Yasuyuki Kazama - Waku Waku Kun (Rodeo Clown)

Yasuyuki Kazama is the 2005 Japanese D1 Grand Prix champion. Kazama also holds the record for most wins in a single D1 Grand Prix season with three wins to his credit. The drift car that took Yasuyuki Kazama to the championship was the Kei-Office sponsored S15 Nissan Silvia.

Yasuyuki Kazama was born February 1, 1970 in Nagano, Japan. Kazama started his drifting career at age 17 drifting his Toyota Corolla Levin AE86. Kazama paid for his drift car with proceeds from his job working at a gas station. While learning how to drift on Japan’s touges, Kazama narrowly escaped death when his drift car slid off the side of a mountain!

When Yasuyuki Kazama first entered drift contests, he was driving a Nissan S14 Silvia then later Kazama was sponsored by Keiichi “Drift King” Tsuchiya’s very own drift shop - Kei Office. Later in life, Kazama would become a mechanic for Tsuchiya’s Kei Office. After Tsuchiya sold Kei Office in 2004, Kazama opened his own garage named Rodextyle.

He is known as Waku Waku Kun or Rodeo Clown due to his reputation as a clown within the series and him being well known for his Rodeo Drift, a form of doughnutting by sitting on the driver's door of the car which he first practised at the Big-X events, then later at D1GP pre-tsuiou rounds warm ups in 2004 when he changed the side windows of his car to make it possible to perform the trick.