Bihoku Highland Circuit (備北ハイランドサーキット)

Circuit · Japan, Okayama

The D1 West nursery. "Everyone got their start here."

A short circuit in the hills of Niimi, northern Okayama Prefecture, the Chugoku highlands, not the coast. Bihoku Highland's elevation and tight asphalt layout makes it the western counterpart to Ebisu's campus role, for any Chugoku-region driver looking to learn pro-pace drift, Bihoku is the on-ramp.

Drift Tengoku spent half its early-2000s archive here. Every D1 West regional champion has cut their teeth on this loop, and the cars-per-event ratio still skews toward grassroots ownership, owner-drivers in modest builds, no big-team transporters, the kind of paddock that grows judges into pros into team principals.

For visitors Bihoku Highland is the answer to "where do I drift in Japan if I want the local experience without Tokyo crowds." The instructors speak no English. The lessons translate anyway.