Keiichi Tsuchiya facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Keiichi Tsuchiya |
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In 2008, as Executive Advisor of ARTA
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| Born | January 30, 1956 (age 69) Tōmi, Nagano, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| 24 Hours of Le Mans career | |
| Years | 1994–2000 |
| Teams | Team Kunimitsu Honda, Team Lark McLaren, Toyota Team Europe, TV Asahi Team Dragon |
| Best finish | 2nd (1999) |
| Class wins | 2 (1995, 1999) |
Keiichi Tsuchiya (born January 30, 1956) is a famous Japanese race car driver. He is known as the Drift King because he used a special driving style called drifting in regular races. Drifting is when a driver makes the car slide sideways through turns. Keiichi Tsuchiya helped make drifting popular as a fun and exciting motorsport.
In professional racing, he won his class twice at the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans race. He also finished second in the All Japan GT Championship in 2001. He is also famous for driving on mountain roads, a style known as "touge driving."
Keiichi Tsuchiya's favorite car is a Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno. This car became very popular because of him. In Japan, it's called "Hachi-Roku," which means "eight-six." People also call his car "The Little Hachi that could." A video series called 'The Touge' shows Tsuchiya driving his AE86 on mountain roads.
He helped create the popular Japanese comic books (manga) and animated TV shows (anime) called Initial D. The main character, Takumi Fujiwara, is based on Keiichi Tsuchiya. He also worked as a stunt coordinator and stunt driver for the movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. He even had a small appearance (cameo) in the movie.
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Keiichi Tsuchiya's Life Story
Keiichi Tsuchiya started his racing journey in 1977. Unlike many drivers who came from rich families, he learned his amazing driving skills from street racing. He became well-known in the unofficial racing world.
Keiichi's Racing Journey
Racing in Japan
Keiichi Tsuchiya raced in many important Japanese championships. These included the Japanese Formula Three Championship and the Japanese Touring Car Championship (JTCC). He drove different cars like a Sierra Cosworth and a Nissan Skyline GT-R. Later, he raced a Honda Civic in other touring car championships.
Racing at Le Mans
He achieved a class win and finished 8th overall at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans race in a Honda NSX. This is a very long and challenging race that lasts for 24 hours! In 1999, he raced in the same event with a Toyota GT-One. His co-driver, Ukyo Katayama, was trying to catch the leading car when another car forced him off the track. This caused a tire to blow out. Even after this problem, they managed to get the fastest lap time but finished in second place.
Racing in America: NASCAR
Keiichi Tsuchiya also raced in special NASCAR events in Japan. These races took place at the Suzuka Circuit and Twin Ring Motegi Superspeedway in 1998 and 1999.
Becoming the Drift King
When Keiichi Tsuchiya was new to professional circuit racing, he almost lost his racing license. This was because he was recording his unofficial street races for a video series. In a movie series called Shuto Kousoku Trial, he later advised street racers to stop illegal racing if they wanted to become professional drivers.
Life After Racing
After he stopped racing professionally, Keiichi Tsuchiya became a Team Director for the ARTA JGTC Team. He led both the GT500 and GT300 classes for a few years. He also owned a company called Kei Office before selling it to start a new company called DG-5. After leaving the D1 Grand Prix drifting series in 2011, he helped start a new amateur drifting series called Drift Muscle, where he also worked as a judge.
His special color is jade green. You can see this color on his racing suit and helmet. It was also the color of his former company.
He also hosts a video magazine called "Best Motoring." This show tests new Japanese cars. It has a special part called "Hot Version" that focuses on cars that have been changed for better performance. He also appears on Video Option and Drift Tengoku, which are video magazines about drifting.
Keiichi Tsuchiya was a supervisor for the TV anime shows Initial D and Wangan Midnight. His own driving life is very similar to Takumi, the main character in Initial D. Both of them learned to drive on mountain roads while making deliveries for their families. He makes several small appearances in the Initial D series. For example, he talks briefly with Takumi's father, Bunta, in the first season. He also meets Takumi in person in the final season.
After 1995, he sometimes worked as a guest commentator for Formula One races on Japanese TV.
In 2006, he had a small role (cameo) as a fisherman in the movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. He also worked as a stuntman for the movie.
In 2014, he announced a new project with the King of Europe Drift ProSeries. They created the King of Asia ProSeries. He also became a main judge for several important races in the King of Europe ProSeries.
