Japanese motorcycle racer and racing driver (1940?2022)
Kunimitsu Takahashi
(
Shinjitai
: 高橋 ?光
,
Takahashi Kunimitsu
, 29 January 1940 ? 16 March 2022)
was a Japanese professional motorcycle
road racer
,
racing driver
, and team manager. Nicknamed "
Kuni-san
", he is known as the "
father
of
drifting
".
His racing career lasted from 1958 to 1999.
[1]
He competed on motorcycles between 1958 and 1963, during which he became the first Japanese rider to win a
World Grand Prix
, taking four world-level wins in total. Injuries sustained in a crash in 1962 led to him switching to four-wheels in 1965, after which he won the
24 Hours of Le Mans
in class, become a four-time
All-Japan Sports Prototype Champion
, and won in
Japanese Top Formula
,
JTC
, and
JGTC
. His final victory as a driver in 1999 came at the age of 59.
His racing team, Team Kunimitsu, has won multiple championships in
Super GT
. He was the chairman of the GT Association, the organizers of the Super GT series, from 1993 to 2007.
Motorcycle racing
[
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]
In
1961
, Takahashi became the first Japanese rider to win a motorcycle Grand Prix riding a 250cc
Honda
to victory at
Hockenheim
. His best World Championship finishes were a fourth place in the
1961
250 world championship and a fourth place in the
1962
125 world championship, both times on a Honda.
[2]
He was seriously injured in the
1962
Isle of Man TT
and switched to car racing in 1965. He won four Grand Prix races during his motorcycle racing career.
Car racing
[
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]
Takahashi participated in one
Formula One
race, the
1977 Japanese Grand Prix
on 23 October 1977, driving the non-works
Tyrrell
that
Kazuyoshi Hoshino
had used in the
1976 Japanese Grand Prix
. Takahashi finished 9th in his single Grand Prix outing, thus he scored no championship points. From
1987
to
1992
, he competed in the
Japanese Formula 3000
championship. He also competed in eight
24 Hours of Le Mans
races between
1986
and
1996
. In the
1995 24 Hours of Le Mans
, his team competed with a
Honda NSX
, winning the GT2 Class and finishing eighth overall.
In
1994
, he formed Team Kunimitsu to compete in the inaugural
JGTC
season, running a
Porsche 911 RSR Turbo
in the GT1 class alongside
Keiichi Tsuchiya
. In 1996, with the advent of the GT500 class, Team Kunimitsu switched manufacturers from Porsche to Honda. The next year, Team Kunimitsu cars wore the
Raybrig
colors for the first time. Takahashi drove for his own team until 1999. He retired at the end of the season to focus on team management. Team Kunimitsu won their first Drivers Championship in
2018
with
Naoki Yamamoto
and
2009
Formula One
champion
Jenson Button
behind the wheel of the #100 Raybrig Honda.
[3]
Death
[
edit
]
Takahashi died from
lymphoma
on 16 March 2022, at the age of 82.
[4]
[5]
Career motorsports results
[
edit
]
Motorcycle Grand Prix results
[
edit
]
(
key
) (Races in
italics
indicate fastest lap)
Complete Formula One results
[
edit
]
(
key
)
Super Formula Championship results
[
edit
]
![[icon]](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg/20px-Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg.png) | This section
needs expansion
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adding to it
.
(
March 2021
)
|
(
key
) (Races in
bold
indicate pole position) (Races in
italics
indicate fastest lap)
All-Japan Sports Prototype Championship results
[
edit
]
24 Hours of Le Mans results
[
edit
]
Complete JGTC results
[
edit
]
(
key
) (Races in
bold
indicate pole position) (Races in
italics
indicate fastest lap)
Complete British Saloon Car Championship results
[
edit
]
(
key
) (Races in
bold
indicate pole position; races in
italics
indicate fastest lap.)
Complete Japanese Touring Car Championship results
[
edit
]
References
[
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]
External links
[
edit
]