Shinji Nakano

Not to be confused with Japanese MotoGP rider Shinya Nakano.

Shinji Nakano Born (1971-04-01) 1 April 1971 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 Participating years 2005–2008, 2011–2014, 2016 Teams Courage Compétition, Creation Autosportif, Epsilon Euskadi, OAK Racing Best finish 14th (2011) Class wins 0

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

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

Racing career

Pre Formula One Career

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 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.^[2]

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)

Complete Formula One results

(key)

^† 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 8	LBH	RIO	MOT 14	NZR Wth	MIL Ret	DET 15	POR 11	CLE Ret	TOR Ret	MIS Ret	CHI Ret	MDO Ret	ROA Ret	VAN Ret	LS Ret	STL Ret	HOU 8	SRF Ret	FON Ret		24th	12
2001	Fernández Racing	MTY 18	LBH 12	TXS NH	NZR 15	MOT 8	MIL 16	DET 13	POR Ret	CLE Ret	TOR 9	MIS Ret	CHI 16	MDO 18	ROA 15	VAN 14	LAU Ret	ROC 17	HOU 15	LS Ret	SRF 12	FON Ret	26th	11
2002	Fernández Racing	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

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 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

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shinji Nakano.

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