Hiro Matsushita

Hiro Matsushita
ヒロ松下
Matsushita in 2018
Born	Hiroyuki Matsushita (1961-03-14) March 14, 1961 (age 63) Nishinomiya, Japan
Other names	King Hiro[1]
Alma mater	Konan University
Occupation(s)	Businessperson, former racing driver
Known for	First Japanese driver to race in the Indy 500
Notable work	The first and only Japanese driver to win the Toyota Atlantic Championship (Pacific)
Height	175 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Title	Chairman & CEO – Swift Engineering[2] Chairman & CEO – Swift Xi Inc. Chairman & CEO – Matsushita International Corp
Spouse	Mitsuko Matsushita
Children	1
Parents	Masaharu Matsushita (father) Sachiko Matsushita (mother)
Relatives	Yamagata Isaburō (great-great-uncle) Toshio Iue (uncle) Maeda Toshisada(great-uncle)
Family	Kōnosuke Matsushita (grandfather) Hirata Shodo (grandfather) Hirata Tosuke (great-grandfather)
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Hiroyuki Matsushita (松下弘幸, Matsushita Hiroyuki), also known by Hiro Matsushita (ヒロ松下), is a Japanese businessman and former racing driver. He is the grandson of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic. In 1989, Matsushita won the Toyota Atlantic Championship (Pacific), becoming the first and only Japanese driver to do so. He was also the first Japanese driver to race in the Indy 500.

Matsushita was born in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture as the youngest son of Masaharu Matsushita, who was the second president of Panasonic for sixteen years from 1961. He graduated from Konan University. His elder brother, Masayuki Matsushita served as a vice chairman of Panasonic for over a decade.

Despite being the grandson of the founder of Panasonic, he refused to be labelled as a rich kid who could buy his way into anything. He instead worked his way up from the bottom, starting his career racing motorcycles in his home country between 1977 and 1980, before switching to four wheels. He retired from Motocross racing by becoming Champion in Kansai region in 1980 at the age of 19.

In 1987, Matsushita started racing Formula Fords - the Class A of auto racing - In the following year, he teamed up with Jim Downing in a Camel Lights car and secured a second-place finish in class at the 24 Hours of Daytona and a third-place finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring. In 1989, Matsushita fearlessly entered the Formula Atlantic series and, by the end of that year, he had claimed four victories and the Toyota Atlantic championship (Pacific division) with the largest point margin of all time. He then tried Formula Pacific in New Zealand and became the first Japanese driver to win the prestigious Lady Wigram Trophy Race.^[3]

He graduated to Champ Car in 1990, scoring one point in his debut season. He became the first Japanese driver to race in the Indianapolis 500.^[4] 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.

At the Phoenix race in 1994, Matsushita endured a horrific crash in which his car was cut in half by Jacques Villeneuve's car travelling at nearly full speed. He emerged from his destroyed car with only minor injuries. 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.

Hiro Matsushita
Matsushita in 1990s
Retired	2001
CART, Championship Car, Indy Car, American Racing Series, Champ Car Atlantic Series, Lady Wigram Trophy
Years active	1987–2001
Teams	Dick Simon Racing Paragon Racing Walker Racing Arciero-Wells Racing Payton/Coyne Racing
Starts	158
Wins	6
Podiums	16
Poles	3
Fastest laps	0
Championship titles
1989	Champ Car Atlantic Series Lady Wigram Trophy[14]
Awards
1998	Champions Club

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.^[15] 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!"^[16]

Matsushita, a successful businessman, owns Matsushita International Corp, a firm specializing in real estate, finance, and insurance. This company has ownership of Swift Engineering, an American engineering firm that builds autonomous systems, helicopters, submarines, spacecraft, ground vehicles, robotics, and composite parts. Swift was well-known for producing racing cars for various open-wheel racing series such as Formula Ford, Formula Atlantic, the Champ Car World Series, and Formula Nippon.^[17]

In 1998, Nov 2, Hiro Matsushita was awarded Champion Culbs during the CART Year End Banquet at the Century Plaza in Los Angeles, California.^[18]

Matsushita resides in San Clemente, California.^[19] He has a son called Takayuki Matsushita who is a lawyer resides in the USA.

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

• Hiro Matsushita career summary at DriverDB.com
• MOTORSPORT STATS(in English)
• Hiro Matsushita driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• RacingSportsCars(in English)
• Hiro Matsushita on Twitter
• Hiro Matsushita at IMDb
• Hiro Matsushita on Facebook

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