is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the

D1 Grand Prix The , abbreviated as D1GP and subtitled ''Professional Drift'', is a production car drifting series from Japan. After several years of hosting amateur drifting contests, Daijiro Inada, founder of '' Option'' magazine and Tokyo Auto Salon, and d ...

series for D-MAX. He is the younger brother of Naoto who both were taught by

Nobushige Kumakubo is a drifting driver from Japan who competes in the D1 Grand Prix series and racetrack and land owner. Nicknamed ''Kuma'', he is commonly referred to as one of the pioneers of drifting. Born to a wealthy family who owned a large portion of la ...

. He began his motorsport career racing minibikes in the Kyūshū area, later winning a title. Following this, his motorcycle racing career ended at the age of 20 caused by injuries. As Naoto was involved in the 'Tono Club' hashiriya group (which one of the members included Katsuhiro Ueo), he also became involved which he was taught how to drift by Naoto. Masao later joined the 'Gowasu?' hashiriya group. He has been competing in the

series since . In 2002 and he was the youngest driver to compete in the top 16 and he was soon picked up by RE Amemiya a renowned tuner of rotary powered cars. So he switched from his

Nissan Silvia The is the series of small sports cars produced by Nissan. Versions of the Silvia have been marketed as the 200SX or 240SX for export, with some export versions being sold under the Datsun brand. The name "Silvia" is derived from Sylvia, t ...

to a Mazda RX-7 (FD3S) went from strength to strength. The Silvia would be driven by Naoto until he became one of the Kumakubo led Team Orange drivers. Masao took his first win in 2005 and went on to place second overall. He had a slight lull in his performance in , but was back on form in winning twice and finishing the season in third. He is one of the few D1GP drivers to compete the spinoff D1 Street Legal series in his own FD RX-7 winning the first two rounds of the inaugural season. Suenaga competed in the M150 20B-Powered FD3S RX-7 in the inaugural Formula Drift: Asia at Fuji Speedway Japan where he would take first place against Masashi Yokoi. He had been with RE Amemiya for years, but left in 2016. In 2017, he was picked up by

Toyo Tires , commonly known as Toyo Tires, is a tire and rubber products company based in Itami, Japan. History The company started in 1945. In 1966, the company expanded to the United States as ''Toyo Tire USA Corporation''. In 1999, ''Nitto Tire North ...

GLION TRUST RACING and became teammate of Masato Kawabata. He drove

Nissan GT-R The Nissan GT-R (Japanese: 日産・GT-R, ''Nissan GT-R''), is a high-performance sports car and grand tourer produced by Nissan, unveiled in 2007. It is the successor to the Skyline GT-R, a high performance variant of the Nissan Skyline. Alt ...

(R35). From 2020, he belongs to D-MAX and works with Masashi Yokoi.

Complete Drifting Results

D1 Grand Prix

D1 Street Legal

Sources

D1 Grand Prix

References

External links

Gowasu?のホームページ
- Official page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suenaga, Masao Japanese racing drivers Drifting drivers 1978 births Living people D1 Grand Prix drivers People from Kagoshima