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Hiro Matsushita

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Hiro Matsushita
ヒロ松下
Matsushita in 2018
Born
Hiroyuki Matsushita

(1961-03-14) March 14, 1961 (age 63)
Nishinomiya, Japan
Other namesKing Hiro[1]
Alma materKonan University
Occupation(s)Businessperson, former racing driver
Known forFirst Japanese driver to race in the Indy 500
Notable workThe first and only Japanese driver to win the Toyota Atlantic Championship (Pacific)
Height175 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Title
SpouseMitsuko Matsushita
Children1
Parents
Relatives
Family
Signature

Hiroyuki Matsushita (松下弘幸, Matsushita Hiroyuki), also known by Hiro Matsushita (ヒロ松下), is a Japanese businessman and former racing driver. He is the grandson of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic. In 1989, Matsushita won the Toyota Atlantic Championship (Pacific), becoming the first and only Japanese driver to do so. He was also the first Japanese driver to race in the Indy 500.

Early life

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Matsushita was born in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture as the youngest son of Masaharu Matsushita, who was the second president of Panasonic for sixteen years from 1961. He graduated from Konan University. His elder brother, Masayuki Matsushita served as a vice chairman of Panasonic for over a decade.

Racing career

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Despite being the grandson of the founder of Panasonic, he refused to be labelled as a rich kid who could buy his way into anything. He instead worked his way up from the bottom, starting his career racing motorcycles in his home country between 1977 and 1980, before switching to four wheels. He retired from Motocross racing by becoming Champion in Kansai region in 1980 at the age of 19.

In 1987, Matsushita started racing Formula Fords - the Class A of auto racing - In the following year, he teamed up with Jim Downing in a Camel Lights car and secured a second-place finish in class at the 24 Hours of Daytona and a third-place finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring. In 1989, Matsushita fearlessly entered the Formula Atlantic series and, by the end of that year, he had claimed four victories and the 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.[3]

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.[4] 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.

At the Phoenix race in 1994, Matsushita endured a horrific crash in which his car was cut in half by Jacques Villeneuve's car travelling 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 history without scoring a Top 5.

In 2001, Matsushita competed in the Baja 1000 off-road race, in a Mitsubishi Montero.

Racing record

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WCAR/SCCA Western Formula Atlantic Championship results

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Year Team Points Car races wins podiums pole positions Pos.
1988 Panasonic Racing 118 Swift DB4 10 1 4 3

IMSA Camel Lights results

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Year Team Points Car races wins podiums pole positions Pos.
1988 Downing/Atlanta Racing 64 Argo JM19 Mazda 6 3 11

Toyota Atlantic Championship (pacific) results

[edit]
Year Team Points Car races wins podiums pole positions Pos.
1989 Panasonic Racing 141 Swift DB4 9 4 8 3 1

Lady Wigram Trophy results

[edit]
Year Team Car race Laps Pos.
1989 Team Panasonic Swift Cosworth 1 8 1

American open–wheel racing results

[edit]

Indy Lights

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Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rank Points
1989 Panasonic Racing PHX LBH MIL DET POR
13 		MEA
12 		TOR
6 		POC MDO ROA NAZ
8 		LAG 18th 14

CART

[edit]
Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Rank Points Ref
1990 Dick Simon Racing Lola T89/00 Cosworth DFS V8 t PHX LBH
19 		INDY
DNQ 		MIL DET
19 		POR
12 		CLE MEA
16 		TOR MIS DEN
15 		VAN
23 		MDO
17 		ROA
18 		NZR
21 		LS
23 		31st 1 [5]
1991 Dick Simon Racing Lola T90/00 Cosworth DFS V8 t SRF
21 		PHX
14 		MIL
10 		DET
14 		POR
14 		23rd 6 [6]
Lola T91/00 LBH
13 		CLE
14 		MEA
12 		TOR
15 		MIS
19 		DEN
14 		VAN
16 		MDO
14 		ROA
12 		NZR
12
Buick 3300 V6 t INDY
16
Chevrolet 265A V8 t LS
20
1992 Dick Simon Racing Lola T92/00 Chevrolet 265A V8 t SRF
DNS 		PHX
16 		LBH
10 		INDY
DNS 		DET POR MIL NHM TOR MIS CLE
24 		ROA
14 		VAN
13 		MDO
18 		NZR
14 		LS
15 		27th 3 [7]
1993 Walker Racing Lola T93/00 Ford XB V8 t SRF
11 		PHX
10 		LBH
14 		INDY
18 		MIL
13 		DET
13 		POR
21 		CLE
12 		TOR
16 		MIS
14 		NHM
13 		ROA
13 		VAN
12 		MDO
13 		NZR
21 		LS
19 		26th 7 [8]
1994 Dick Simon Racing Lola T94/00 Ford XB V8 t SRF
15 		PHX
27 		LBH
DNQ 		INDY
14 		MIL
23 		DET
DNQ 		POR
21 		CLE
15 		TOR
18 		MIS
6 		MDO
18 		NHM
17 		VAN
DNQ 		ROA
14 		NZR
16 		LS
23 		26th 8 [9]
1995 Arciero-Wells Racing Reynard 94i Ford XB V8 t MIA
26 		SRF
11 		PHX
22 		LBH
19 		NZR
DNS 		28th 5 [10]
Reynard 95i INDY
10 		MIL
19 		DET
14 		POR
17 		ROA
13 		TOR
19 		CLE
13 		MIS
20 		MDO
15 		NHM
22 		VAN
17 		LS
22
1996 Payton/Coyne Racing Lola T96/00 Ford XB V8 t MIA
18 		RIO
24 		SRF
10 		LBH
28 		NZR
26 		500
14 		MIL
28 		DET
19 		POR
21 		CLE
17 		TOR
27 		MIS
15 		MDO
19 		ROA
15 		VAN
15 		LS
23 		28th 3 [11]
1997 Arciero-Wells Racing Reynard 97i Toyota RV8A V8 t
Toyota RV8B V8 t 		MIA
21 		SRF
25 		LBH
20 		NZR
25 		RIO
23 		STL
15 		MIL
17 		DET
19 		POR
15 		CLE
20 		TOR
22 		MIS
9 		MDO
19 		ROA
24 		VAN
14 		LS
28 		FON
23 		27th 4 [12]
1998 Arciero-Wells Racing Reynard 98i Toyota RV8C V8 t MIA
23 		MOT
16 		LBH
19 		NZR RIO
15 		STL MIL DET POR CLE TOR MIS MDO ROA VAN LS HOU SRF FON 30th 0 [13]

24 Hours of Le Mans results

[edit]
Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1999 Team Goh
David Price Racing 		Hiroki Katoh
Akihiko Nakaya 		BMW V12 LM LMP 223 DNF DNF
Hiro Matsushita in 1991
Hiro Matsushita
Matsushita in 1990s
Retired2001
CART, Championship Car, Indy Car, American Racing Series, Champ Car Atlantic Series, Lady Wigram Trophy
Years active1987–2001
TeamsDick Simon Racing
Paragon Racing
Walker Racing
Arciero-Wells Racing
Payton/Coyne Racing
Starts158
Wins6
Podiums16
Poles3
Fastest laps0
Championship titles
1989
Awards
1998Champions Club

Nickname

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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.[15] 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!"[16]

Business career

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Matsushita, a successful businessman, owns Matsushita International Corp, a firm specializing in real estate, finance, and insurance. This company has ownership of Swift Engineering, an American engineering firm that builds autonomous systems, helicopters, submarines, spacecraft, ground vehicles, robotics, and composite parts. Swift was well-known for producing racing cars for various open-wheel racing series such as Formula Ford, Formula Atlantic, the Champ Car World Series, and Formula Nippon.[17]

Awards

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In 1998, Nov 2, Hiro Matsushita was awarded Champion Culbs during the CART Year End Banquet at the Century Plaza in Los Angeles, California.[18]

Matsushita family tree

[edit]
Matsushita Uemon
Yasuda KoichiroTokue MatsushitaMasakusu MatsushitaHirata TosukeMaeda Toshiaki
(前田利昭		Mitsui Takamine10th head of the Mitsui family
Tetsujiro NakaoYasueJun IueYurou IueToshio IueMumenoKonosuke MatsushitaHirata ShodoShizukoMaeda ToshisadaKeikoMitsui Takakimi11th head of the Mitsui family
Satoshi IueMatsushita SachikoMasaharu MatsushitaHirata KatsumiNobuko
Iue ToshimasaHiro MatsushitaMasayuki Matsushita
(松下正幸)		Atsuko

Personal life

[edit]

Matsushita resides in San Clemente, California.[19] He has a son called Takayuki Matsushita who is a lawyer resides in the USA.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The story of King Hiro". May 13, 2020.
  2. ^ "HIRO AT LARGE". LA Times.
  3. ^ "Hiroyuki Matsushita". historicracing.com. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  4. ^ "JAPANESE FIND HIRO AT INDY LIKE MOST 500 ROOKIES, HE KEEPS A LOW PROFILE". sun-sentinel. May 23, 1991. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  5. ^ "Hiro Matsushita – 1990 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  6. ^ "Hiro Matsushita – 1991 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  7. ^ "Hiro Matsushita – 1992 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  8. ^ "Hiro Matsushita – 1993 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  9. ^ "Hiro Matsushita – 1994 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  10. ^ "Hiro Matsushita – 1995 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  11. ^ "Hiro Matsushita – 1996 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  12. ^ "Hiro Matsushita – 1997 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  13. ^ "Hiro Matsushita – 1998 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  14. ^ "Canterbury Car Club (Organiser)". Archived from the original on May 1, 2010.
  15. ^ Oreovicz, John (August 22, 2001). "Tora Finding His Form". ChampCarWorldSeries.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved July 24, 2007.
  16. ^ "Motor Sports Dictionary – K". Dictionary of Gambling. Retrieved July 24, 2007.
  17. ^ "Japanese Auto Racer Keeps Plans on Track: Hiroyuki Matsushita is building a facility in San Clemente to manufacture race cars". LA Times.
  18. ^ "Hiro Matsushita/ JPN". October 31, 2006.
  19. ^ "OCs-Wealthiest".
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hiro Matsushita.
Sporting positions
Preceded by North American Formula Atlantic
Pacific Division Champion
1989 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Lady Wigram Trophy
Winner
1989 		Succeeded by
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