Hiro Matsushita
Hiro Matsushita | |
---|---|
Nationality | ![]() |
Born | Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture | March 14, 1961
Retired | 2001 |
Related to | Konosuke Matsushita (Grandfather) Masaharu Matsushita (Father) Masayuki Matsushita (松下正幸) (Elder brother) |
CART Championship Car | |
Years active | 1990-1998 |
Teams | Dick Simon Racing Paragon Racing Walker Racing Arciero-Wells Racing Payton/Coyne Racing |
Starts | 117 |
Wins | 0 |
Poles | 0 |
Best finish | 23rd in 1991 |
Previous series | |
1989 1989 1986 | American Racing Series North American Formula Atlantic (West) United States Formula Ford |
Championship titles | |
1989 | Toyota Atlantic Championship North American Formula Atlantic West Division champion |
Awards | |
1998 | Champions Club |
Hiroyuki "Hiro" Matsushita (ヒロ松下, Hiro Matsushita, born March 14, 1961, Kobe, Japan) (full Kanji:松下弘幸), is a former driver in the Champ Car, Formula Atlantic series who won the Toyota Atlantic Championship (Pacific) Championship in 1989 as a first and only Japanese.
He is the grandson of Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.. His father Masaharu Matsushita who served as the second President of Panasonic for sixteen years beginning in 1961. His elder brother Masayuki Matsushita is the current Vice Chairman of Panasonic. His relationship has allowed him to receive financial backing from Panasonic throughout his racing career.
Racing career
Early career
Matsushita started his career racing motorcycles in his home country between 1977 and 1979, before making the switch to four wheels. With Panasonic backing, he then moved to the United States and entered his first Formula Ford race in 1986. He came second at the 24 Hours of Daytona and third at the Sebring 12 Hours in 1988. Matsushita began to make his name known by winning the 1989 Toyota Atlantic championship (Pacific division) with the largest point margin of all time.
CART Champ Car
He graduated to Champ Car in 1990, scoring one point in his debut season. Inexplicably, he never showed the pace that took him to four Atlantic victories; instead, he quickly earned a reputation for being at the tail end of the grid, always outperformed by his teammates. Nonetheless, he became the first Japanese driver to race in the Indianapolis 500 in 1991, and followed that achievement with a top ten finish at Milwaukee. Matsushita missed the 1992 Indy 500 after suffering a broken leg during a practice crash. He was sidelined for several weeks, and missed the next six events as well.
At the Phoenix race in 1994, Matsushita endured a horrific crash in which his car was cut in half by Jacques Villeneuve's car traveling at full speed. Miraculously, he emerged from his destroyed car unscathed. The same year, he earned his best career finish of 6th position at the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway. This result was made possible by an extraordinarily high rate of attrition that saw only 8 cars finish the race. Matsushita was 11 laps behind the leader at the drop of the checkered flag.
By the time he retired in 1998, Matsushita had started 117 Champ Car races for Dick Simon Racing, Walker Racing, Arciero/Wells Racing and Payton/Coyne. He holds the record for most starts in American Championship Car Racing history without scoring a Top 5.
In 2001, Matsushita competed in the Baja 1000 off road race in a Mitsubishi Montero.
Personal life
Away from the track, Matsushita owns Swift Engineering, is an American engineering firm, most notable for producing racing cars for a variety of open-wheel racing series, including Formula Ford, Formula Atlantic, the Champ Car World Series and Formula Nippon. From 2000 it diversified into Aerospace/Aviation markets.
In 2018 Swift Engineering joint ventured with Kobe Institute of Computing called Swift Xi located in Kobe, Japan providing data, logistics, and operations of autonomous and robotic technologies.[1]
Matsushita resides in San Clemente, California.
Nickname
Matsushita earned the nickname "King Hiro" from Emerson Fittipaldi, who was complaining about Matsushita's reluctance to cede track position when getting lapped by the leaders.[2] The nickname came about as a result of the voice-activated microphone ("vox") Roger Penske's team was using. Fittipaldi's epithet was said so quickly that the circuit cut off the first syllable of the first word he used. Fittipaldi, allegedly, had intended to say "Fucking Hiro!"[3]
Racing record
24 Hours of Le Mans results
Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1999 | ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
BMW V12 LM | LMP | 223 | DNF | DNF |
American open–wheel racing results
(key)
Indy Lights
Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Rank | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1989 | Panasonic Racing | ![]() PHX |
![]() LBH |
![]() MIL |
![]() DET |
![]() POR 13 |
![]() MWL 12 |
![]() TOR 6 |
![]() POC |
![]() MDO |
![]() ROA |
![]() NAZ 8 |
![]() LAG |
18th | 14 |
CART
Year | Team | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | Rank | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1990 | Dick Simon Racing | Lola T89/00 | Cosworth DFS V8t | PHX | LBH 19 |
INDY DNQ |
MIL | DET Ret |
POR 12 |
CLE | MEA Ret |
TOR | MIS | DEN 15 |
VAN Ret |
MDO 17 |
ROA Ret |
NZR Ret |
LS Ret |
31st | 1 | |||
1991 | Dick Simon Racing | Lola T90/00 | Cosworth DFS V8t | SRF Ret |
PHX 14 |
MIL 10 |
DET 14 |
POR 14 |
23rd | 6 | ||||||||||||||
Lola T91/00 | LBH 13 |
CLE 14 |
MEA 12 |
TOR Ret |
MIS Ret |
DEN 14 |
VAN 16 |
MDO 14 |
ROA 12 |
NZR 12 |
||||||||||||||
Buick 3300 V6t | INDY 16 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Chevrolet 265A V8t | LS 20 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
1992 | Dick Simon Racing | Lola T92/00 | Chevrolet 265A V8t | SRF DNS |
PHX 16 |
LBH 10 |
INDY DNS |
DET | POR | MIL | NHM | TOR | MIS | CLE Ret |
ROA 14 |
VAN 13 |
MDO Ret |
NZR 14 |
LS 15 |
27th | 3 | |||
1993 | Walker Racing | Lola T93/00 | Ford XB V8t | SRF 11 |
PHX 10 |
LBH 14 |
INDY 18 |
MIL 13 |
DET 13 |
POR Ret |
CLE 12 |
TOR 16 |
MIS 14 |
NHM 13 |
ROA 13 |
VAN 12 |
MDO 13 |
NZR 21 |
LS 19 |
26th | 7 | |||
1994 | Dick Simon Racing | Lola T94/00 | Ford XB V8t | SRF 15 |
PHX Ret |
LBH DNQ |
INDY 14 |
MIL 23 |
DET DNQ |
POR 21 |
CLE 15 |
TOR 18 |
MIS 6 |
MDO 18 |
NHM Ret |
VAN DNQ |
ROA 14 |
NZR 16 |
LS Ret |
26th | 8 | |||
1995 | Arciero-Wells Racing | Reynard 94i | Ford XB V8t | MIA Ret |
SRF 11 |
PHX Ret |
LBH 19 |
NZR DNS |
28th | 5 | ||||||||||||||
Reynard 95i | INDY 10 |
MIL 19 |
DET 14 |
POR 17 |
ROA 13 |
TOR Ret |
CLE 13 |
MIS Ret |
MDO 15 |
NHM 22 |
VAN 17 |
LS 22 |
||||||||||||
1996 | Payton/Coyne Racing | Lola T96/00 | Ford XB V8t | MIA 18 |
RIO Ret |
SRF 10 |
LBH Ret |
NZR Ret |
500 14 |
MIL Ret |
DET 19 |
POR Ret |
CLE 17 |
TOR Ret |
MIS 15 |
MDO Ret |
ROA Ret |
VAN 15 |
LS Ret |
28th | 3 | |||
1997 | Arciero-Wells Racing | Reynard 97i | Toyota RV8A V8t Toyota RV8B V8t |
MIA Ret |
SRF Ret |
LBH 20 |
NZR Ret |
RIO Ret |
STL 15 |
MIL 17 |
DET 19 |
POR 15 |
CLE 20 |
TOR 22 |
MIS 9 |
MDO 19 |
ROA Ret |
VAN 14 |
LS Ret |
FON Ret |
27th | 4 | ||
1998 | Arciero-Wells Racing | Reynard 98i | Toyota RV8C V8t | MIA Ret |
MOT 16 |
LBH 19 |
NZR | RIO 15 |
STL | MIL | DET | POR | CLE | TOR | MIS | MDO | ROA | VAN | LS | HOU | SRF | FON | 30th | 0 |
References
- ^ http://swift-xi.com/index.html
- ^ Oreovicz, John (2001-08-22). "Tora Finding His Form". ChampCarWorldSeries.com. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
- ^ "Motor Sports Dictionary - K". Dictionary of Gambling. Retrieved 2007-07-24.