Shinji Nakano

Shinji Nakano

Born: April 1, 1971
Age: 53
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Biography

Shinji Nakano (中野 信治, born 1 April 1971) is a Japanese professional racing driver.

His father, Tsuneharu, was also a racing driver. He competed in the All-Japan Formula Three Championship.

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Racing career

Pre Formula One Career

1984-'88: Karting, several Japanese titles.
1989: 7th in Japanese Formula 3 championship
1990: European Formula Opel Lotus Championship, 1 victory
1991: Formula Opel Lotus Euroseries
1992: Japanese Formula 3 and Formula 3000 championship
1993-'94: Japanese Formula 3 championship
1995-'96: Japanese Formula 3000 championship

Formula One Career

Nakano made his debut at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne for the Prost Grand Prix team, owned by legendary four times Formula One World Champion Alain Prost. The 1997 season saw him score two world championship points with a pair of sixth places.

With his place at Prost heavily reliant on their engine partners Mugen-Honda it came as no surprise when a switch to Peugeot power saw the French outfit drop Nakano in favour of the young Jarno Trulli and the fit again Olivier Panis. However Nakano was able to pick up a ride at perennial backmarkers Minardi for the 1998 season.

Unsurprisingly, Nakano struggled in the under-powered, under-financed Italian team. He failed to score any points in 1998 and bowed out of Formula One racing for good at his home Grand Prix at Suzuka, Japan, having contested a total of 33 Grands Prix. He spent 1999 as an occasional test driver for the Jordan team, which also used Mugen-Honda engines.

After Formula One

After Formula One, Nakano went to race in Champ Car for Walker Racing and Fernandez Racing. He made 56 starts from 2000 to 2002 with a best points finish of 17th in 2002 and a best race result of 4th at the 2002 Molson Indy Toronto. He also started 15th in the 2003 Indianapolis 500 for Beck Motorsports, finishing 14th. He competed in the 2006 and 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans races and returned to the event in 2011 with OAK Racing and 2012 with the Boutsen Ginon squad.

Helmet

Nakano's helmet was black with a black circle on the top surrounded by a white halo, with a red and silver flame design surrounding the visor and a black and silver checkered flag behind of it, in CART he changed the black for white, the halo became blue, the black circle became red, the checkered flag disappeared and the flame became red with blue outline. in LeMans, he added more flames in the point where the checkered flag was.

Racing career

Complete Japanese Formula 3000/Formula Nippon results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 DC Points
1992 Nakajima Racing SUZ
FUJ
MIN
SUZ
AUT
SUG
FUJ
FUJ
SUZ
FUJ
SUZ
NC 0
1994 Team Nova SUZ FUJ MIN SUZ SUG FUJ SUZ
FUJ FUJ NC 0
Nakajima Racing SUZ
1995 Speed Star Wheel Racing SUZ
FUJ
MIN
SUZ
SUG
FUJ
TOK
FUJ
SUZ
11th 6
1996 Team Dome with Mugen SUZ
MIN
FUJ
TOK
SUZ
SUG
FUJ
MIN
SUZ
FUJ
6th 20

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 WDC Points
1997 Prost Gauloises Blondes Prost JS45 Mugen-Honda MF-301HB 3.0 V10 AUS
BRA
ARG
SMR
MON
ESP
CAN
FRA
GBR
GER
HUN
BEL
ITA
AUT
LUX
JPN
EUR
18th 2
1998 Fondmetal Minardi Team SpA Minardi M198 Ford JD Zetec-R 3.0 V10 AUS
BRA
ARG
SMR
ESP
MON
CAN
FRA
GBR
AUT
GER
HUN
BEL
ITA
LUX
JPN
NC 0

† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they had completed over 90% of the race distance.

American Open-Wheel

(key)

CART

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Rank Points
2000 Walker Racing
MIA

LBH

RIO

MOT

NZR

MIL

DET

POR

CLE

TOR

MIS

CHI

MDO

ROA

VAN

LS

STL

HOU

SRF

FON
24th 12
2001 Fernández Racing
MTY

LBH

TXS

NZR

MOT

MIL

DET

POR

CLE

TOR

MIS

CHI

MDO

ROA

VAN

LAU

ROC

HOU

LS

SRF

FON
26th 11
2002 Fernández Racing
MTY

LBH

MOT

MIL

LS

POR

CHI

TOR

CLE

VAN

MDO

ROA

MTL

DEN

ROC

MIA

SRF

FON

MXC
17th 43

IndyCar

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Rank Points
2003 Beck Motorsports
HMS

PHX

MOT

INDY

TXS

PPIR

RIR

KAN

NSH

MIS

STL

KTY

NZR

CHI

FON

TX2
29th 35

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
2005 Courage Compétition Jonathan Cochet
Bruce Jouanny
Courage C60H-Judd LMP1 52 DNF DNF
2006 Courage Compétition Jean-Marc Gounon
Haruki Kurosawa
Courage LC70-Mugen LMP1 35 DNF DNF
2007 Creation Autosportif Ltd. Jamie Campbell-Walter
Felipe Ortiz
Creation CA07-Judd LMP1 55 DNF DNF
2008 Epsilon Euskadi Stefan Johansson
Jean-Marc Gounon
Epsilon Euskadi EE1-Judd LMP1 158 DNF DNF
2011 OAK Racing Nicolas de Crem
Jan Charouz
OAK Pescarolo 01 Evo-Judd LMP2 313 14th 5th
2012 Boutsen Ginion Racing Bastien Brière
Jens Petersen
Oreca 03-Nissan LMP2 325 24th 10th
2013 Delta-ADR Tor Graves
Archie Hamilton
Oreca 03-Nissan LMP2 101 DNF DNF
2014 Team Taisan Martin Rich
Pierre Ehret
Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 GTE
Am
327 28th 8th

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Year Entrant Class Car Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Rank Points
2012 ADR-Delta LMP2 Oreca 03 Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 SEB SPA LMS SIL SÃO BHR FUJ
SHA 41st 4
2013 Delta-ADR LMP2 Oreca 03 Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 SIL SPA LMS
SÃO COA FUJ
SHA BHR 26th 6

[ Source: Wikipedia ]


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