Hitotsuyama Racing

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Team founders Mikio Hitotsuyama and Yasushi Hitotsuyama had been racing drivers in the 1970s, but temporarily took a step back from motorsport to focus on their Yamaichi Transport & Warehouse business.^[1] In 1990, Hitotsuyama Racing began its racing ventures, with Mikio making his debut in the Japanese Touring Car Championship.^[2] After six seasons in the series, Hitotsuyama Racing joined the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (known as Super GT from 2005) in 1996.^[1]

Debuting in the GT300 class with a BMW M3 (E36), the team achieved its first podium at the Mine finale on its debut year with Kenji Yamamoto and Mikio Hitotsuyama at the wheel.^[3] Continuing in the class for the next three seasons, Hitotsuyama's maiden stint in GT300 was highlighted by a fourth-place points finish in 1998, in which it scored a podium at Fuji with Hiroki Katoh and Yasushi Hitotsuyama.^[4] In 2000, Hitotsuyama Racing stepped up to the GT500 class with a McLaren F1 GTR, with Akihiko Nakaya for the full-season, while Yasushi Hitotsuyama drove for most of the season.^[5] Spending six seasons in the category, which included two seasons with the Ferrari 550 GTS, Hitotsuyama Racing scored a lone podium from pole at Motegi in 2002 with Naoki Hattori and Eiichi Tajima to take 11th in points with the F1 GTR.^[6]

In 2006, Hitotsuyama Racing switched to the newly-created Japan Le Mans Challenge, fielding a car in the LMP1 and LMGT1 classes.^[7] In the two seasons the JLMC ran, Hitotsuyama Racing won the LMGT1 title in both years,^[8] as well as the LMP1 title in 2007.^[9] In 2009, the team returned to the GT500 class of Super GT, under the Team Nova banner, fielding an Aston Martin DBR9 in select rounds for Akihiro Tsuzuki and Takeshi Tsuchiya to prepare for the Asian Le Mans Series.^[10] In the two-race AsLMS season at Okayama, Hitotsuyama Team Nova secured the win in race two with the Tsuzuki-Tsuchiya duo.^[11][12]

Three years later, Hitotsuyama Racing made its full-time return to Super GT with an Audi R8 LMS driven by Tsuzuki alongside Cyndie Allemann and Richard Lyons, who shared the second seat.^[13] In 2014, Hitotsuyama Racing began a partnership with Audi Japan and began racing as Audi Team Hitotsuyama with Lyons and Tomonobu Fujii,^[14] a season in which the team scored a lone podium at Sugo.^[15] After a podium at Okayama in 2015,^[16] Hitotsuyama Racing had a breakthrough season in 2016, winning at Motegi with Fujii-Lyons and securing third in the teams' standings.^[17]

Alongside its Super GT commitments, Hitotsuyama Racing also raced at Suzuka 10 Hours in 2018 and 2019,^[18][19] established the A1 Fan Cup,^[20] as well as making its debut in TCR Japan and a one-off appearance in the World Touring Car Cup in 2019.^[21][22] In the team's three-year stint in TCR competition, Hitotsuyama Racing most notably secured the TCR Japan Touring Car Series team's championship in 2020 with Takuro Shinohara.^[23]

In 2020, Hitotsuyama Racing was set to field Audi factory driver Christopher Mies full-time in Super GT alongside Shintaro Kawabata,^[24] but was replaced by Tsubasa Kondo after Covid-19 restrictions left Mies unable to enter Japan.^[25] Despite the last-minute change in line-up, the team scored its second Super GT win at Suzuka to jump up to tenth in points.^[26] The following year, Kawabata was partnered up with Takuro Shinohara,^[27] scoring a surprise third win for Hitotsuyama Racing at Motegi,^[28] before the team left the series ahead of 2022.^[29]

During its final season in Super GT and TCR Japan in 2021, Hitotsuyama Racing returned to Super Taikyu, making a one-off appearance at the Fuji 24 Hours in the ST-X class with its R8 LMS.^[30] While Hitotsuyama Racing continued in Super Taikyu for 2022, albeit switching to ST-Z with an R8 LMS GT4,^[31] the team competed in its only season in the F4 Japanese Championship with Daiki Fujiwara,^[32] as well as a one-off appearance in GT World Challenge Asia with Tsuzuki and Motohiro Ogura at Fuji.^[33]

As the team continued its ST-Z programme, Hitotsuyama Racing switched to a Mercedes-AMG GT4 in 2024,^[34] the same year it joined the SRO Japan Cup in 2024, helping run GAMA 83 Racing in the GTC class.^[35] For 2025, Hitotsuyama Racing brought back its Audi R8 LMS Evo II to compete in the ST-X class alongside its existing programme in ST-Z,^[36] as well as a brief return to single-seaters with Anna Inotsume in the Formula Regional Japanese Championship.^[37] Between the three campaigns, Hitotsuyama Racing most notably scored two overall podiums with its ST-X entry, as it finished fifth in the teams' standings with a best result of second at Autopolis.^[38] In parallel, Hitotsuyama Racing partnered with Cornes Racing to field a Ferrari 296 GT3 in the SRO Japan Cup for Kawabata and Tsuzuki,^[39] taking a lone win at Fuji,^[40] as well as securing the overall and Pro-Am GT3 titles.^[41]

In 2026, Hitotsuyama Racing remained in the SRO Japan Cup to defend its title with its Ferrari, as well as running newcomers AWD Racing with their Audi R8 LMS Evo II,^[42] whereas in Super Taikyu, the team fielded a lone BMW M2 Racing in the ST-3 class.^[43]

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JGTC

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

More information Year, Car ...

Year	Car	Tyres	Class	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pos	Pts
1996	BMW M3 (E36)	D	GT300	21	Kenji Yamamoto Fuminori Mizuno Yasushi Hitotsuyama Mikio Hitotsuyama	SUZ 8	FUJ Ret	SEN 6	FUJ 6	SUG 7	MIN 3			8th	31
1997	BMW M3 (E36)	D	GT300	21	Yasushi Hitotsuyama Takayuki Kinoshita Kenji Yamamoto Mikio Hitotsuyama Mizuno Fuminori	SUZ Ret	FUJ 10	SEN 10	FUJ Ret	MIN Ret	SUG 7			15th	6
1998	BMW M3 (E36)	D	GT300	21	Hiroki Katoh Yasushi Hitotsuyama Mikio Hitotsuyama Takayuki Kinoshita	SUZ Ret	FUJ C	SEN 5	FUJ 3	MOT 5	MIN 5	SUG 5		4th	44
1999	BMW M3 (E36)	T	GT300	21	Daisuke Ito Yasushi Hitotsuyama Mikio Hitotsuyama	SUZ 12	FUJ NC	SUG 12	MIN 7	FUJ 9	OKA 14	MOT DNA		16th	6
2000	McLaren F1 GTR	D	GT500	21	Akihiko Nakaya Yasushi Hitotsuyama Mikio Hitotsuyama	MOT 14	FUJ 11	SUG Ret	FUJ Ret	OKA 17	MIN 10	SUZ Ret		15th	1
2001	McLaren F1 GTR	D	GT500	21	Akihiko Nakaya Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Yasushi Hitotsuyama Naoki Hattori Mikio Hitotsuyama	OKA 10	FUJ 13	SUG Ret	FUJ 11	MOT Ret	SUZ Ret	MIN 11		13th	1
2002	McLaren F1 GTR	D	GT500	76	Naoki Hattori Eiichi Tajima	OKA 13	FUJ 8	SUG 6	SEP 8	FUJ 13	MOT 3	MIN Ret	SUZ Ret	11th	27
	BMW M3 CSL	D	GT300	21	Yasushi Kikuchi Mikio Hitotsuyama Yasushi Hitotsuyama	OKA 16	FUJ 8	SUG 8	SEP 19	FUJ 20	MOT 14	MIN Ret	SUZ Ret	13th	6
2003	McLaren F1 GTR	D	GT500	76	Eiichi Tajima Yudai Igarashi Haruki Kurosawa Go Shimizu	OKA 13	FUJ 9	SUG 12	FUJ 18	FUJ 14	MOT Ret	AUT	SUZ 15	14th	2
	BMW M3 CSL	D	GT300	21	Mikio Hitotsuyama Takeshi Namekawa Yasushi Hitotsuyama Haruhiko Matsumoto	OKA Ret	FUJ Ret	SUG 14	FUJ DNQ	FUJ DNQ	MOT DNA	AUT	SUZ	NC	0
2004	Ferrari 550 GTS	D	GT500	21	Hidetoshi Mitsusada Tadao Uematsu	OKA 15	SUG DNQ	SEP 13	TOK 16	MOT 14	AUT 15	SUZ 14		NC	0

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Super GT

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

More information Year, Car ...

Year	Car	Tyres	Class	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pos	Points
2005	McLaren F1 GTR	D	GT500	20	Eiichi Tajima Yasushi Hitotsuyama Mikio Hitotsuyama	OKA	FUJ DNS	SEP	SUG	MOT	FUJ 17	AUT	SUZ		NC	0
	Ferrari 550 GTS			21	Takuya Kurosawa Hidetoshi Mitsusada	OKA Ret	FUJ Ret	SEP Ret	SUG 12	MOT Ret	FUJ 15	AUT 13	SUZ 15
2009	Aston Martin DBR9	Y	GT500	21	Akihiro Tsuzuki Takeshi Tsuchiya	OKA 14	SUZ	FUJ 14	SEP	SUG	SUZ	FUJ 14	AUT	MOT	15th	3
2012	Audi R8 LMS	Y	GT300	20	Hideki Noda Michael Kim Kenji Kobayashi Frank Yu	OKA 18	FUJ 16	SEP	SUG	SUZ	FUJ	AUT	MOT		28th	2
				21	Akihiro Tsuzuki Cyndie Allemann Richard Lyons Yukinori Taniguchi	OKA 9	FUJ 15	SEP 14	SUG Ret	SUZ 14	FUJ Ret	AUT 6	MOT 9		17th	21
				77	Igor Sushko Kenji Kobayashi	OKA	FUJ	SEP	SUG	SUZ	FUJ	AUT	MOT 18		29th	1
				99	Frank Yu Hideto Yasuoka Michael Kim Yoshio Tsuzuki	OKA	FUJ	SEP 15	SUG	SUZ Ret	FUJ	AUT Ret	MOT		26th	3
2013	Audi R8 LMS ultra	H	GT300	21	Akihiro Tsuzuki Richard Lyons	OKA 16	FUJ Ret	SEP 14	SUG 8	SUZ 11	FUJ 13	FUJ	AUT 21	MOT 21	18th	19
2014	Audi R8 LMS ultra	Y	GT300	21	Tomonobu Fujii Richard Lyons Carlo van Dam Christopher Haase	OKA 8	FUJ 14	AUT 18	SUG 3	FUJ 23	SUZ Ret	CHA Ret	MOT 4		13th	34
2015	Audi R8 LMS ultra	Y	GT300	21	Tomonobu Fujii Richard Lyons Stéphane Ortelli	OKA 3	FUJ Ret	CHA 19	FUJ 20	SUZ 5	SUG 13	AUT 5	MOT 8		11th	45
2016	Audi R8 LMS	D	GT300	21	Tomonobu Fujii Richard Lyons	OKA 7	FUJ 7	SUG Ret	FUJ 2	SUZ 6	CHA 24	MOT 1	MOT 4		3rd	76
2017	Audi R8 LMS	D	GT300	21	Richard Lyons Masataka Yanagida	OKA 14	FUJ 14	AUT 13	SUG 20	FUJ 10	SUZ Ret	CHA 23	MOT 8		19th	21
2018	Audi R8 LMS	D	GT300	21	Richard Lyons Ryuichiro Tomita Takuro Shinohara	OKA Ret	FUJ 10	SUZ 23	CHA Ret	FUJ 14	SUG 23	AUT 14	MOT 11		22nd	15
2019	Audi R8 LMS Evo	Y	GT300	21	Richard Lyons Ryuichiro Tomita Alessio Picariello	OKA 13	FUJ 8	SUZ 8	BUR 13	FUJ 13	AUT 13	SUG 7	MOT 27		17th	30
2020	Audi R8 LMS Evo	Y	GT300	21	Shintaro Kawabata Tsubasa Kondo	FUJ 17	FUJ 8	SUZ 25	MOT 5	FUJ 14	SUZ 1	MOT 13	FUJ 12		10th	51
2021	Audi R8 LMS Evo	Y	GT300	21	Shintaro Kawabata Takuro Shinohara	OKA 13	FUJ 17	MOT 16	SUZ 21	SUG 25	AUT 15	MOT 1	FUJ 17		14th	42

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^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed. * Season still in progress.