First Stage - Saturday
Top 16 Tsuiso Tounament
Tezuka and Nomura suffered the lost due to overdrive.
During the first Tsuiso Tournament, Tezuka faces the 16th place Utsumi. With Tezuka chasing down Utsumi, Tezuka approaches Utsumi at an awfully close distance. Utsumi hits the concrete wall due to the fact that Tezuka getting too close and taps his tail, the judges announces that Tezuka loses the battle.
Next up, Kawabata vs. Drift Samurai. Drift Samurai makes a mistake which leads to a surprising Kawabata's victory. Suenaga takes over Haruyama with a higher speed and sharper angle. Koguchi and Okamura run into a tight battle with Koguchi taking the victory and Okamura chases closely behind. Sakura encounters an unforeseen problem with differential and lost to Saito. And then the 2001 champion Taniguchi vs. the 2006 champion Kumakubo.
Taniguchi had a hard time keeping up close with Kumakubo on the first half. On the other hand, Kumakubo leads the race from the 1st corner till finish and smoked Taniguchi. As for Nomura vs. Hiraoka, Nomura takes the lead with a better angle. Nomura's is then ensured to be on the Best 8.
First up in the Best 8 Battle is Utsumi vs. Kawabata. Suffering from the damages caused by previous runs, Utsumi misses two corners in a roll and Kawabata crosses the finish line with victory. Suenaga and Koguchi face one on one again on the track. Koguchi hands the victory over to Suenaga when he lost control and spins off. Despite the fact that Imamura only slightly drifts, he drifts side by side with Saito, covers 1st corner with smoke and grabs the judges' attention Kumakubo then faces Nomura on the track. Nomura anticipates an intense battle and drifts with a big angle on the first corner. However, Nomura lost control over his car and Kumakubo crosses the finish line with an ease.