Can You Drift at Gunsai? Every Car Day You Can Enter (2026)

Yes, but only on a hired or organised day. Gunma Cycle Sports Center (Gunma), known in the drift scene as Gunsai (群サイ), keeps its 6 km mountain road course for bicycles in normal operation, so there is no walk-up car entry. Between 15 October and 1 November 2026, six car days take entries from individual drivers for ¥8,000 to ¥15,000, and every date and price below was checked on the official pages on 3 October 2026.

Gunsai is a cycling park on a mountain in Minakami, with a one-way road course that the scene treats as the closest thing to a legal touge (mountain pass). Our legal touge guide explains why it is special. This page is about how you, as a visitor, actually get a run there this autumn.

Why can’t you just turn up and drive?

The venue’s fee page says it plainly: the circuit course is 通常自転車のみのご利用, bicycles only in normal use. To drive a car or ride a motorbike there, you either hire a course or join an event run by a shop. That is why Gunsai drift days never show on a public free-run calendar.

The venue does point drivers to two flat areas. Its facility page calls both the temporary car park and the multipurpose square ideal for gymkhana and drift days (ジムカーナやドリフトの走行会に最適). Most of the drift practice below happens there, not on the road course.

Which drift days can you enter in October and November 2026?

Two notes on that table. Gunsai’s own free run is the only one on the full 6 km road, and its guide talks about running at your own level with no timing. It does not mention drifting either way, so treat drift on that day as TBC. And TK Club runs a Level 0.5 day at Gunsai on 6 December for ¥15,000 if October does not work.

What gets in the way for a visitor?

The money is not the problem. The entry is. Every one of these days is announced in Japanese on an organiser’s own X account or website, and nothing appears on the venue’s booking calendar. Entry is by Japanese DM, LINE or a Japanese web form, and TK Club’s form makes you liable for the fee the moment you send it. Not one of the six announcements says whether a driver from overseas can enter, so someone has to ask the organiser before you commit.

The second gap is the car. None of the six days mentions a car for hire, and Gunsai’s free run asks for a road-legal car or kei car and an ordinary driving licence. Whether an International Driving Permit counts is not stated; our licence and IDP guide covers what Japan accepts on the road to get there.

What are the rules on the day?

Gunsai’s terms apply to every organiser. The gate opens at 8:00, the course runs 9:00 to 16:00, and the car park and square stop for lunch from 12:00 to 13:00. You must be off site by 17:30. The noise limit is 103 dB.

The venue also asks drivers to go up and down the mountain slowly and quietly, because the approach roads are ordinary public roads with people living on them. It says local police have contacted it about illegally modified cars on the way in. Drift happens inside the gate and nowhere else; our guide to whether drifting is legal in Japan explains why. For flag signals and pit manners, see drift-day flags, rules and etiquette.

What does it cost, from one entry to the whole mountain?

Hire bookings go by phone or web form. The desk is open 10:00 to 18:00 and closed on Mondays and Fridays, and cancelling a hire costs 20% at 31 or more days out, rising to the full fee in the last 7 days. For one visitor, an organised day is the realistic route.

How do you get there?

Gunsai’s access page gives only the address (Ōmineyama, Niimaki, Minakami, Tone District, Gunma) and phone number, 0278-64-1811, with no train or bus route. Jalan’s listing gives 20 minutes by car from the Kan-etsu Expressway’s Tsukiyono IC. Since every car day needs your own car anyway, the drive is the way in. For other Kanto venues on the same trip, see drifting in Kanto near Tokyo, the Gunma page and the Gunsai entry in the tracks directory.