorities with your family, not
with winning and racing.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
I mean that's what I might. I would say I
have very few regrets in life, right, Like I try
to live in the moment and just keep moving forward.
But when I was in my thirties. You know, my
wife had asked me, she said, you know, do you
think we're going to have children? And I will never
forget what I told her. I looked at her in
her eyes and her parents. Her mother actually said that
(27:46):
if you guys have kids now or a child now,
I'll help you raise this child because I know you
guys still have to go and pursue your career and
you know, and and time is tight, money is tight.
And I looked at my life and I said, do
you think I came to like La or I'm staying
in La to like have a family, Like I came
(28:07):
here to like make it in Hollywood. And until I do,
I am not going to have children. And that's why
I have no kids. And I wouldn't say like I've
made it, but you know, now the fact that you know,
like I've had a career and you know, and I
can afford to like raise a family, the fact that
I don't have it. In hindsight, I go, this was
(28:28):
like the biggest mistake I've ever made in my life
having kids. Yeah, And I think about like legacy, like
you go, what is my legacy? It's going to be
being in a bunch of like fast and furious movies.
Like I thought that was important, but today I realized, like, yeah,
that's cool, but it's not every day I wake up,
(28:49):
you know, and I have to like search for like
a purpose to like continue. You know. I think when
you have children, naturally, priorities change or focus change. The
way you see the world changes. You know, for most people,
you know, they have their head on straight right, and
that's something that on a daily basis, like I'm looking
for to go, like what is my reason to be
(29:11):
alive on this earth? And definitely being in a bunch
of fast and furious movies is not it?
Speaker 3 (29:17):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
And I have a wife that, just like your wife,
would have been supportive even if we had no money,
even if I was working at McDonald's. I mean, she
would still support me pursuing my dream, you know. And
you know, I share this with a lot of people
that you know that are younger and say, well, you know,
I'll wait till one day, but one day we'll show
(29:39):
up and it's going to be too late.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
My wife, we can't have kids because she got cancer
and that put her into menopause and life, you know,
fucking punches you in your face and then kicks you
in your balls, and then you wake up one day
and you go, yeah, I might have this, but I
don't have the stuff that is important. And a lot
times I feel like completely like lost guys is really
(30:04):
because and I that's why I search for people like you, right,
and like ask these questions of like, you know, how
did you change? Like and I can see that there's
just this natural peace with you, you know, because I'm
sure your children and your family give you like this,
you know, like sure footing. They give you a foundation,
(30:25):
you know, and they give you like this north star, right,
which I feel like I don't have, you know. I
meet you know, men that are good fathers and they
walk differently than I do, you know, and I'm still
searching for it, you know. And people say, yeah, you know,
why don't you adopt and stuff, But you know, I'm
in my fifties now, and my wife she does not
(30:45):
want to adopt because she doesn't know if the cancer
is going to come back, you know, and she doesn't
want to have a child go through this stuff like
you know, with a parent. And it's it's really weird
because I think about it and I go, you know,
when I become older, right, and I become like a
senior citizen, and let's say I get sick or you know,
(31:07):
I can't even wipe my butt one day, like you
know who's going to be there? Right, And that's really scary.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
That's why in many ways, like if my wife passes
away before me, I don't really want to be around
too long because I don't have a reason to be alive.
And that's why I'm always searching. That's why the whole
point of this podcast is to like find these answers
because I don't have them, you know what I mean? Well,
thanks for sharing that. Yeah, I mean I urge people
(31:37):
out there if like they're afraid to have kids and
they're using excuses like you know, I have to wait
till I make money or I have this, and that
one day it's going to be too late.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah, I'll admit that that's a weight on my shoulders
about about having kids or not because I don't think
I'm ready and I don't know what that ready is.
I weigh those same options that I'm scared to get
older or not have anyone someone to raise or take
care of, and also to take care of me when
I get to old, and it is the legacy of
what you want to leave behind on this earth, because
(32:08):
at the end of the day, like a lot of
stuff that you think matters when you're young, like it
really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
I fortunately still have time. I just turned thirty. I
don't know look at that, but it's definitely something that
as I'm getting older, I'm like, Okay, I need to
put this on my radar if it's going to happen,
and make sure I'm conscious of it, because I'd rather
(32:39):
want the opportunity to have children and choose not to
then want them and not be able to I think
that's my biggest fear, so weighing that. So it's interesting
to hear you talk about that being when your larger
regrets in life. Yeah, because I fear that time going
by too quickly and I'm so excited about what I'm
(33:01):
doing today that as a guilder, that window closes or
that door closes.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
And you know, outside looking in, like, how amazing would
it be to have you as a mother? Really? I mean,
I mean, like what you represent just as a person, right,
and you know, like you know how you approach your
life and what you also represent to other women, and
(33:26):
you know the car community, and you know, I think
like if you had some daughters, man, they would be
like they would have like a badass mom.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Right.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
So growing up I used to always think I'd want
a boy, But now that I go older, I'm like, yeah,
I'd want to raise some badass checks.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Are you hard on your sons? Are you strictening still?
I think so? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Are you going to make them by their for car?
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Yeah, I'm not going to buy them.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Kind of back to like, you know, if you ask,
like if my kids likes cars, I say, if they
if they like it, I want to support, But financially
I don't think I would. It's just the way, you know,
my parents didn't help me, so I don't think that's
the way to do.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Yeah. So that's how that's my style in a way.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Yeah, I think because seeing what happened to me growing up,
I almost would prefer my children to want to learn
the value of a dollar, to want to understand what
hard times are and to have to go through it
to ground themselves, because I'd be too scared of having
(34:45):
someone who is just expectant of things.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
I'm with you on that one for sure.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Like I like, I wouldn't want to expect a first car,
to expect the new mom the Nintendo switches out and
I have to get it, but you already have one.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
It's like, well, if this is how much it would cost,
this is how you'd have to work, This is what
minimum wage is now, if you work to X amount
of hours, how long until you could afford? This is
this where you'd want your money to go? Or do
you think it's better to invest? But it's also hard
to do because I know they give you little puppy
eyes and they're like book please.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
But who taught you that? Like fiscal responsibility, I.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Had to teach myself when my dad took his life.
I went to school the next day because I didn't
know what else to do. You know, no one tells
you those things. And I was actually sitting in a
finance class, but I just had this very vivid thought of,
oh God, like I don't have a parent to teach
(35:39):
me these things. I don't have someone that I can
go to who knows finances, Like I'm on my own
when it comes to money. And then shortly after that,
the principle came and pulled me out of class. I
was like, oh my god, I just found out what
had happened. And I started calling therapists and to come
talk to me and all that. But that was a
very pivotal point, was sitting in that class and being
like I got to start learning because no one's going
to teach me.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
That's good. You learned that really young.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah, I'm thankful for that.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Yeah, because I was I was raised like to be
afraid of money, right, and as soon as like I
had an opportunity to have some money, like I would
spend it all. Oh really yeah, because I was raised
in scarcity. You know, like my mother was so like
afraid of not having money because you know, she was
(36:26):
a war child from like the Korean War, so they
grew up super poor. Like her idea of having like
white rice was like a luxury, right, so you know
she made sure like we had nothing, and like everything
was about saving. But then saving for what, right, Like
it's not we're not going on family vacations or anything,
and it's you know, there's there's no purpose for that
(36:48):
money except for just to hoard it. Because because you're
living in scarcity. And then I remember in college they
were giving out like these five hundred dollars credit cards
to students just like this, and I spent that day,
really and it took seven years to fix my credit
because I didn't have the money to pay that back.
It was just five hundred dollars. I mean five hundred
(37:08):
dollars when you're in college is a lot of money, right,
And it ruined my credit and it took seven years
to fix that. And that's where you know, having a
responsible like partner like my wife, who was raised with money,
so she was not raised in scarcity, so she's not
afraid of money, but she knows how to use money
to make money, right, which that concept that never made
(37:30):
sense to me.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
I think I'm the opposite where I'm actually very scared
to spend money because I'm scared of not having it.
But obviously for what I do, I also have to
buy cars to modify them. And it's so hard for
me to check out on sumit or wherever I'm buying
my car parts or whenever I'm buying a car, because
it's it's just so difficult to spend it.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
How about you die. Is it hard to spend money
on your cars? H? Yes and no. Yeah. I guess
I'm more like your site in a way irresponsible.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
Yeah. And my wife is opposite. Yeah, she's like saving
and saving kind of thing. So yeah, maybe because of that,
I have a good balance.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
So you spend until she tells you, hey, maybe you
should put your money down a little.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah. I wish somebody had taught me like how to
invest and how to spend money and what where to
spend money when I was younger, because it took a
long time. Like that credit thing, like people.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
That's a scary thing to have.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah. Yeah, people don't realize like how important credit in
America is. I mean you're trying to like buy a
house or trying to like go get a a new car.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Credit card scared me. I didn't get a credit card
until maybe five years ago. I debit or cash everything.
So then when I needed the money to buy like
a reliable priests to drive around, I couldn't get a
loan for four or five thousand dollars because I had
no credit.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yeah, credit, guys, is so important in this country, right,
So what are you doing now that you've retired?
Speaker 4 (39:03):
So I still race cars and drifting demos. So for example,
I'm going to a Formula drift event and then do
ride along. And also I've been competing this series called
TC America, which is a road racing series, and I'm
doing the whole season.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
So this is like an amateur like it's a professional
such per So you're still racing. Yeah, so that's what
You're not.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Retiring retired from Formula drift specifically.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I just retired from forma drift. That's it. I'm still
doing everything the same. I do pikes Peak. Okay, for
the listening viewers that don't know what pike Speak is,
can you share explain.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Pike Speak is the hill crime race held in Colorado
Springs once a year. It's one of the biggest hill
crime in the world.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Can you explain to me what the deal with pikes
Peak is, Like, why why is this so famous and
why is it part of like motor sport law and history.
Why is it such a big deal. Pike Speak is
one of the oldest race in the States, I think
a second oldest or something. So they just did the
one hundred times, so it's been over one hundred years
(40:17):
and they used the street. Basically it's a like I
said that toge the canyon road. They just closed that
from nine thousand feet to the summit. The Pikes Peak
is the name of the mountain and the summit is
like fourteen hundred feet, which is pretty high, fourteen.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
To fourteen thousand. So yeah, because I think it's using
the street, not the race druck. And then one of
the oldest racing in the US. That's why I think
the Pike Speak is one of the famous race in
the world.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
I think too when cars were carb rated and there's
so basically the elevation of air as you know people
listening no, just as a reminders of the higher you
get an elevation, the less oxygen there is. So it's
also a test to the engineering the mechanics of the
car too, because you can't just pull over and tune
it for different oxygen or airflow as you get higher.
(41:16):
So I think that was a big part of the
difficulties of racing Pike's Peak. Am I right in saying that?
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
So that's one of the biggest challenge for the race.
And also you have to deal with the weather and
from the start to the finish like a big difference
on the weathers and even like a temperatures and stuff
like that, and you don't know until the day off,
So there's a lot of like unknown boundaries compared to
(41:46):
like a racing on the truck, and very often people
die racing this. Back in the day, always hear about
somebody like yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Going off, going off the class.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
I've seen videos of it.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
But now there's cars are a lot safer too, So
I think square less than back in the days, I.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Hope, assuming you have someone who did a good cage.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, the page is very important.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Right, cage seats harnessed, But now you're looking at that.
Speaker 4 (42:12):
More exactly, so therese like a little detail. I start
more paying attention because that's like saving my life.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
What makes a great driver die?
Speaker 4 (42:22):
In your opinion, I think that who can perform your
best anytime you wanted to, Like you say, you kind
of have to be in the zone and you can
control that. That's very like internal thing I think, especially
like a drifting, you only have a one shot. If
you have a mistake in the one run, you're out.
(42:45):
You have to like put you one hundred percent to
the run. So put people who can provide that when
they need to, which is like a strong inside. I
think that makes you a great driver.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Yeah, when young folks talk about, like, you know, like
how hard things are in life, it's supposed to be hard,
and just like you know, you know, in driving, it's
like if it was easy, all these weekend warriors on
the track would be doing what you're doing. Right, That's right,
it's supposed to be hard.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
I do you think a lot of hard work has
gone into where you are today, whether you talk directly
about it or not. I don't think you give yourself
enough credit. But I think a lot of people look
up to you because you're a phenomenal driver, not just
with drifting but with also road racing. Thank you, And
that's not that doesn't you don't just wake up one
day with that skill. You know, you got to learn it.
You're self taught. You come from another country, and you've
(43:39):
really built this successful family and business and career that
you have.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Yeah, it's interesting with you, Die is that you know,
you're so resistant on talking about yourself, right, And the
reason we wanted you as a guest is because there's
this like patience with you. There's this like kind of
you know, stoic, kind of zen to you, and it's
(44:04):
you just do instead of talking, right, And I think
that's why, like, you know, so many people in the
community like respect you and look up to you. You know,
when you bring up Die, there's never like, you know,
a response of like I hate that fucking guy. Think
I was full of shit? No, there isn't people respect you. Yeah,
(44:29):
you know, I think the more people and you know,
younger folks that are around you that are aspiring to
like be like in the driving community or go into
professional driving, you know, it's just to be patient, right
and just you know, just keep doing instead of talking.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
I don't know, I guess I guess I don't have
a confidence and I'm still searching you know, who am
who I am? So maybe that's why I couldn't really
talk about myself. And I really think I have a
lot of what do you call it, right right moment,
right people, right timing kind of thing. Just appreciating all
(45:07):
the people around around, including you guys as well.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Thank you, appreciate you, We appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Awesome
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