Keisuke Takahashi vs Kozo Hoshino

The battle between Keisuke Takahashi and Kozo Hoshino is the thirty-ninth battle of Initial D.

Prior to the Battle
After the conquest of Saitama, Project.D moves into Ibaraki, where they're greeted by Purple Shadow. Keisuke is matched up against Kozo Hoshino, a man known as "God Foot" due to his mastery of pedal work, who drives a mighty R34 Skyline GT-R. Keisuke's recently repaired and upgraded FD now sports an RE Amemiya body kit complete with fixed headlights and plenty of aero parts, and the two set up to duel in a hybrid match - half uphill, then turning a 180 around a cone, and back downhill.

During the Battle
The battle is kept close, as Keisuke was instructed by his brother to not get too close to Hoshino and make the time up in the downhill due to the power difference (and also to save tires). However, at the third run, God Foot makes a daring move to overtake at the cone that puts Keisuke on the back foot into the downhill, but the large GT-R's tires are heavily worn by then, compared to the lighter RX-7 who has managed to keep them intact. Hoshino fights bravely, even drifting the Skyline (which is considered impossible due to the ATTESA E-TS Pro system) until he encounters a fit of understeer that almost has him crash into the FD, but Keisuke manages to escape and win.

After the Battle
Hoshino concedes, as Keisuke arrives triumphant with his hand raised out of the FD's open window.

Fourth Stage

 * Go Go Money (Friday Night Ver.) - Neo
 * Back On The Rocks - Mega NRG Man
 * So Fragile - Pamsy
 * Looka Bomba - Go 2
 * Rider Of The Sky - Ace

Battle Stage 2

 * Pride - Dave
 * Love For Money 2008 - Money Man
 * Back On The Rocks - Mega NRG Man

Arcade Stage 8 Infinity

 * Super Driver - Daniel

Arcade Stage 8 RivalSide Info
Story arc: Purple Shadow

Driver: Kozo Hoshino

Car: Nissan Skyline GT-R V-spec II Nür (BNR34)

Opponent: Keisuke Takahashi

Team: Project D

Car: Mazda RX-7 Type R (FD3S)

Mission: Use the Shortcut

Course: Tsukuba

Rule: Inbound

Start: Standing

Weather: Clear

Time of day: Night

Trivia
This is the first battle to use a song featured in a previous stage (Back on the Rocks, originally playing in Takeshi Nakazato's battle against Takumi Fujiwara), as well as the only battle featured in a Battle Stage OVA to reuse a song from the original stage it was in (again with Back on the Rocks).