Masahiro Hasemi

is a former racing driver and team owner from Japan. He started racing motocross when he was 15 years old. In 1964 he signed to drive for Nissan. After establishing himself in saloon car and GT races in Japan, he notably entered two rounds of the 1973 British Saloon Car Championship. He took part in his only Formula One race at the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix for Kojima on 24 October 1976. He qualified tenth after an error which cost him his chance of a pole position and finished 11th, seven laps behind the winner. Contrary to a widely propagated but mistaken result, however, he never set a fastest lap in a Formula One championship race. Along with compatriots Noritake Takahara and Kazuyoshi Hoshino, he was the first Japanese driver to start a Formula One Grand Prix.

Hasemi became the Japanese Formula 2 champion in 1980, and got two titles in the Fuji Grand Champion Series in 1974 and 1980. After that he reverted to racing Skylines, which he became heavily synonymous with in Group 5, touring cars and JGTC. He won the Japanese Touring Car Championship in 1989, 1991 and 1992. He also won the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship in 1990, with the controversial win at the Guia Touring Car race at the Macau Grand Prix in 1990 and Daytona 24 hour in 1992. Hasemi retired from driving in 2001 and now runs NDDP Racing, a Super GT team that currently competes in the GT500 class. Hasemi also owns Hasemi Sport, a former Super GT racing team that ran under the Hasemi Motorsport banner and Nissan aftermarket parts company.

Hasemi is the most recent Japanese driver to win his home Grand Prix, winning it in 1975, when it was a non-championship race. Hasemi's former Kojima KE007 on display at Yurakucho Marion in 2013.

Racing record

Japanese Top Formula Championship results (key)

Complete Formula One results (key) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 WDC Pts 1976 Kojima Engineering Kojima KE007 Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 BRA RSA USW ESP BEL MON SWE FRA GBR GER AUT NED ITA CAN USA JPN NC 0

Complete JTC/JTCC results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

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

Complete Bathurst 1000 results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 1981 Nissan Motor Co. Kazuyoshi Hoshino Nissan Bluebird Turbo 4 Cylinder 66 DNF DNF 1982 Nissan Motor Co. Kazuyoshi Hoshino Nissan Bluebird Turbo B 153 8th 1st

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Note on fastest lap in Formula One It was initially announced that Hasemi set the fastest lap at the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix, but it was a measurement mistake, and, several days later, the circuit issued a press release to correct the fastest lap holder of the race to Jacques Laffite. This press release was promptly made known in Japan, and the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and Japanese media corrected the record. But this correction was not made well known outside Japan, thus, Hasemi remains credited with a fastest lap in many record books.