Kunimitsu Takahashi

Takahashi began his career on two wheels as a motor cycle racer, gaining the distinction of being the first Japanese rider to win a World Championship Grand Prix on a 250 cc Honda in 1961, when aged just 21. A serious accident in 1962 during the Isle of Man TT races halted his progress and he eventually switched to four wheels.

A regular competitor in the Japanese sports car series in the 1970s, he raced the old Tyrrell that had been used by Hoshino the previous year in the 1977 Japanese GP and took a distant ninth place, though satisfyingly he was ahead of the Kojima driven by Hoshino.

He subsequently joined the Kojima team for the domestic Formula 2 series and later also ran a Toleman TG280 with backing from Yokohama tyres.

Takahashi was Japanese sports car champion four times in the eighties: 1985 and ’86 (with Kenji Takahashi), 1987 (with Kenneth Acheson) and 1989 (with Stanley Dickens).

He subsequently competed regularly in the Japanese F3000 championship and in recent years has formed his own GT team to successfully race a Honda NSX GT2 in the All-Japan GT championship.