Formula Drift Japan 2026 Rd.5 Okuibuki Results: Takahashi Wins Again

Kazumi Takahashi (高橋和己, #36) won Formula Drift Japan 2026 Round 5 at Gransnow Okuibuki (Shiga) on Sunday 6 September 2026, beating Soshiro Nakamura (中村総士郎, #7) in the final. Koudai Sobagiri (蕎麦切広大, #31), who had topped qualifying with 96 points, was classified third and Wataru Masuyama (益山航, #530) fourth. The result sheet is still headed 暫定リザルト, provisional, and the official standings page had not yet added Round 5 when we checked the official pages on 7 September 2026; adding the Round 5 points to the published Round 4 totals puts Takahashi on 330, 34 clear of Sobagiri, with one round left at Okayama International Circuit (Okayama) on 3–4 October.

Who won Round 5, and how?

Okuibuki is the Maibara ski resort whose summer car parks are Okuibuki Motorpark; our venue guide covers the place. Saturday was tansō (単走), solo judged runs, two per driver, ranked on the better score. Sobagiri set the benchmark with a 96, Takahashi was fourth on 91, and the Top 32 cut fell at 74 on a knife edge: Chiam Benjamin (シアム ベンジャミン, #83) and Harry Yoza (与座ハリー, #43) both scored 74 with a 72 backup, Benjamin took the last bracket spot, and the series posted a short clip on X in which Yoza explains what separated them. Missing from the bracket altogether: championship leader Connor Xia (夏昌浩, #18) qualified 39th on 62 and fifth-placed Masanori Kohashi (小橋正典, #4) 34th on 74, so each scored 1 point.

Sunday was tsuisō (追走), the tandem chase battles that decide the round: two runs per pairing, lead and chase swapped. Takahashi beat Sobagiri in one semi-final and Nakamura beat Masuyama in the other. The official sheet gives outcomes, not the judges’ scores, so we will not invent them: Takahashi won the final, and with 4 qualifying points plus 100 for the win he scored 104, his second victory in a row after Sportsland Sugo in July.

Nakamura is the story of the weekend if you follow the ladder. He qualified 14th on 84, beat Yukio Fausto (#555) in the Top 32 and then three higher qualifiers, Pop, Matsui and Masuyama, on the way to the final, worth 83 points. Seventeen months ago the series introduced him like this:

His official profile lists a ZN8 GR86 and the 2025 FDJ2 title; 2026 is his first top-class season. Sobagiri and Masuyama both lost their semi-finals for 64 battle points each; Sobagiri’s 7 qualifying points for P1 put him third on 71, Masuyama fourth on 68.

The bracket: which battles are worth rewatching?

The Top 32 had already produced the upset of the weekend: Jin Horino (堀野仁, #17), 31st in qualifying, knocked out second-qualifier Toshiki Oyu (大湯都史樹, #10). RYUMA (#131), second in the standings on arrival, went out to Matsui in the Top 16 for 35 points.

Who leads the championship after Round 5?

As of 7 September 2026 the official standings page on formulad.jp still carries Rounds 1–4 only, with the Round 5 column blank: Connor Xia 231, RYUMA 230, Takahashi 226, Sobagiri 225, Kohashi 220. The table below adds each driver’s provisional Round 5 points from the official result sheet to those totals; it is our arithmetic, not an official standing, until formulad.jp updates the page.

The scale, read off the result sheet, is 100 battle points for the win, then 80, 64, 48, 32 and 16 for each earlier exit, plus 7 down to 1 for qualifying, so the most anyone can add at Okayama is 107. On this projection Takahashi, Sobagiri, Masuyama, RYUMA and Naoki Nakamura can all still win the title; Xia, 98 behind, only gets past Takahashi if Takahashi misses the Top 32; Kohashi cannot. How the format differs from D1’s is in our D1GP vs Formula Drift Japan comparison; the FDJ, FDJ2 and FDJ3 ladder is in the Formula Drift Japan guide.

What the drivers said

Sobagiri, top qualifier and semi-final loser to the eventual winner, posted this the morning after:

Where can you watch the replay?

Saturday’s qualifying and the Top 32, with the Horino upset, are separate uploads on the same channel.

Next round: the Okayama finale — dates, tickets and the last leg

Both championships end at Okayama International Circuit (Okayama) from Friday 2 to Sunday 4 October 2026: FDJ2 Rd.6 on Friday and Saturday, FDJ Rd.6 on Saturday and Sunday. Advance tickets went on sale on 2 September at ¥3,800, each a single-day pass valid for any one of the three days; at the gate it is ¥5,000, and parking is ¥1,650 per car on the day only. The advance channels are Seven Ticket, CN Playguide and Lawson Ticket, online or at the terminals inside 7-Eleven, FamilyMart and Lawson stores, all in Japanese; the fallback is the ¥1,200 you lose by paying at the gate.

Without a car, the circuit’s own access page gives one route: JR Okayama Station, the Uno Bus bound for Yunogo Onsen and Hayashino Station, off at the Fukumoto stop after about 60 minutes, then a taxi of about 20 minutes; the alternative is JR Yoshinaga Station on the Sanyo Main Line and 20 minutes by car. No event shuttle appeared on the Rd.6 page when we checked.

The rest of the month is in our October 2026 trip planner, and every date above sits on the event calendar, rechecked against formulad.jp each month.