Nobushige Kumakubo
Nationality Japan
Born (1970-02-10) February 10, 1970
Fukushima Prefecture
D1 Grand Prix career
Debut season2001
Current teamTeam Orange
Wins4
Championship titles
2006 20122
Kumakubo's Team Orange Team Orange en:Subaru Impreza WRX STI GD

Nobushige Kumakubo (熊久保信重, Kumakubo Nobushige, born February 10, 1970, Fukushima Prefecture) is a drifting driver from Japan who competes in the D1 Grand Prix series and racetrack and land owner. Nicknamed Kuma, he is commonly referred to as one of the pioneers of drifting.

Born to a wealthy family who owned a large portion of land in the Fukushima countryside, with the easy accessibility of the family plot, Kumakubo was able to use some of it to build and develop the Ebisu Circuit.[1]

Kumakubo also used the circuit to host numerous drifting events as well as various motorsport events. As the lead driver of Team Orange, as his car has always been orange, he started at the D1GP series in a Nissan Silvia, in 2005, whilst stumbling through the numerous rallying magazines in his office and considering that the Subaru Impreza was the car to have as many rear wheel drive cars were considered not suitable for drifting or in need of development to be considered suitable, also in a way to bring Impreza owners to his track, Kumakubo commissioned tuning company JUN Auto to build an Impreza WRX STI Impreza, significantly with a radiator on the rear passenger side.[1]

The car debuted at the Odaiba round, unlike others who switched to newer models, his performance would pay off when he was runner up at the Silverstone exhibition round and for the 2006 season, he had beaten Ken Nomura by just 1 point. Midway through the 2007 D1 series Kumakubo switched from the Impreza to an Evo 9 (built also by JUN Auto) during round 5 at Ebisu.

He has also built a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X in the Team Orange livery which was shown at the Tokyo Auto Salon.

He also runs the Big X the invitation only outdoor show that combines drifting, FMX, supermoto, car stunts and other extreme sports featuring the experts from each field.

Big X's drifting squad is called DriftXtreme, which the well known drivers of the D1GP are invited to join including team mate Kazuhiro Tanaka and Naoto Suenaga.

Kumakubo is currently competing in the European Drift Championship [2] in his Subaru Impreza WRX STI. His Team Orange teammate Kazuhiro Tanaka is also competing.

Complete Drifting Results

ColourResult
GoldWinner
Silver2nd place
Bronze3rd place
GreenLast 4 [Semi-final]
BlueLast 8 [Quarter-final]
PurpleLast 16 (16) [1st Tsuiou Round OR Tandem Battle]
(Numbers are given to indicate Top 10 finish)
BlackDisqualified (DSQ)
(Given to indicate that the driver has been stripped of their position through disqualification)
WhiteFirst Round (TAN) [Tansou OR Qualifying Single Runs]
RedDid not qualify (DNQ)
  • When driver's position are highlighted in blue, this indicates either the driver earned 100pt or 100pt tansou (solo run) bonus has been awarded, with the latter being in use for Pre-2005.

D1 Grand Prix

Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Position Points
2001 Nissan Skyline HCR32 EBS
DNQ		 NIK
DNQ		 BHH
 NC 0
Toyota Chaser JZX100 EBS
TAN		 NIK
2002 Team Orange Nissan Silvia S15 BHH
4		 EBS
TAN		 EBS
5		 SGO
9		 TKB
6		 SEK
4		 NIK
10		 4th 56
2003 Team Orange Nissan Silvia S15 TKB
1		 BHH
TAN		 SGO
1		 FUJ
TAN		 EBS
5		 SEK
5		 TKB
4		 2nd 78
2004 Team Orange / Ebisu Circuit Nissan Silvia S15 IRW
4		 SGO
5		 EBS
5		 APS
16		 ODB
16		 EBS
9		 TKB
2		 6th 60
2005 Team Orange / Yuke's Nissan Silvia S15 IRW
4		 4th 55
Subaru Impreza GDB ODB
TAN		 SGO
10		 APS
6		 EBS
11		 FUJ
5		 TKB
3
2006 Team Orange / Yuke's Subaru Impreza GDB IRW
2		 SGO
8		 FUJ
3		 APS
2		 EBS
1		 SUZ
TAN		 FUJ
4		 IRW
4		 1st 110
2007 Team Orange / Yuke's Subaru Impreza GDB EBS
1		 FUJ
3		 SUZ
4		 SGO
2		 2nd 99
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX CT9A EBS
8		 APS
8		 FUJ
3
2008 Team Orange / Yuke's Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX CT9A EBS
12		 FUJ
TAN		 SUZ
8		 OKY
16		 APS
8		 EBS
 FUJ
 13th 28
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X

References

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