Hiro Matsushita

Hiro Matsushita
Nationality	Japan
Born	(1961-03-14) March 14, 1961 Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture
Retired	2001
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	North American Formula Atlantic West Division champion

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 series. He is the grandson of Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.. The family 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, an aerospace firm and race car constructor which he bought in 1991. He also owns Pacific Marketing, which oversees sponsorship arrangements for Panasonic. 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. 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!"

Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1999	Team Goh David Price Racing	Hiroki Katoh Akihiko Nakaya	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	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	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	SRF Ret	LBH 13	PHX 14	INDY 16	MIL 10	DET 14	POR 14	CLE 14	MEA 12	TOR Ret	MIS Ret	DEN 14	VAN 16	MDO 14	ROA 12	NZR 12	LS 20			23rd	6
1992	Dick Simon Racing	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	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	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	MIA Ret	SRF 11	PHX Ret	LBH 19	NZR DNS	INDY 10	MIL 19	DET 14	POR 17	ROA 13	TOR Ret	CLE 13	MIS Ret	MDO 15	NHM 22	VAN 17	LS 22			28th	5
1996	Payton/Coyne Racing	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	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	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

External links

• Profile Page
• A biography

References

Sporting positions
Preceded by Dean Hall	North American Formula Atlantic Pacific Division Champion 1989	Succeeded by Mark Dismore