, also known by , is a Japanese businessman and former

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

. Matsushita is the first and only Japanese driver to win the

Toyota Atlantic Championship The Atlantic Championship is a formula race car series with races throughout North America. It has been called Champ Car Atlantics (after its former name), Toyota Atlantics (due to the series' previous history of using Toyota-powered engines) ...

(Pacific) in 1989 and also the first Japanese driver to race at the Indy 500. He is the grandson of Kōnosuke Matsushita, founder of Panasonic, and son of

Masaharu Matsushita , was a Japanese businessman who served as the second President of Panasonic for sixteen years beginning in 1961. He was the son-in-law of Panasonic's founder, Konosuke Matsushita. Masaharu Matsushita has been credited with expanding Panasonic in ...

, who served as the second president of Panasonic for sixteen years beginning in 1961.

Early life

Matsushita was born in Nishinomiya,

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

, Japan, and graduated from Konan University. The grandson of the founder of Panasonic has been edgy from the start about the tag of a rich kid who can buy his own ride, he worked his way up from the bottom. He began racing Formula Fords, the Class A of auto racing, in 1987. The following year, teaming with Jim Downing in a Camel Lights car, he finished second in class at the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

and third at the

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second round ...

. In 1989, Matsushita jumped into the Formula Atlantic series. By the end of 1989, Matsushita earned four victories and the Formula Atlantic series championship.

Racing career

Matsushita started his career racing motorcycles in his home country between 1977 and 1979, before making the switch to four wheels. Matsushita began to make his name known by winning 1989 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. He 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 as well. At the Phoenix race in 1994, Matsushita endured a horrific crash in which his car was cut in half by Jacques Villeneuve's car traveling at nearly full speed. He emerged from his destroyed car 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 American open-wheel car racing, also known as Indy car racing, is a category of professional automobile racing in the United States. As of 2022, the top-level American open-wheel racing championship is sanctioned by IndyCar. Competitive events ...

history without scoring a Top 5. In 2001, Matsushita competed in the

Baja 1000 The Baja 1000 is an annual Mexican off-road motorsport race held on the Baja California Peninsula. It is one of the most prestigious off-road races in the world, having attracted competitors from six continents. The race was founded by Ed Pearl ...

off-road race, in a

Mitsubishi Montero The Further information on the Mitsubishi P ...

Racing record

WCAR/SCCA Western Formula Atlantic Championship results

IMSA Camel Lights results

Toyota Atlantic Championship (pacific) results

Lady Wigram Trophy results

American open–wheel racing results

Indy Lights

CART

24 Hours of Le Mans results

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

Away from the track, Matsushita owns Matsushita International Corp, a Real estate, Finance & Insurance Firm and Swift Engineering, an American engineering firm known for producing racing cars for a variety of open-wheel racing series, including Formula Ford, Formula Atlantic, the Champ Car World Series and Formula Nippon. He bought Swift Engineering in 1991. In 2018 Swift Engineering joint ventured with

Kobe Institute of Computing is a private university in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. History KIC was found by Mr Tomio Fukuoka in . The Graduate School of Information Technology has established in . Fields of study KIC Graduate School of Information Technology has one M ...

called

Swift Xi Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIFT, a ...

, located in

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

, Japan. providing data, logistics, and operations of autonomous and robotic technologies.

Private life

Matsushita resides in

San Clemente, California San Clemente (; Spanish for " St. Clement") is a city in Orange County, California. Located in the Orange Coast region of the South Coast of California, San Clemente's population was 64,293 in at the 2020 census. Situated roughly midway betwee ...

Awards

In 1998, Nov 2, Hiro Matsushita was awarded Champion Culbs during the CART Year End Banquet at the Century Plaza in Los Angeles, California.

Matsushita family tree

References

External links

DriverDatabase

MOTORSPORT STATS

NASCAR

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Matsushita, Hiro 1961 births Japanese racing drivers Living people Champ Car drivers Indianapolis 500 drivers Indy Lights drivers Atlantic Championship drivers Panasonic Sportspeople from Kobe 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers Japanese IndyCar Series drivers Japanese businesspeople Walker Racing drivers Dale Coyne Racing drivers David Price Racing drivers