Some very sad news out of Japan today. Veteran D1 driver Atsushi Kuroi has passed away after injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. Kuroi was popular not just in Japan, but in all the countries where he drove. Anyone who's seen him drive knows the kind of talent this man had behind the wheel of his Nissan One-Via. Besides being known as a great driver, he also made a name for himself with his River Side tuning shop in the Osaka area.

Kuroi Atsushi (March 30th 1969 - February 1st 2010 )was a Japanese professional drifting driver, that competed in the D1 Grand Prix series for Team Toyo with River Side. He died on the 1st of February 2010 during the evening due to a motorcycle accident.

He loved cars from an early age and dreamed of getting his license. When he did the first car he got was a four wheel drive as he was into WRC at the time. He enjoyed dirt driving but ran out of money for repairs. He then bought a Nissan Silvia (S13) and turned to drifting. He practiced mainly by himself. He studied the drift bible and some other books on drifting to try to improve. Though he never knew whether he was any good until he began competing against other people. He has been competing in the D1 Grand Prix series since it began in 2001. He has always used a Nissan Silvia (S13) as he loved the way they drifted. The Silvias he used in the D1GP are not common, his old one had an RB26 from a Nissan Skyline GT-R and his current car has a 2JZ from a Toyota Supra, as he liked the bigger displacement engines. Recently he had been doing well even though his car was not always reliable. In 2007 he achieved his first victory. He was the manager and was sponsored by the River Side Tuning Garage in Osaka.

Atsushi Kuroi-san was a veteran drifter who has long been involved in this industry along with Maeda Ken-san, Youichi Imamura-san, Masao- Suenaga-san, Ken Nomura-san, Ueo Katsuhiro-san, Takahiro Ueno-san, Ryuji Miki-san, Hideo Hiraoka-san, Nobuteru Taniguchi-san, Manabu Orido-san, Nobushige Kumakubo-san, and various of other former privateer drifter drivers from the mid~late 90s. He won numerous rounds in the past and was considered one of the best drift drivers. His driving skills are un-paralleled especially when it comes to taming the wild RB powered S13. He is an aggressive, yet down to earth driver.

Kuroi will be missed by the drift community as well as the R/C drift community. The great drivers are looked up to as heroes. After following d1 for sometime you almost feel like you know these talented people like friends.

May he rest in peace. My deepest condolences for his family and friends.