Hiro Matsushita

, also known by , is a Japanese businessman and former racing driver. He is the grandson of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic. In 1989, Matsushita won the Toyota Atlantic Championship (Pacific), becoming the first and only Japanese driver to do so. He was also the first Japanese driver to race in the Indy 500.

Early life Matsushita was born in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture as the youngest son of Masaharu Matsushita, who was the second president of Panasonic for sixteen years from 1961. He graduated from Konan University. His elder brother, Masayuki Matsushita served as a vice chairman of Panasonic for over a decade.

Racing career Despite being the grandson of the founder of Panasonic, he refused to be labelled as a rich kid who could buy his way into anything. He instead worked his way up from the bottom, starting his career racing motorcycles in his home country between 1977 and 1980, before switching to four wheels. He retired from Motocross racing by becoming Champion in Kansai region in 1980 at the age of 19.

In 1987, Matsushita started racing Formula Fords - the Class A of auto racing - In the following year, he teamed up with Jim Downing in a Camel Lights car and secured a second-place finish in class at the 24 Hours of Daytona and a third-place finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring. In 1989, Matsushita fearlessly entered the Formula Atlantic series and, by the end of that year, he had claimed four victories and the Toyota Atlantic championship (Pacific division) with the largest point margin of all time. He then tried Formula Pacific in New Zealand and became the first Japanese driver to win the prestigious Lady Wigram Trophy Race.

Matsushita graduated to Champ Car in 1990, scoring one point in his debut season. 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.

At the Phoenix race in 1994, Matsushita endured a serious crash when his car was cut in half by Jacques Villeneuve's car travelling at nearly full speed., he escaped with only minor injuries. 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.

Racing record WCAR/SCCA Western Formula Atlantic Championship results Year Team Points Car races wins podiums pole positions 1988 Panasonic Racing 118 Swift DB4 10 1 4 3

IMSA Camel Lights results Year Team Points Car races wins podiums pole positions 1988 Downing/Atlanta Racing 64 Argo JM19 Mazda 6 3 11

Toyota Atlantic Championship (pacific) results Year Team Points Car races wins podiums pole positions 1989 Panasonic Racing 141 Swift DB4 9 4 8 3 1

Lady Wigram Trophy results Year Team Car race Laps 1989 Team Panasonic Swift Cosworth 1 8 1

American open–wheel racing results 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 POR13 MEA12 TOR6 POC MDO ROA NAZ8 LAG18th14

CART

24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 1999 Team GohDavid Price Racing Hiroki Katoh Akihiko Nakaya BMW V12 LM LMP 223 DNF DNF

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!"

Business career Matsushita, a successful businessman, owns Matsushita International Corp, a firm specializing in real estate, finance, and insurance. This company has ownership of Swift Engineering, an American engineering firm that builds autonomous systems, helicopters, submarines, spacecraft, ground vehicles, robotics, and composite parts. Swift was well-known for producing racing cars for various open-wheel racing series such as Formula Ford, Formula Atlantic, the Champ Car World Series, and Formula Nippon.

Awards In 1998, Hiro Matsushita was inducted into the Champions Club during the CART Year End Banquet on November 2 at the Century Plaza in Los Angeles, California.

Matsushita family tree

Personal life Matsushita resides in San Clemente, California. He has a son called Takayuki Matsushita, who is a lawyer residing in the United States.