Naoki Nagasaka

Naoki Nagasaka ( Japanese 長坂 尚 樹 , Nagasaka Naoki ; born April 24, 1953 in Aichi ) is a former Japanese car racing driver .

Career

Naoki Nagasaka began his career in the early 1970s, the Japanese Monopostosport . He contested races in the Japanese Formula 2000 Championship and in the Japanese Formula Pacific; however, without being able to achieve significant successes. At the beginning of the 1980s, he switched to sports and touring car racing , where the success he had hoped for quickly set in. He celebrated his first major victory in 1980 at the Suzuka 1000 km race , which he won together with Hironobu Tatsumi on a March 75S. In 1982 he secured the overall ranking of the Fuji Long Distance Series with four individual victories on a BMW M1 . In 1984 he won the overall ranking of the Japanese sports car championship . A year later and in 1987 he won the title of Japanese touring car champion.

The Japanese also came to Europe as a works driver for Toyota in the 1990s and competed three times in the Le Mans 24-hour race . He achieved the best placement in the overall ranking in 1993 as a partner of Roland Ratzenberger and Mauro Martini with fifth place.

After a few years in the Japanese GT Championship - he finished fourth in the overall standings in 1996 - he ended his racing career at the end of the 1997 season.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1990	Toyota Team SARD	Toyota 90C-V	Roland Ratzenberger	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	failure	Engine failure
1991	Euro Racing	Toyota 91C-V	Kiyoshi Misaki	Hisashi Yokoshima	Rank 12
1993	Y's Racing Team	Toyota 93C-V	Roland Ratzenberger	Mauro Martini	5th place and class win

Web links

• Naoki Nagasaka at the Driver Database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Victory in the Suzuka 1000 km race in 1980