is a racing and drifting driver from

Tottori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Tottori Prefecture is the least populous prefecture of Japan at 570,569 (2016) and has a geographic area of . Tottori Prefecture borders Shimane Prefecture to the west, Hirosh ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Miki was the

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

champion driving the

Top Secret Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...

Silvia S15. Miki also competed in the Net'z Cup, a one make series for the

Toyota Altezza The is a compact executive car sold by Lexus, a luxury division of Toyota since 1999. The IS was originally sold under the nameplate in Japan from 1998 (the word ''Altezza'' is Italian for 'height' or 'highness'). The IS was introduced as an e ...

between 2005 and its final season in 2006¥ï¡¼¥ë¥É¥«¥Ã¥×¡ª¡ª¡ª - »°ÌÚÎµÆó¤ÎÆÈ¤ê¸À - Yahoo!¥¸¥ª¥·¥Æ¥£¡¼¥º
and is nicknamed Doki-Doki kun due to his drifting style. Ryuji Miki started in the series in his own S14 Silvia, before switching to the

modified S15 for the season. During the season, partway through the season when

Nobuteru Taniguchi is a Japanese racing driver and drifting driver who currently competes in Super GT and D1 Grand Prix. Taniguchi is commonly nicknamed "NOB" (first three letters from his name, meaning "No One Better") or "The Pimp" as a reference to his S15 Silv ...

switched to the

, leading to a sudden change of fortune, as many felt that Miki was fortunate as he also managed to get score his sole win at

Odaiba today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially built in this area for defensive purposes in the 1850s. Reclaimed land offshore Shinagawa was dramatically expanded durin ...

, allowing Miki to finish the season with the title that year, beating Taniguchi by 28pts, currently the widest margin of the series. For the season, following the opening

Irwindale Irwindale is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 1,422 at the 2010 census, down from 1,446 at the 2000 census. The ZIP Codes serving the area are 91010, which is shared with Duarte, 91702, w ...

round, Miki switched to a

modified Fairlady Z Z33 powered by a RB26. He was unable to follow on his successes of the previous season as he only managed to scrape 16 pts. Much of it was, at the time, the Z33 was still in development to be fully competitive in drifting, due to its weight, one of its reason why it befell many of its drivers. His last win was at the

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and B ...

exhibition event in his old S15, that year was to be his last season in the series. For the season, rival

Youichi Imamura is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently serving as a judge in Formula Drift Japan after he stopped competing in 2019. He has always enjoyed driving, so drifting was a natural thing for him. His other passion is flowers as his pare ...

's team and title sponsor, A'PEXi withdrew from the series due to a redirection in the company's business strategies, leading him to take over Miki's Z33. As of 2007, incidentally, Miki would compete in

Formula D Formula Drift (also known as Formula D) is a United States-based motorsport drifting series. Formula Drift, Inc. was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that int ...

driving with Imamura's previous D1 sponsor, APEX'i (partnering with Bergenholtz Racing) and driving a white FD3S. Throughout the 2007 season, in light of issues he faced with adapting to driving a left hand drive car for the first time, not to mention within a full season of racing, Ryuji managed to finish the Formula D season impressively. Reaching the rank of top 16 within 4 events, Ryuji finally adapted to the car within the 6th and 7th rounds finishing 14th overall for the season. Continuing on in 2008 with major backing by Bergenholtz Racing, Nitto Tires, and MAZDA, Ryuji Miki will continue to pilot the APEX RX-7 with plans to potentially unveil a new car for 2009. According to Keith Covey and Chuck Griffice of APEX Integration's R&D department, the new setup on the 2008 car has been completely redone and Ryuji will be adapting to what essentially amounts to a new car.

Complete drifting results

D1 Grand Prix

Formula D

Notes

External links

Official siteYahoo! BlogFormula D profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miki, Ryuji Japanese racing drivers Drifting drivers 1975 births Living people D1 Grand Prix drivers Formula D drivers