Hideo Hiraoka (racing driver)

Hideo Hiraoka (平岡英郎, Hiraoka Hideo, 30 April 1971, Tochigi) is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix series for Team Orange and Yuke’s.

Like many of the drivers in the D1GP he is the owner of his own tuning shop called Proshop Rapid, and so has worked on many of his cars himself.

He began competing in the D1 Grand Prix in the first round in 2000, earning second place in round 4 of that year and so showing that he had what it takes. Over the years he has competed in many different cars from a Toyota Corolla Levin AE85, which was converted to a Trueno and later used by Toshiki Yoshioka in 2005, Toyota Chaser, Nissan Silvias and even a year in a Nissan 350Z. In 2006, he has moved to the Wisesquare Silvia S15 with which he had much success, getting his first win with that machine, and again, driving Team M.O.V.E.'s second S15 (which Kazama used for D1UK 2006 Silverstone and D1GP Las Vegas 2006) while his friend and teammate at the time, Katsuhiro Ueo drove the first S15, which was Kazama's 2005 championship car. To become the fourth member of Team Orange, driving Nobushige Kumakubo's 2006 championship winning Subaru Impreza. So far he has been doing well adapting to the new car, as he has done so often before, though he had a large accident at the Tokyo Drift exhibition match in early 2008.