Career
Kazama was first introduced to drifting at age 17 when he watched Gengo-San, who later became his spotter and mentor, drifting on a touge. As soon as he got his driving licence he began drifting in his Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 with the proceeds of his job in a filling station. He later escaped death when his car slid down underneath a crash barrier and fell 30 feet down the mountain.
He later made a name for himself in drifting contests, driving a Nissan Silvia S14, and became one of the first drivers to use a S15 for drifting and was heavily in debt until his patience paid off when he was sponsored by Kei Office, a tuning company which was owned by Keiichi Tsuchiya whom he later worked for as a mechanic.
He is known as Waku Waku Kun or Rodeo Clown due to his reputation as a clown within the series and his being well known for his Rodeo Drift, a form of doughnutting by sitting on the driver"s door of the car which he first practiced at the Big-X events, then later at D1GP pre-tsuiou rounds warm-ups in 2004 when he changed the side windows of his car to make it possible to perform the trick. Even though his previous employer Tsuchiya sold off his company at the end of 2005, he still continued to work at Tsuchiya"s then-new company, Directorate General-5, up until 2007.
Kazama also owns his own shop called Rodextyle. Kazama is also known in the United Kingdom for his only mainstream television appearance outside Japan in the BBC2 show Top Gear, in which he teaches Richard Hammond drifting in a stock Vauxhall Monaro VX-R. As with the rising popularity of the drifting scene there, he has made two appearances in both Autocar in April 2006, driving a Caterham Seven and February 2007 issue of the Octane.
(key)
D1 Grand Prix.
