is a

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese/

Zainichi Korean comprise ethnic Koreans who have permanent residency status in Japan or who have become Japanese citizens, and whose immigration to Japan originated before 1945, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South ...

race car 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 organi ...

driver who races with

ese racing license. His mother is Japanese. His father, Yoshihiro Ri, also known as Yoshihiro Kunimoto, is the 1983 All Japan Karting Champion and his uncle, Yoshihiko Ri, won same karting championship twice in 1980 and 1981. His younger brother, Yuji, is also a race car driver.

Racing career

Kunimoto began

karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on f ...

in 2001 when he was 12. After winning the All Japan Karting Championship FA Class in 2004, he entered Formula Toyota Racing School and took scholarship of

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

. He began his car racing career in the 2005 Formula Toyota season, at the seventh round of the season in

Tsukuba is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 244,528 in 108,669 households and a population density of 862 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 20.3%. The total ar ...

. He competed in Formula Toyota and

Formula Challenge Japan Formula Challenge Japan was an open wheel racing series based in Japan. The first season was in 2006 and carried on from the defunct Formula Dream series. It is promoted as a young driver development project jointly by Honda, Toyota and Nissan a ...

in 2006 and 2007, and won the championship of Formula Challenge Japan with three wins and ended runner-up in Formula Toyota in 2007. In 2008, he raced in the

All-Japan Formula Three was a national motor racing championship that takes place in Japan. It is a junior-level feeder formula that uses small single seater Formula Three chassis. As a result of Formula 3 naming regulations by the FIA, on 13 August 2019, series pro ...

for

TOM'S is a factory supported racing team and tuner of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. The name stands for Tachi Oiwa Motor Sport. Their head office is located in Tokyo, Japan. They are currently heavily involved with Super GT, Super Formula and Super Formu ...

and in the

Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...

for apr, as a Toyota young Drivers Program (TDP) driver. He finished runner-up in the first Formula Three season.

2008 Macau Grand Prix

At the end of the season, Kunimoto went to

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

with TOM'S and won the Macau F3 Grand Prix, becoming the second Japanese driver to win the race after

Takuma Sato , nicknamed "Taku", is a Japanese professional racing driver. Sato is a two time winner of the Indianapolis 500, having won the event in 2017 and 2020. He was the first Asian driver to win the Indianapolis 500, and the twentieth driver to win th ...

Formula Renault 3.5 Series

Kunimoto joined

Epsilon Euskadi EPIC Racing (Euskadi Phil Imanol Claudio Racing) was a racing team from Spain. The team's headquarters were located in Vitoria ( Alava). It was the second major motorsport team from the Basque Country, (Euskadi). Epsilon Euskadi was the bigg ...

for the last two

Formula Renault 3.5 Series The World Series Formula V8 3.5, formerly the World Series by Nissan from 1998 to 2004, the Formula Renault 3.5 Series from 2005 to 2015 and the Formula V8 3.5 in 2016 and 2017, was a motor racing series promoted by RPM Racing (1998–2004) and R ...

rounds of the 2009 season. He replaced Spaniard

Dani Clos Daniel Clos Álvarez (born 23 October 1988) is a Spanish professional racecar driver who was, in 2012, the test driver for the now defunct HRT Formula One team. Career Karting Born in Barcelona, Clos was a fairly successful karter at the IC ...

in the team's line-up at the

Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...

and at the season finale at the new

Ciudad del Motor de Aragón Ciudad () is the Spanish word for City Ciudad may also refer to: * La Ciudad (archaeological site), Hohokam ruins in Phoenix, Arizona *La Ciudad, district of Durango City, Mexico *''La ciudad'', novel by Mario Levrero 1970 *La Ciudad ''The Cit ...

circuit. He returned with the team for the 2010 season, partnering

2009 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 The 2009 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 season was the nineteenth Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 season. The season began at Circuit de Catalunya on April 18 and finished at the Ciudad del Motor de Aragón on October 25, after fourteen rounds. This sea ...

champion

Albert Costa Albert Costa i Casals (; born 25 June 1975) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He is best remembered for winning the Men's Singles title at the French Open in 2002. Tennis career Costa began playing tennis at the age of five. He ...

Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series 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)

References

External links

Keisuke Kunimoto official website

nbsp;– All-Japan Formula Three official website

nbsp;– Super GT official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Kunimoto, Keisuke 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers Formula Nippon drivers World Series Formula V8 3.5 drivers Japanese Formula 3 Championship drivers Japanese people of Korean descent Japanese racing drivers South Korean people of Japanese descent South Korean emigrants to Japan South Korean racing drivers Sportspeople from Yokohama Super GT drivers Zainichi Korean people 1989 births Living people Formula Challenge Japan drivers Epsilon Euskadi drivers Team LeMans drivers TOM'S drivers