D1 NEXT Central 2026 Rd.1 Nikko Results: Sena Shirakawa Wins Opener

Sena Shirakawa (白河セナ, #15) won D1 NEXT Central Series 2026 Round 1 at Nikko Circuit (Tochigi) on Saturday 14 March 2026, beating Ren Asami (浅見廉, #64) in the final. He did it from the bottom of the qualifying sheet: 58 drivers entered, two solo-run sessions cut that to 29 and then to 16, and Shirakawa went into the chase tournament seeded 16th of 16. The official points give him 25 for the win, four clear of Asami, with Hiroto Yamaguchi (山口広人) third on 18. This report was written up on 7 September 2026 from D1’s official post of 19 March and the tournament chart attached to it, and every figure in it was checked on the official pages on 7 Sep 2026.

Who won Round 1, and how?

This was the opener of a rebranded series. D1’s regional rounds, the chihōsen (地方戦), became the D1 NEXT Series for 2026, and Nikko on 14 March was where the new name started — where the tier sits under D1 Lights and D1 Grand Prix is in our D1 NEXT explainer. F-Tech Com (エフテックコム) organised it — the same name D1’s series table puts against October’s Nikko round, which takes entries through FLUKE’s site. The track was dry, and D1 names the judges only as Haruyama and Yokoi.

Qualifying was tansō (単走), solo judged runs, in two stages: 58 names down to 29, then 29 down to 16. That two-stage cut is brutal: seven of every ten entries never got a battle. D1’s write-up reads the field as noticeably younger than usual, and singles out the heavyweights — a Supra, a Soarer — for the way their mass loaded up the initiation, even where the score did not follow.

Then the bracket turned over. Tsuyoshi Nakagawa (中川剛志, #16), who topped qualifying, and Hiroto Hamamoto (濱本廣斗, #44), second, both lost their opening battles, and the drivers who beat them — 16th-placed Shirakawa and 15th-placed Asami — went all the way to a final against each other. Both dropped points there for mistakes on their lead runs; Shirakawa won it on his chase, having run closer to the car in front than Asami did. D1 reads the whole day that way: solo-run quality kept failing to survive a car in the mirrors.

The bracket: which battles decided it?

Three of the eight opening battles went to the lower seed, and all three mattered. Look at what the podium was driving, too: a 180SX, an S15 and a Toyota Crown, with a Cresta fourth. D1 published this round in Japanese only, so the Latin spellings above are our reading of the kanji — the Japanese name and car number sit alongside so you can match every line against the official chart.

The points after Round 1

Round 1 of five, so this is both the round result and the championship after it, transcribed from D1’s post rather than worked out by us.

Ninth to 16th: Nakagawa 8, Hamamoto 7, Endo 6, Nishizuka 5, Sawazaki 4, Osawa 3, Yanagi 2, Oshima 1. Nothing below 16th scores, which is what makes that second cut the real gate of a Central day. D1’s report stops to name two drivers from either side of that cut: Reina Sakamoto (坂本玲奈), in her fourth year of drifting and her first D1 regional event, took a black 180SX ninth through the first session before going out in the second, and is aiming at a D1 Lights entry; Hamamoto runs a naturally aspirated Mazda Roadster against turbocharged sixes, shares it with its owner, and wants the top-four series finish that carries an A licence.

Where the season went next

Central Rd.2 followed on Sunday 24 May 2026 at Mobara Twin Circuit in Chiba, run by the circuit itself. Two rounds are still ahead as of 7 September: Rd.3 at Mobara on Sunday 13 September 2026, forward layout, BEST24 chase tournament — ¥19,800 to enter plus ¥2,200 on the morning for the provisional-licence briefing if you hold no D1 licence, ¥1,000 to watch plus ¥1,000 per car to park, entries closing 10 September — and Rd.4 back here at Nikko on Saturday 17 October 2026, entered through FLUKE at ¥19,800 with insurance and tax included. Our Mobara Twin Circuit guide covers the September venue and our Nikko Circuit guide the October one, including why you cannot simply turn up and watch there on an ordinary day.

The entry process is where an overseas driver stalls. Mobara runs it in Japanese throughout: a web reservation, then the entry sheet by fax or email, then the fee by domestic bank transfer within three days, and no cancellation once the reservation is in. Nikko’s October round goes through FLUKE’s own Japanese pages instead.

Both dates sit on our drift event calendar, alongside the Niigata Series opener we covered in July; D1’s own series table says dates may change.