Hiro Matsushita

Hiroyuki "Hiro" Matsushita (ヒロ松下, Matsushita Hiro, full Kanji:松下弘幸), is a former driver in the Champ Car, Formula Atlantic series who won the Toyota Atlantic Championship (Pacific) in 1989 as a first and only Japanese. He is the grandson of Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Panasonic. He is also the first Japanese driver to race at the Indy 500.[2]His father Masaharu Matsushita who served as the second President of Panasonic for sixteen years beginning in 1961. His elder brother Masayuki Matsushita is the current Vice Chairman of Panasonic. His relationship has allowed him to receive financial backing from Panasonic throughout his racing career.

Hiro Matsushita
Nationality	Japanese
Born	(1961-03-14) March 14, 1961[1] Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture
Retired	2001
Related to	Konosuke Matsushita (Grandfather) Hirata Tosuke (Great-Grandfather) Masaharu Matsushita (Father) Masayuki Matsushita (Elder brother) Hirata Noboru (Great-uncle) Toshio Iue (Great-uncle)
CART, Championship Car, Indy Car, American Racing Series, Champ Car Atlantic Series
Years active	1989-2001
Teams	Dick Simon Racing Paragon Racing Walker Racing Arciero-Wells Racing Payton/Coyne Racing
Starts	158
Wins	6
Podiums	5
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Championship titles
1989	Champ Car Atlantic Series
Awards
1998	Champions Club

Racing career

Early career

Matsushita started his career racing motorcycles in his home country between 1977 and 1979, before making the switch to four wheels. With Panasonic backing, he then moved to the United States and entered his first Formula Ford race in 1986. He came second at the 24 Hours of Daytona and third at the Sebring 12 Hours in 1988. Matsushita began to make his name known by winning 1989 Toyota Atlantic championship (Pacific division) with the largest point margin of all time.

CART Champ Car

Hiro Matsushita in 1991

He graduated to Champ Car in 1990, scoring one point in his debut season. Inexplicably, he never showed the pace that took him to four Atlantic victories; instead, he quickly earned a reputation for being at the tail end of the grid, always outperformed by his teammates. Nonetheless, he became the first Japanese driver to race in the Indianapolis 500[3] 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 as well.

At the Phoenix race in 1994, Matsushita endured a horrific crash in which his car was cut in half by Jacques Villeneuve's car traveling at full speed. He emerged from his destroyed car unscathed. 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.

Nickname

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.[4] 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!"[5][6]

Racing record

American open–wheel racing results

(key)

Indy Lights

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

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
1990	Dick Simon Racing	Lola T89/00	Cosworth DFS V8t	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
1991	Dick Simon Racing	Lola T90/00	Cosworth DFS V8t	SRF 21		PHX 14		MIL 10	DET 14	POR 14													23rd	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 V6t				INDY 16
			Chevrolet 265A V8t																	LS 20
1992	Dick Simon Racing	Lola T92/00	Chevrolet 265A V8t	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
1993	Walker Racing	Lola T93/00	Ford XB V8t	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
1994	Dick Simon Racing	Lola T94/00	Ford XB V8t	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
1995	Arciero-Wells Racing	Reynard 94i	Ford XB V8t	MIA 26	SRF 11	PHX 22	LBH 19	NZR DNS															28th	5
		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 V8t	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
1997	Arciero-Wells Racing	Reynard 97i	Toyota RV8A V8t Toyota RV8B V8t	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
1998	Arciero-Wells Racing	Reynard 98i	Toyota RV8C V8t	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

24 Hours of Le Mans results

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

Personal life

Hiro Matsushita, the chairman & CEO of Swift Engineering

Away from the track, Matsushita owns Swift Engineering, an American engineering firm used to known for producing racing cars for a variety of open-wheel racing series, including Formula Ford, Formula Atlantic, the Champ Car World Series and Formula Nippon. He bought Swift in 1991.[7]

In 2018 Swift Engineering[8] joint ventured with Kobe Institute of Computing called Swift Xi[9], located in Kobe, Japan.[10] providing data, logistics, and operations of autonomous and robotic technologies.[11][12]

Matsushita resides in San Clemente, California.[13]

Matsushita family tree

8. Hirata Tosuke, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan

4. Hirata Shodo

9. Hirata Keiko

2. Masaharu Matsushita- 2nd President of Panasonic

10. Maeda Toshiaki 前田利昭, 12th owner of Kōzuke Province Nanokaichi Domain

5. Shizuko Hirata

1. Hiro Matsushita

12. Masakusu Matsushita

6. Konosuke Matsushita- Founder of Panasonic

13. Tokue Matsushita

3. Matsushita Sachiko

7. Mumeno Iue

Matsushita Uemon

Yasuda Koichiro

Tokue Matsushita

Masakusu Matsushita

Hirata Tosuke

Maeda Toshiaki (前田利昭

Mitsui Takamine10th head of the Mitsui family

Tetsujiro Nakao

Yasue

Jun Iue

Yurou Iue

Toshio Iue

Mumeno

Konosuke Matsushita

Shodo Hirata

Shizuko

Maeda Toshisada

Keiko

Mitsui Takakimi11th head of the Mitsui family

Satoshi Iue

Matsushita Sachiko

Masaharu Matsushita

Hirata Katsumi

Nobuko

Iue Toshimasa

Hiro Matsushita

Masayuki Matsushita (松下正幸

Atsuko

See also

• Konosuke Matsushita
• Panasonic
• Masaharu Matsushita
• Swift Engineering
• Swift Xi

References

1. • https://www.driverdb.com/drivers/hiro-matsushita/ Driverdb/ Driver Database
2. https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-05-26/this-day-in-sports-pirates-harvey-haddixs-perfect-game-ruined-in-13th-inning/ Hiro Matsushita
3. http://open-wheels.com/indycar-flashback-1991-indianapolis-500/ IndyCar Flashback: 1991 Indianapolis 500
4. Oreovicz, John (2001-08-22). "Tora Finding His Form". ChampCarWorldSeries.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
5. "Motor Sports Dictionary - K". Dictionary of Gambling. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
6. https://racer.com/2020/05/13/retro-the-story-of-king-hiro/ The story of King Hiro
7. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-sep-24-sp-35775-story.html/ HIRO AT LARGE
8. http://www.swift-xi.com/news/transform-africa-summit.html/ The Minister of ICT and Innovation of Rwanda Ms. Paula Ingabire meets the Chairman & CEO - Hiro Matsushita
9. https://japan.cnet.com/article/35122856/ Swift020 flew over Kobe for the first time
10. Forbes Japan
11. http://swift-xi.com/index.html
12. https://techable.jp/archives/119009/ スウィフト・エックスアイの代表取締役会長兼CEOである松下弘幸氏は、「Swift021は米国の電波出力であれば、半径50km以上でライブビデオによる捜索が可能であるが、日本の電波出力では数kmしか電波が届かないために、せっかくの021の航続距離をいかした効率的な運用ができない。緊急時だけでも特別な許可が必要である。」という課題に言及。
13. https://ocbj.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static/ocbj/supplements/OCs-Wealthiest-2017.pdf/ OCs-Wealthiest

External links

• Swift Engineering
• Swift Xi

Sporting positions
Preceded by Dean Hall	North American Formula Atlantic Pacific Division Champion 1989	Succeeded by Mark Dismore