Masanori Sekiya

Masanori Sekiya ( Japanese 関 谷 正 徳 , Sekiya Masanori ; born November 27, 1949 ) is a former Japanese automobile racing driver .

Career in motorsport

Masanori Sekiya is one of the most popular athletes in Japan. This is due to the particular fascination that the Le Mans 24-hour race has in the Japanese sports community. Sekiya was the first Japanese racing driver to win this endurance race in 1995 , which gave him this particular popularity.

Sekiya was a very versatile racing driver. His successes in endurance races in many publications obscure his ability as a monoposto and touring car racer. In 1988, behind Aguri Suzuki , Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Emanuele Pirro , and in 1989, behind Hitoshi Ogawa , Ross Cheever and Hoshino, he was fourth overall in the Japanese Formula 3000 championship. He was Japanese touring car champion twice - in 1994 and 1998.

Including the victory in the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1995, he was successful in 14 sports car races and was on the podium of the top three 48 times.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1985	Tom's Team Toyota	Toyota 85C-L	Satoru Nakajima	Kaoru Hoshino	Rank 12
1986	Tom's Co. Ltd.	Dome 86C	Satoru Nakajima	Geoff Lees	failure	Engine failure
1987	Toyota Team Tom's	Toyota 87C-L	Tiff Needell	Kaoru Hoshino	failure	Cylinder overheated
1988	Toyota Team Tom's	Toyota 88C	Geoff Lees	Kaoru Hoshino	Rank 12
1989	Porsche Kremer Racing	Porsche 962CK6	Hideki Okada	George Fouché	failure	Engine failure
1990	Toyota Team Tom's	Toyota 90CV	Hitoshi Ogawa	Geoff Lees	Rank 6
1992	Toyota Team Tom's	Toyota TS010	Kenny Acheson	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Rank 2
1993	Toyota Team Tom's	Toyota TS010	Toshio Suzuki	Eddie Irvine	Rank 4
1995	Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing	McLaren F1 GTR	JJ Lehto	Yannick Dalmas	Overall victory
1996	Team SARD Toyota Co. Ltd.	Toyota Supra LM	Masami Kageyama	Hidetoshi Mitsusada	failure	accident
1997	Gulf Team Davidoff	McLaren F1 GTR	Ray Bellm	Andrew Gilbert-Scott	failure	Wagon fire

Web links

• Masanori Sekiya at Racing Sports Cars
• Masanori Sekiya at the Driver Database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Japanese Formula 3000 Championship 1988
2. ↑ Japanese Formula 3000 Championship
3. ↑ Japanese Touring Car Championship 1994
4. ↑ Japanese Touring Car Championship 1998