Zen Nihon Puro Dorifuto Sensyuken) consisting of Keiichi Tsuchiya (土屋圭市) and Manabu Orido (織戸 学) as judges, and Manabu Suzuki (鈴木 学) as commentator. Other personnel consisted of Kitahara, as the tech inspector, and Takayasu Ozaku (more commonly known as Zaku the perverted cameraman) as the series' long serving cameraman. Racing driver Tarzan Yamada made appearances in earlier rounds and Inada himself would usually make guest appearances in the opening ceremony and judging stand. The first ever event was at Ebisu Circuit in Fukushima, Japan, in October 2000 with an entry of forty and a crowd of three thousand. Drivers were judged individually and were treated as the first round of the season, shortly renamed as D1 Grand Prix. From round two onward, the series took a different turn. Unlike drift events which judged the cars individually each round then eliminating the rest, the series introduced the one-to-one round battle called the tsuiso (twin run) round which has been the tradition for Tōge races and has since been adopted for drifting events all over the world. Aftermarket parts manufacturers BLITZ, HKS and A'PEXi soon began to get involved by sponsoring drivers entering the competition. In , the number of cars competing in the tsuiou rounds was reduced from ten to eight, and was reduced to 6 by round two, as the second tansou rounds increased to twelve. That was increased to sixteen by round four which stands to this day. The series remained domestic until 2003 when an exhibition round was hosted at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, California, USA and produced by American marketing company, Slipstream Global. That same year, Grassroots Motorsports also presented the D1 Grand Prix with the Editors' Choice Award. Slipstream Global would later create the Formula Drift Championship in 2004. With a sellout crowd of ten thousand, which broke the record for the venue and the series, this venue became the series' opening round in 2004. The US round saw the introduction of the English speaking commentator Toshi Hayama, who also dealt with the organisation of the non-Japanese events. That year also saw the car accessories store Autobacs as the title sponsor, and brought the first non-circuit event at Odaiba in Japan in January , held in a Fuji Television car park. It also later ran as a championship round. In December 2004, the D1GP was held in the California Speedway in Fontana, California, as a