Masahiro
Hasemi

Masahiro Hasemi was born in Tokyo in 1945. He began racing motocross at the age of 15, and in 1964 he signed to drive for Nissan. He established himself in saloon car and GT racing in Japan, and in 1973 he entered two rounds of the British Saloon Car Championship. In 1975 he won the Japanese Grand Prix, which at the time was not part of the World Championship.

His only Formula One race came on 24 October 1976, when he drove for Kojima at the Japanese Grand Prix. He qualified tenth, after a mistake had cost him the chance of pole position, and finished 11th, seven laps behind the winner. He is often credited with the fastest lap of that race, but this came from a timing error, and the circuit corrected it a few days later in favour of Jacques Laffite. Together with Noritake Takahara and Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Hasemi was among the first Japanese drivers to start a Formula One Grand Prix.

In 1980 he won the Japanese Formula 2 title, and he took the Fuji Grand Champion Series in 1974 and 1980. After that he returned to racing Skylines. He won the Japanese Touring Car Championship in 1989, 1991 and 1992. He also won the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship in 1990 and the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1992. He retired from driving in 2001 and is a team owner in Super GT.

Source: Wikipedia, “Masahiro Hasemi”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.