Blue to green: how Yokomo's DJS lamps score a drift run, and what Drift Dance scores instead

At a clip box, a car that passes the point 10 cm from the wall switches that lamp from blue to green, so drivers and anyone watching register the success immediately rather than waiting for a score. Wall distance is judged from the wall to the rear of the car — it is the tail the system reads, not the front wheels.

Each green lamp is worth +2. The MECCA guideline describes five sections for up to +10, and states that the number of units varies by venue: Yokomo's report from the 2025 MECCA event describes two DJS units in use. Nothing is credited if the drift is not continuous, or if a crash is called.

The Round-28 guideline puts the same ceiling inside a 100-point total: DJS maximum 10, judges maximum 90.

Three of the human criteria are deductions, each taken against something physically marked on the course: angle against reference lines in the clip box, the initiation point marked on the course, and line against a set line. The fourth is an addition — the guideline calls it passion, the judge's subjective read of impact, speed and passion.

That split matters for how a perfect score reads. At the 2025 MECCA event, Kai Ito scored a perfect 100 in qualifying and won; one of the judges there was Saotome, who Yokomo's report identifies as a Yokomo drift car developer.

Entry and Sports classes at Round-28 are handled differently again, by what the guideline calls roulette judging through specified clips. The document does not describe that mechanism beyond the name.

Tandem is two runs with lead and chase swapped. The lead drives to the qualifying criteria; the chase is asked for a close, undisturbed drift. Overtaking is allowed if the lead spins, crashes or leaves the line. Each judge outputs a verdict and the system combines them, and a tie goes to sudden death.

One clause in the MECCA guideline is worth reading twice: if the lead lights every DJS lamp, the chase's credit can fall. The lamps do not only score the car that lit them — they raise the bar the following car is measured against, in public, while the run is still going.

Drift Dance is the other half of the 18 October program, and this is its 30th edition. Teams of three or more, scored out of 50: angle 10, wall distance 10, sync rate 10, entertainment 20.

No DJS figure appears in that breakdown, and entertainment is worth more than any single driving criterion — more, in fact, than angle and wall distance combined.

Yokomo's report on the first Drift Dance, dated 24 April 2022, describes 14 teams with no machine or tyre restrictions, some of them formed on the day, and four maker judges scoring out of 10 each by holding up cards. VIP連合 won on sudden death. Whether cards are still held up in 2026 is not stated in the documents.

The Round-28 guideline lists its judges as 芹澤 勇久, 五月女 勝一 and 星宮 了; Yokomo does not romanise them in the document.

Drift Single Round-28 and the 30th DRIFT DANCE run on 18 October 2026 at Tsukuba RC Arena, Yokomo's own track and headquarters in Ibaraki, long known as Yatabe Arena. Web entry closes on 10 October at 23:55; the event page carries both classes and the entry details.

For a look at how the round is produced, Yokomo's livestream of Drift Single Round-26 is on YouTube. Whether Round-28 will be streamed is not stated on the event page.