non-championship US vs. Japan event, running alongside the JGTC race as part of the non-championship GT Live event. Manabu Orido resigned as a judge at the end of the season to become a driver. The other regular staff for the season were D1 girls Kazumi Kondo (近藤和美) and Hatsuno Sugaya (菅谷はつ乃) who previously had careers as JGTC race queens. For the 2006 season, Hatsuno was replaced by Jyuri Tamashiro (玉城珠里). As the series has always been Japanese dominated with few non-Japanese making it to the best 16, in the first round of the season, after narrowly beating Masato Kawabata who spun during their tsuiso round battle, Rhys Millen became the first non-Japanese driver to advance to the best 8 round. He lost to Yasuyuki Kazama after a sudden death tsuiso battle. That year saw the introduction of the D1 Street Legal category which was unveiled at the Odaiba round, for cars which are built to be driven on the road. The series' only guest commentator was the TV presenter, singer, Super GT driver and amateur drifter Hiromi Kozono (ヒロミ; real kanji name 小園 浩巳) who guest commentated at the 2005 Odaiba Allstar event. In October 2005, the D1GP ventured to Europe with an exhibition round at Silverstone, Northamptonshire, UK. This event provided an upset, as after putting on a good performance in the first run, the Irishman Darren McNamara advanced to the best 8 round after overtaking the series regular Hiroshi Fukuda on the first run. Like Rhys Millen in the first round, McNamara fell victim to Kazama after losing four to six then tying in the other round. With a crowd attendance of five thousand, in the following year the D1GP ran its own national series in the UK. At the non-championship D1 USA vs Japan Allstar Exhibition at Irwindale Speedway in December 2005, the series had its first non-Japanese winner for both car and driver: Vaughn Gittin with his Ford Mustang GT. At the following season opener in March , Samuel Hübinette with his Dodge Viper SRT/10 took things further by making it into the best 8 by beating Gittin in a sudden death tsuiso battle, Hubinette made it to the semi-final when he defeated Takahiro Ueno, only to be beaten by Nobushige Kumakubo in his Subaru Impreza GDB. Kumakubo went on into the finals to be beaten by Yasuyuki Kazama, who won his third successive first round