Kaoru Hoshino (21 September 1947 – 21 November 2022) was a Japanese

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 ...

. He was active in the Toyota works team Toms from its inception, driving the

Toyota Corolla The is a series of compact cars (formerly subcompact) manufactured and marketed globally by the Toyota Motor Corporation. Introduced in 1966, the Corolla was the best-selling car worldwide by 1974 and has been one of the best-selling cars in ...

and Toyota Starlet. He was mainly active in touring car racing, and also competed in the

All Japan Touring Car Championship The Japanese Touring Car Championship (abbr: 1985–1993: JTC, 1994–1998: JTCC, officially known as All Japan Touring Car Championship, ja, 全日本ツーリングカー選手権, link=no), was a former touring car racing series held in Japan. ...

with the Toyota Supra and Toyota Corolla Levin. He continued to compete in the

Super Taikyu Super Taikyu (スーパー耐久, ''Super Endurance''), formerly known as the Super N1 Taikyu Series prior to 2005 and N1 Endurance Series prior to 1995, and currently named the Eneos Super Taikyu Series Powered by Hankook for sponsorship reasons, ...

s and the All Japan GT Championship, and in 1995, in the GT2 class of the All Japan GT Championship, he teamed up with Yoshimi Ishibashi to win the series championship with a Nissan Skyline. Kaoru was best known for being involved in Tetsuya Ota's accident when he was rear-ended by

Tomohiko Sunako , professionally known as , is a Japanese racing driver, motoring journalist, and driving instructor. He is the son of former Nissan works racing driver and Yamaha factory motorcycle racer, Yoshikazu Sunako. Sunako competed in the Super Taikyu ...

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

, his tire came off and he was stuck in the pit lane when Ota hit Sunako Kaoru had just touched the wall a little bit. The tire came off and also damaged his car's rear end due to the touch with Sunako. Hoshino died on 25 November 2022, at the age of 75.

Racing record

Complete JGTC results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

1947 births 2022 deaths Japanese racing drivers IMSA GT Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers World Sportscar Championship drivers Japanese Touring Car Championship drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers TOM'S drivers 20th-century Japanese people {{Japan-autoracing-bio-stub