Hitotsuyama Racing is a Japanese racing team currently competing in SRO Japan Cup and the ST-3 class of Super Taikyu. The team formerly competed in the GT500 and GT300 classes of Super GT.
History 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. In 1990, Hitotsuyama Racing began its racing ventures, with Mikio making his debut in the Japanese Touring Car Championship. After six seasons in the series, Hitotsuyama Racing joined the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (known as Super GT from 2005) in 1996.
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. 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. 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. 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.
In 2006, Hitotsuyama Racing switched to the newly-created Japan Le Mans Challenge, fielding a car in the LMP1 and LMGT1 classes. In the two seasons the JLMC ran, Hitotsuyama Racing won the LMGT1 title in both years, as well as the LMP1 title in 2007. 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. In the two-race AsLMS season at Okayama, Hitotsuyama Team Nova secured the win in race two with the Tsuzuki-Tsuchiya duo.
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. In 2014, Hitotsuyama Racing began a partnership with Audi Japan and began racing as Audi Team Hitotsuyama with Lyons and Tomonobu Fujii, a season in which the team scored a lone podium at Sugo. After a podium at Okayama in 2015, Hitotsuyama Racing had a breakthrough season in 2016, winning at Motegi with Fujii-Lyons and securing third in the teams' standings.
Alongside its Super GT commitments, Hitotsuyama Racing also raced at Suzuka 10 Hours in 2018 and 2019, established the A1 Fan Cup, as well as making its debut in TCR Japan and a one-off appearance in the World Touring Car Cup in 2019. 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.
In 2020, Hitotsuyama Racing was set to field Audi factory driver Christopher Mies full-time in Super GT alongside Shintaro Kawabata, but was replaced by Tsubasa Kondo after Covid-19 restrictions left Mies unable to enter Japan. 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. The following year, Kawabata was partnered up with Takuro Shinohara, scoring a surprise third win for Hitotsuyama Racing at Motegi, before the team left the series ahead of 2022.
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. While Hitotsuyama Racing continued in Super Taikyu for 2022, albeit switching to ST-Z with an R8 LMS GT4, the team competed in its only season in the F4 Japanese Championship with Daiki Fujiwara, as well as a one-off appearance in GT World Challenge Asia with Tsuzuki and Motohiro Ogura at Fuji.
As the team continued its ST-Z programme, Hitotsuyama Racing switched to a Mercedes-AMG GT4 in 2024, the same year it joined the SRO Japan Cup in 2024, helping run GAMA 83 Racing in the GTC class. 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, as well as a brief return to single-seaters with Anna Inotsume in the Formula Regional Japanese Championship. 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. In parallel, Hitotsuyama Racing partnered with Cornes Racing to field a Ferrari 296 GT3 in the SRO Japan Cup for Kawabata and Tsuzuki, taking a lone win at Fuji, as well as securing the overall and Pro-Am GT3 titles.
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, whereas in Super Taikyu, the team fielded a lone BMW M2 Racing in the ST-3 class. In the former, Hitotsuyama sealed their second consecutive drivers' and teams' titles with their Kawabata-Tsuzuki pairing.
Former series results JGTC (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year CarTyresClassNo.Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pos Pts 1996BMW M3 (E36)GT30021 Kenji Yamamoto Fuminori Mizuno Yasushi Hitotsuyama Mikio HitotsuyamaSUZFUJSENFUJSUGMIN 8th 31 1997BMW M3 (E36)GT30021 Yasushi Hitotsuyama Takayuki Kinoshita Kenji Yamamoto Mikio Hitotsuyama Mizuno FuminoriSUZFUJSENFUJMINSUG 15th 6 1998BMW M3 (E36)GT30021 Hiroki Katoh Yasushi Hitotsuyama Mikio Hitotsuyama Takayuki KinoshitaSUZFUJSENFUJMOTMINSUG 4th 441999BMW M3 (E36)GT30021 Daisuke Ito Yasushi Hitotsuyama Mikio HitotsuyamaSUZFUJSUGMINFUJOKAMOT 16th 6 2000McLaren F1 GTRGT50021 Akihiko Nakaya Yasushi Hitotsuyama Mikio HitotsuyamaMOTFUJSUGFUJOKAMINSUZ 15th 1 2001McLaren F1 GTRGT50021 Akihiko Nakaya Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Yasushi Hitotsuyama Naoki Hattori Mikio HitotsuyamaOKAFUJSUGFUJMOTSUZMIN13th12002McLaren F1 GTRGT50076 Naoki Hattori Eiichi TajimaOKAFUJSUGSEPFUJMOTMINSUZ11th27BMW M3 CSLGT30021 Yasushi Kikuchi Mikio Hitotsuyama Yasushi HitotsuyamaOKAFUJSUGSEPFUJMOTMINSUZ13th62003McLaren F1 GTRGT50076 Eiichi Tajima Yudai Igarashi Haruki Kurosawa Go ShimizuOKAFUJSUGFUJFUJMOTAUTSUZ14th2BMW M3 CSLGT30021 Mikio Hitotsuyama Takeshi Namekawa Yasushi Hitotsuyama Haruhiko MatsumotoOKAFUJSUGFUJFUJMOTAUTSUZNC0 2004Ferrari 550 GTSGT50021 Hidetoshi Mitsusada Tadao UematsuOKASUGSEPTOKMOTAUTSUZNC0
Super GT (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year CarTyres Class No. Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Pos Points2005 McLaren F1 GTRGT500 20 Eiichi Tajima Yasushi Hitotsuyama Mikio HitotsuyamaOKAFUJSEPSUGMOTFUJAUTSUZNC0 Ferrari 550 GTS 21 Takuya Kurosawa Hidetoshi MitsusadaOKAFUJSEPSUGMOTFUJAUTSUZ 2009 Aston Martin DBR9 GT500 21 Akihiro Tsuzuki Takeshi TsuchiyaOKASUZFUJSEPSUGSUZFUJAUTMOT 15th 32012Audi R8 LMSGT300 20 Hideki Noda Michael Kim Kenji Kobayashi Frank YuOKAFUJSEPSUGSUZFUJAUTMOT28th2 21 Akihiro Tsuzuki Cyndie Allemann Richard Lyons Yukinori TaniguchiOKAFUJSEPSUGSUZFUJAUTMOT17th21 77 Igor Sushko Kenji KobayashiOKAFUJSEPSUGSUZFUJAUTMOT29th1 99 Frank Yu Hideto Yasuoka Michael Kim Yoshio TsuzukiOKAFUJSEPSUGSUZFUJAUTMOT26th32013 Audi R8 LMS ultra GT300 21 Akihiro Tsuzuki Richard LyonsOKAFUJSEPSUGSUZFUJFUJAUTMOT18th192014 Audi R8 LMS ultra GT300 21 Tomonobu Fujii Richard Lyons Carlo van Dam Christopher HaaseOKAFUJAUTSUGFUJSUZCHAMOT13th342015 Audi R8 LMS ultra GT300 21 Tomonobu Fujii Richard Lyons Stéphane OrtelliOKAFUJCHAFUJSUZSUGAUTMOT11th452016 Audi R8 LMS GT300 21 Tomonobu Fujii Richard LyonsOKAFUJSUGFUJSUZCHAMOTMOT3rd76 2017 Audi R8 LMS GT300 21 Richard Lyons Masataka YanagidaOKAFUJAUTSUGFUJSUZCHAMOT 19th 21 2018 Audi R8 LMS GT300 21 Richard Lyons Ryuichiro Tomita Takuro ShinoharaOKAFUJSUZCHAFUJSUGAUTMOT 22nd 15 2019 Audi R8 LMS Evo GT300 21 Richard Lyons Ryuichiro Tomita Alessio PicarielloOKAFUJSUZBURFUJAUTSUGMOT 17th 30 2020 Audi R8 LMS Evo GT300 21 Shintaro Kawabata Tsubasa KondoFUJFUJSUZMOTFUJSUZMOTFUJ 10th 51 2021 Audi R8 LMS Evo GT300 21 Shintaro Kawabata Takuro ShinoharaOKAFUJMOTSUZSUGAUTMOTFUJ 14th 42 ‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed. * Season still in progress.
Timeline Current seriesA1 Fun Cup2019–presentSuper Taikyu Series2011, 2021–presentSRO Japan Cup2024–presentFormula Regional Japanese Championship2025–presentFormer seriesJapanese Touring Car Championship1990–1997Super GT1996–2005, 2009, 2012–2021Japan Le Mans Challenge2006–2007Asian Le Mans Series2009Intercontinental GT Challenge2018–2019TCR Japan Touring Car Series2019–2021World Touring Car Cup2019F4 Japanese Championship2022GT World Challenge Asia2022
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