Shinji Nakano

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

Shinji Nakano

Nakano in 2009
Born	1 April 1971 Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Japanese
Active years	1997–1998
Teams	Prost, Minardi, Jordan (Test Driver)
Entries	33
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	2
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1997 Australian Grand Prix
Last entry	1998 Japanese Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	2005–2008, 2011–2014, 2016
Teams	Courage Compétition, Creation Autosportif, Epsilon Euskadi, OAK Racing
Best finish	14th (2011)
Class wins	0

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

Racing career

Pre Formula One Career

1984-'88:	Karting, several Japanese titles.(Mugen)
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 in the 1998 Spanish Grand Prix, driving a Minardi.

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, Nakano was dropped in favour of Jarno Trulli, with the second cockpit taken by Olivier Panis, when Prost switched to Peugeot engines. He subsequently joined Minardi for the 1998 season, alongside Esteban Tuero. [2]

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.[3]

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 DNQ	FUJ 12	MIN Ret	SUZ DNQ	AUT Ret	SUG Ret	FUJ 12	FUJ 13	SUZ 14	FUJ 16	SUZ 9	NC	0
1994	Team Nova	SUZ	FUJ	MIN	SUZ	SUG	FUJ	SUZ Ret	FUJ	FUJ			NC	0
	Nakajima Racing										SUZ Ret
1995	Speed Star Wheel Racing	SUZ Ret	FUJ C	MIN 7	SUZ Ret	SUG 3	FUJ Ret	TOK 5	FUJ 9	SUZ 8			11th	6
1996	Team Dome with Mugen	SUZ 2	MIN 13	FUJ Ret	TOK 9	SUZ 6	SUG 7	FUJ 3	MIN 2	SUZ 9	FUJ 4		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 7	BRA 14	ARG Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN 6	FRA Ret	GBR 11^†	GER 7	HUN 6	BEL Ret	ITA 11	AUT Ret	LUX Ret	JPN Ret	EUR 10	18th	2
1998	Fondmetal Minardi Team SpA	Minardi M198	Ford JD Zetec-R 3.0 V10	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	ARG 13	SMR Ret	ESP 14	MON 9	CAN 7	FRA 17^†	GBR 8	AUT 11	GER Ret	HUN 15	BEL 8	ITA Ret	LUX 15	JPN Ret		NC	0

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

Complete American Open-Wheel Racing results

(key)

CART

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	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	Reynard 2Ki	Honda HR-0 V8t	MIA 8	LBH	RIO	MOT 14	NZR Wth	MIL 23	DET 15	POR 11	CLE 15	TOR 14	MIS 20	CHI 13	MDO 19	ROA 22	VAN 19	LS 26	STL 21	HOU 8	SRF 21	FON 16		24th	12
2001	Fernández Racing	Reynard 01i	Honda HR-1 V8t	MTY 18	LBH 12	TXS NH	NZR 15	MOT 8	MIL 16	DET 13	POR 22	CLE 22	TOR 9	MIS 22	CHI 16	MDO 18	ROA 15	VAN 14	LAU 22	ROC 17	HOU 15	LS 21	SRF 12	FON 21	26th	11
2002	Fernández Racing	Lola B02/00	Honda HR-2 V8t	MTY 15	LBH 12	MOT 10	MIL 18	LS 14	POR 11	CHI 5	TOR 4	CLE 10	VAN 11	MDO 9	ROA 11	MTL 9	DEN 16	ROC 16	MIA 14	SRF 13	FON 15	MXC 14			17th	43

IRL IndyCar Series

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
2003	Beck Motorsports	Dallara IR-03	Honda	HMS	PHX	MOT 11	INDY 14	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
2016	Race Performance	Nicolas Leutwiler James Winslow	Oreca 03R-Judd	LMP2	289	44th	17th

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Year	Entrant	Class	Car	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Rank	Points
2012	ADR-Delta	LMP2	Oreca 03	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SEB	SPA	LMS	SIL	SÃO	BHR	FUJ 8	SHA		41st	4
2013	Delta-ADR	LMP2	Oreca 03	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL	SPA	LMS Ret	SÃO	COA	FUJ 4	SHA	BHR		26th	6
2016	Manor	LMP2	Oreca 05	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL	SPA	LMS	NÜR	MEX	COA	FUJ 11	SHA	BHR	32nd	0.5

References

1. Jenkins, Richard. "The World Championship drivers — Where are they now?". OldRacingCars.com. Retrieved 2007-07-29.
2. Guilmeau, Mickael. "Que sont-ils devenus ? Shinji Nakano". France Racing (in French). Retrieved 2018-12-17.
3. "Shinji Nakano". crash.net. Archived from the original on 2008-04-30. Retrieved 2008-06-05.

External links

• Shinji Nakano official website
• Shinji Nakano career summary at DriverDB.com