Toshio Suzuki (racing driver)

Toshio Suzuki (鈴木 利男, Suzuki Toshio, born 10 March 1955) is a former racing driver from Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

Toshio Suzuki

The Toyota GT-One driven by Suzuki at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Born	(1955-03-10) 10 March 1955 (age 69)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Japanese
Active years	1993
Teams	Larrousse
Entries	2
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1993 Japanese Grand Prix
Last entry	1993 Australian Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	1985–1986, 1988–1990, 1993, 1995–1996, 1998–2000, 2008
Teams	Dome, Team LeMans, Tom's, NISMO, TV Asahi Team Dragon, Tōkai University YGK
Best finish	2nd (1999)
Class wins	1 (1999)
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
1 race run over 1 year
Best finish	96th (1996)
First race	1996 Meridian Advantage 200 (Nazareth Speedway)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0

Racing career

As a youth, Suzuki won the All-Japan Kart Championships in 1975 and 1976. In 1979, he took the title of the first All-Japan Formula Three Championship.

In 1992, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona with Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Masahiro Hasemi. In the same year, he was runner-up in the Japanese F3000 championship.

Formula One

In 1993, he participated in two Formula One Grands Prix, standing in for Philippe Alliot at the Larrousse team. Though he scored no championship points, Suzuki finished both races.

After Formula One

Suzuki competed mainly in national championships, including the Japanese Formula 3000 Championship (later Formula Nippon), Japanese Touring Car Championship (JTCC) and All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC). He also participated into the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 1996, he made a single start in the NASCAR Busch Series, driving for Joe Bessey at Nazareth Speedway; an accident during the race left him with a concussion.^[1]

In 2006, he became director of the R&D SPORT in Super GT to continue the team that Direxiv abandoned.

GT-R

Most recently,^[when?] he worked for Nissan as a test driver to help in the development of the R35 Nissan GT-R.

Motorsports career results

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1985	Dome Team	Eje Elgh Geoff Lees	Dome 85C-L-Toyota	C1	141	DNF	DNF
1986	Dome Co. Ltd.	Eje Elgh Beppe Gabbiani	Dome 86C-L-Toyota	C1	296	DNF	DNF
1988	Italiya Sport Team Le Mans	Michel Trollé Danny Ongais	March 88S-Nissan	C1	74	DNF	DNF
1989	Nissan Motorsports	Masahiro Hasemi Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Nissan R89C	C1	167	DNF	DNF
1990	Nissan Motorsports International	Masahiro Hasemi Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Nissan R90CP	C1	348	5th	5th
1993	Toyota Team Tom's	Eddie Irvine Masanori Sekiya	Toyota TS010	C1	364	4th	4th
1995	NISMO	Kazuyoshi Hoshino Masahiko Kageyama	Nissan Skyline GT-R LM	GT1	157	DNF	DNF
1996	NISMO	Kazuyoshi Hoshino Masahiro Hasemi	Nissan Skyline GT-R LM	GT1	307	15th	10th
1998	Toyota Motorsport Toyota Team Europe	Ukyo Katayama Keiichi Tsuchiya	Toyota GT-One	GT1	326	9th	8th
1999	Toyota Motorsport Toyota Team Europe	Ukyo Katayama Keiichi Tsuchiya	Toyota GT-One	LMGTP	364	2nd	1st
2000	TV Asahi Team Dragon	Masami Kageyama Masahiko Kageyama	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S-Élan	LMP900	340	6th	6th
2008	Tōkai University YGK Power	Haruki Kurosawa Masami Kageyama	Courage-Oreca LC70-YGK	LMP1	185	DNF	DNF

Japanese Formula Two/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
1980	Heroes Racing Corporation	SUZ	MIN	SUZ	SUZ	SUZ Ret	SUZ						NC	0
1982	Heroes Racing Corporation	SUZ	FUJ	SUZ	SUZ	SUZ 9	SUZ 12						21st	2
1983	Kondou Racing	SUZ	FUJ	MIN	SUZ Ret	SUZ 6	FUJ Ret	SUZ 9	SUZ 10				14th	9
1984	Team Le Mans	SUZ 5	FUJ 8	MIN 3	SUZ 7	SUZ 9	FUJ Ret	SUZ 10	SUZ Ret				8th	30
1987	Heroes Racing Corporation	SUZ 3	FUJ Ret	MIN 1	SUZ 5	SUZ 6	SUG 8	FUJ 2	SUZ Ret	SUZ 5			5th	72
1989	Cabin Racing Heroes	SUZ 7	FUJ Ret	MIN 12	SUZ 13	SUG 8	FUJ 20	SUZ 17	SUZ 6				19th	1
1990	Super Evolution Racing	SUZ 20	FUJ	MIN 14	SUZ 11	SUG 8	FUJ 11	FUJ Ret	SUZ 22	FUJ 11	SUZ 12		NC	0
1991	Universal Racing	SUZ 11	AUT DNS	FUJ 8	MIN 5	SUZ 5	SUG 9	FUJ DNQ	SUZ 11	FUJ C	SUZ 12	FUJ 11	15th	4
1992	Universal Racing	SUZ Ret	FUJ Ret	MIN Ret	SUZ 7	AUT Ret	SUG 2	FUJ 2	FUJ 1	SUZ 17	FUJ 1	SUZ Ret	2nd	30
1993	Universal Racing	SUZ 6	FUJ 4	MIN Ret	SUZ Ret	AUT C	SUG 4	FUJ C	FUJ 1	SUZ 3	FUJ 5	SUZ Ret	5th	22
1994	Mirai Corporation	SUZ 7	FUJ 6	MIN	SUZ	SUG	FUJ	SUZ	FUJ	FUJ	SUZ		16th	1
1995	Hoshino Racing	SUZ 5	FUJ C	MIN 2	SUZ 1	SUG Ret	FUJ 3	TOK 6	FUJ 3	SUZ 1			1st	34
1996	Team Impul	SUZ 18	MIN Ret	FUJ 12	TOK 11	SUZ 9	SUG 10	FUJ 7	MIN 4	SUZ 3	FUJ Ret		12th	7
1997	Mirai	SUZ 8	MIN 5	FUJ 7	SUZ Ret	SUG 4	FUJ 16	MIN 9	MOT 8	FUJ Ret	SUZ 9		13th	5

Complete Japanese Touring Car Championship 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	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Pts
1990	Impul	Nissan Skyline GT-R	JTC-1	NIS 1	SUG 1	SUZ 2	TSU 1	SEN 1	FUJ 1											1st	230
1991	Impul	Nissan Skyline GT-R	JTC-1	SUG 1	SUZ Ret	TSU 3	SEN 1	AUT 2	FUJ 1											3rd	174
1993	Nismo	Nissan Skyline GT-R	JTC-1	MIN 14	AUT 5	SUG 3	SUZ 5	AID 2	TSU 1	TOK 2	SEN 18	FUJ 3								3rd	106
1995	Nismo	Nissan Sunny		FUJ 1	FUJ 2	SUG 1 23	SUG 2 Ret	TOK 1 11	TOK 2 6	SUZ 1 7	SUZ 2 21	MIN 1 Ret	MIN 2 Ret	AID 1 21	AID 2 14	SEN 1 8	SEN 2 7	FUJ 1 NC	FUJ 2 Ret	17th	16

Complete JGTC 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	DC	Pts
1994	Team Zexel	Nissan Skyline GT-R	GT1	FUJ Ret	SEN 6	FUJ 6	SUG 2	MIN Ret			10th	27
1995	Nismo	Nissan Skyline GT-R	GT1	SUZ 2	FUJ 4	SEN 6	FUJ 2	SUG 5	MIN 7		3th	58
1996	Nismo	Nissan Skyline GT-R	GT500	SUZ 6	FUJ Ret	SEN 17	FUJ 5	SUG 3	MIN 10		11th	27
1997	TOYOTA Castrol TEAM	Toyota Supra	GT500	SUZ 3	FUJ 6	SEN 3	FUJ 3	MIN 3	SUG 4		3th	64
1998	Toyota Castrol Team TOM'S	Toyota Supra	GT500	SUZ 7	FUJ* C	SEN 6	FUJ 11	MOT Ret	MIN 10	SUG 2	9th	26
1999	Toyota Castrol Team TOM'S	Toyota Supra	GT500	SUZ 3	FUJ 4	SUG 11	MIN 2	FUJ 15	TAI 15	MOT 10	9th	38
2000	Toyota Castrol Team TOM'S	Toyota Supra	GT500	MOT 9	FUJ Ret	SUG 8	FUJ 14	TAI 12	MIN 9	SUZ 12	21st	7

*The race at Fuji Speedway was cancelled due to a large crash on the first lap and heavy fog afterwards.

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1993	Larrousse F1	Larrousse LH93	Lamborghini V12	RSA	BRA	EUR	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	JPN 12	AUS 14	NC	0

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Busch Series

NASCAR Busch Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	NBGNC	Pts	Ref
1996	Joe Bessey Motorsports	9	Chevy	DAY	CAR	RCH	ATL	NSV	DAR	BRI	HCY	NZH 33	CLT	DOV	SBO	MYB	GLN	MLW	NHA	TAL	IRP	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	CLT	CAR	HOM	96th	64	[2]

References

1. Erzar, John (20 March 1996). "Veteran Trickle earns fourth-place finish". Times Leader. Wikes-Barre, PA. Archived from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
2. "Toshio Suzuki – 1996 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved 8 August 2023.

External links

• Toshio Suzuki driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Profile at grandprix.com

Sporting positions
Preceded by Inaugural	All-Japan Formula Three Champion 1979	Succeeded by Shuroku Sasaki
Preceded by Marco Apicella	Japanese Formula 3000 Champion 1995	Succeeded by Ralf Schumacher (Formula Nippon)