Katsuhiro Ueo

Katsuhiro Ueo
Nationality	Japan
Born	(1972-05-26) May 26, 1972 Tamana, Kumamoto
D1 Grand Prix career
Debut season	2001 (D1GP) 2006 (D1SL)
Current team	Z.S.S. Racing w/ SIFT and Brains (D1SL)
Former teams	Wisesquare, Driftspeed, Team M.O.V.E., NKB Racing, Car Boutique Club, Revolver, Tomei Powered, Cusco Japan, Yuke'S, Ueo Family and Garage SIFT (Privateer)
Wins	6 (3 Main Rounds, 1 Exhibition, 2 D1SL)
Best finish	1 in 2002 (D1GP)
Championship titles
2002 (D1GP) 2016 (D1SL)	2

Katsuhiro Ueo (植尾勝浩, Ueo Katsuhiro, 26 May 1972, Tamana, Kumamoto) is a Japanese professional drifting driver, who used to compete in the D1 Grand Prix, well-known for using the Toyota AE86. He is also known as, Therefore, it is (デスカラデスネ/ですからですね Desukara Desune) and Cheese.

He was into cars from a young age, and started out competing in gymkhana events, starting with a R32 Skyline GT-R. At one of these events one of his younger colleagues took him to the Touge and challenged him saying that he couldn't do it. So he went out and proved him wrong, and this got him started in drifting. As well as his drifting he is also the owner of tuning shop and used car dealership Racing Garage SIFT. To start off his drifting activities, Ueo got hold of his first AE86, which was a Corolla Levin AE85 (converted to AE86), he had owned this from 1998-1999 and had won several drifting events (Carboy, Battle Magazine, P's Cars) at the time and was also known as 'Manji-master'. In 2000, Ueo decided to change to a Sprinter Trueno, starting with a black SR trim AE85 and used it at the Kyushu Ikaten, which was held at Mobility Omuta on March 29th, 2000 (he won in the finals against Masao Suenaga). The 2000-spec AE85 was later repainted Cream in late 2000 with revised changes and won the All-Japan Ikaten at Bihoku Circuit on Sept. 7, 2000. Starting in early 2001, Ueo got hold of a genuine AE86 Sprinter Trueno GTV trim, and started swapping parts out of the AE85 to the new car. This car was more commonly known as Professor, due to a decal that was placed on the side of the car at the time. Ueo decided to continue to use this AE86 for 2002 until 2006.

He has been competing in the D1 Grand Prix since the first year in his Toyota Sprinter Trueno (AE86). He has always done well, getting his first win in 2002 and going on to take the championship. Ueo had switch to two different Truenos starting 2003 up until 2004, he used an AE85 (different from 2000 one) while the GTV was used as a backup car. In 2004 however, Ueo had a tough season, either unable to pull through the First Round or Best 16. It turned out, that the AE85's chassis strength had started to weaken since the reinforcement method done to it was by the use of rivets, compared to the GTV which used a tougher stitch-welding method. At this point, Ueo went back to the GTV for 2005-2006, and Ueo was able to retain his fame, after getting his 2nd victory at Round 2 of 2005. Ueo also accomplish of getting 3 straight 100 tansou runs at the 7th round of 2005.

In 2006, Ueo entered the D1 Street Legal series, starting out with the AE86 in the first round. On-wards however, he changed to a Nissan Silvia S15 for NKB Racing and his performance has been successful despite using a different car. During Round 7 of 2006, he attempted to pilot the NKB SR20-powered Nissan Fairlady Z Z33, but could not proceed to the Best 16 during the qualifying round as the rear lift-gate had lifted open, and was deemed as a mechanical issue from the judges.

In 2007, he changed teams and as well with a new car in the main series, moving to Team M.O.V.E's Nissan Silvia (S15), the car that won the 2005 championship at the hands of Yasuyuki Kazama while his teammate at the time, Hideo Hiraoka, was assigned with Team M.O.V.E's second S15, which Kazama used for the D1GP UK Silverstone and D1GP Las Vegas 2006 Exhibition Matches. He has not adapted well to the new vehicle and finished the season down in 20th place. In 2008 on-wards, Ueo started competing in Drift competitions outside of D1GP series or Japan events like, MSC, Red Bull Drifting World Championship, Formula D, WDS (World Drift Series) with the Driftspeed S15 (later using his own for WDS). After he stopped using the Driftspeed S15, he had built his own S15, and competed in Formula D Japan 2014 at Fuji Speedway with his D'SIFT S15 Silvia, as well as making a comeback to D1 Street Legal after a 7-year absence, sponsored with Z.S.S. Racing, and driving the S15 once again, starting in 2015.

Up to this day, Ueo still owns his old machines like the AE86, AE85, KE72v Corolla Van (KE70), and still has the famous Tomei AE92-kouki 4A-G. Ueo announced that he would be making a new AE86 (blue coupe) for 2015, however, he has a running white AE86 Levin coupe with a 800ps SR20VET.

Complete Drifting Results

(key)

D1 Grand Prix

D1 Street Legal

References

• Superstreet
• D1 Grand Prix

External links

• Official Site (Garage Sift)
• D1 Supporter profile
• D1 Supporter profile (D1SL)