Katsumasa Chiyo

Katsumasa Chiyo (born 9 December 1986 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese racing driver, currently driving for RJN Motorsport in the Blancpain Endurance Series and for Gainer in the Super GT series. He is a part of Nissan's GT Academy program.

Katsumasa Chiyo
Nationality	Japanese
Born	9 December 1986 (age 34) Tokyo, Japan

Career

Open-wheel racing

Chiyo began racing cars in 2007, competing in the Formula Challenge Japan series. He finished third in the 2008 series before moving into the National Class of the All-Japan Formula Three Championship in 2009. Chiyo won the National Class in 2011 and moved on to GT racing. However, he returned to the championship in 2013, finishing third in the outright class and winning two races.[1] Chiyo took part in the 2013 Macau Grand Prix, finishing in 15th place.[2]

GT racing

The Nissan GT-R of Chiyo, Couto and Tomita which won the GT300 class at the 2015 1000 km Suzuka.

The race-winning Nissan GT-R of Chiyo, Reip and Strauss at the 2015 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.

Following his National Class win in the 2011 All-Japan Formula Three Championship, Chiyo switched to the Super GT series, racing a Nissan GT-R in the GT300 class for NDDP Racing. He took victory at Sportsland SUGO with Yuhi Sekiguchi and went on to finish the season in fourth place.[3][4] Chiyo moved to Dijon Racing for the 2013 series and finished 28th in the standings after taking just one points-scoring finish.[1] He didn't race in the series in 2014, but returned in 2015, driving for Gainer in the GT300 class. He won at Fuji with teammate André Couto and at Suzuka with Couto and Ryuichiro Tomita.[5][6] Chiyo will step up to the GT500 class in 2016, driving the S Road MOLA Nissan GT-R alongside Satoshi Motoyama.

Chiyo began racing in the Blancpain Endurance Series in 2014, driving a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 for RJN Motorsport. He scored a podium finish at Circuit Paul Ricard. Along with Alex Buncombe and Wolfgang Reip, Chiyo won the 2015 series. The trio won the 1000 km Paul Ricard and finished third in the final race of the series at the Nürburgring, taking the title by three points over the Bentley M-Sport entry of Steven Kane, Andy Meyrick and Guy Smith.[7] In doing so, Chiyo became the first Japanese driver to win a championship in a top-level sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation, and the first to win a major sports car racing championship of any kind outside of Asia.

Chiyo competed in the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour as part of the Nismo Global Driver Exchange, driving a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 with Buncombe, Reip and V8 Supercar driver Rick Kelly. Chiyo was involved in a crash in the early stages of the race, ending the team's chances after 58 laps.[8] Chiyo returned to the race in 2015, this time paired with Reip and Florian Strauss. The trio won the race after Chiyo took the lead with two laps remaining.[9] In the 2016 race, Chiyo finished a close second driving with Kelly and Strauss.[10]

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	FLaps	Podiums	Points	Position
2007	Formula Challenge Japan		12	0	0	0	0	28	15th
2008	Formula Challenge Japan		16	3	1	1	6	136	3rd
2009	All-Japan Formula Three Championship (National)	Team Nova	16	0	0	0	5	48	6th
2010	All-Japan Formula Three Championship (National)	Denso Team Le Beausset	16	1	1	1	7	66	3rd
2011	All-Japan Formula Three Championship (National)	NDDP Racing	14	5	5	3	10	89	1st
2012	Super GT (GT300)	NDDP Racing	8	1	0	0	2	53	4th
2013	Super GT (GT300)	Dijon Racing	8	0	0	0	0	2	28th
2013	All-Japan Formula Three Championship	B-MAX Engineering	15	2	1	2	8	72	3rd
2013	Macau Grand Prix	B-MAX Engineering	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	15th
2014	Blancpain Endurance Series (Pro-Am Cup)	RJN Motorsport	5	0	0	0	1	25	12th
2014	GT Asia Series	B-MAX Engineering	3	0	0	0	0	11	46th
2015	All-Japan Formula Three Championship	B-MAX Engineering	2	0	0	0	0	4	10th
2015	Blancpain Endurance Series (Pro Cup)	RJN Motorsport	5	1	0	1	2	62	1st
2015	Blancpain GT Series	RJN Motorsport	5	1	0	1	2	52	15th
2015	Super GT (GT300)	Gainer	6	2	1	0	3	74	2nd
2017	Super GT (GT500)	MOLA	8	0	0	0	1	29	12th
	Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup	Team RJN Nissan	5	0	0	0	0	0	20th
2018	Super GT (GT500)	B-MAX Racing Team	8	0	0	0	0	14	17th
	Super Formula	B-MAX Racing Team	6	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2019	Super GT (GT500)	Calsonic Impul	1	0	0	0	0	0	16th

^* Season still in progress.

Complete Super GT results

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

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	DC	Pts
2012	NDDP Racing	Nissan GT-R	GT300	OKA 19	FUJ 18	SEP 4	SUG 1	SUZ 2	FUJ 9	AUT 19	MOT 6		4th	53
2013	Dijon Racing	Nissan GT-R	GT300	OKA 9	FUJ 11	SEP 13	SUG 11	SUZ 16	FUJ Ret	FUJ	AUT 17	MOT 18	28th	2
2015	Gainer	Nissan GT-R	GT300	OKA 7	FUJ 1	CHA	FUJ 6	SUZ 1	SUG	AUT 2	MOT 6		2nd	74
2016	MOLA	Nissan GT-R	GT500	OKA 3	FUJ 7	AUT 13	SUG Ret	FUJ	SUZ 12	CHA 8	MOT 7		12th	23
2017	MOLA	Nissan GT-R	GT500	OKA Ret	FUJ 11	AUT 4	SUG 2	FUJ 11	SUZ 14	CHA 10	MOT 6		12th	29
2018	NDDP by B-Max Racing	Nissan GT-R	GT500	OKA 7	FUJ 10	SUZ 7	CHA 13	FUJ 15	SUG 8	AUT 13	MOT 9		17th	14
2019	Team Impul	Nissan GT-R	GT500	OKA	FUJ	SUZ	CHA	FUJ	AUT 12	SUG	MOT		16th	0
2020	NDDP Racing with B-Max	Nissan GT-R	GT500	FUJ 7	FUJ 8	SUZ 6	MOT 7	FUJ Ret	SUZ 4	MOT 15	FUJ		14th*	24*

* Season still in progress.

Complete Bathurst 12 Hour results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2014	NISMO Athlete Global Team	Alex Buncombe Rick Kelly Wolfgang Reip	Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3	A	58	DNF	DNF
2015	NISMO Athlete Global Team	Wolfgang Reip Florian Strauss	Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3	AA	269	1st	1st
2016	NISMO Athlete Global Team	Rick Kelly Florian Strauss	Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3	AP	297	2nd	2nd
2017	Nissan Motorsport	Alex Buncombe Michael Caruso	Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3	APP	174	32nd	8th
2019	KCMG	Josh Burdon Tsugio Matsuda	Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3	APP	301	15th	10th

References

1. "Katsumasa Chiyo". Driver Database. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
2. "Star River‧Windsor Arch Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix - Final Race Classification" (PDF). Macau Grand Prix. 17 November 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 January 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
3. "Tears and joy in the pole-to-win! ENEOS SUSTINA SC430 gets first victory in nine years". Super GT. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
4. "2012 Results - Driver Ranking GT300". Super GT. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
5. "GT300 winner also a GT-R, as GAINER TANAX GT-R triumphs". Super GT. 3 May 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
6. "In GT300, GAINER TANAX GT-R score second win of the season". Super GT. 30 August 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
7. "McLaren wins iRacing.com GT500 at the Nürburgring - Chiyo, Reip, Buncombe take 2015 Blancpain Endurance drivers title". Blancpain GT Series. 20 September 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
8. "Nissan trio returns for Bathurst 12H 'revenge'". Speedcafe. 20 January 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
9. "NISMO Godzilla claims tense Bathurst 12 Hour". Speedcafe. 8 February 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
10. "SVG leads McLaren to Bathurst 12 Hour victory". Speedcafe. 7 February 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2016.

External links

• Official website