Yuichi Nakayama

Yuichi Nakayama (中山雄一, Nakayama Yūichi, born 25 July 1991) is a Japanese racing driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing who currently competes in Super GT for TGR Team SARD. He previously competed in Super Formula, primarily for KCMG, and became champion of the All-Japan Formula Three Championship in 2013.

Yuichi Nakayama
Nakayama racing for TGR Team SARD at Autopolis in 2019
Nationality	Japanese
Born	(1991-07-25) 25 July 1991 (age 33) Setagaya City, Tokyo, Japan
Super GT career
Debut season	2021
Current team	TGR Team SARD
Racing licence	FIA Gold
Car number	39
Former teams	apr, LM Corsa
Starts	74 (34 in GT300)
Wins	9 (7 in GT300)
Podiums	16 (11 in GT300)
Poles	4 (4 in GT300)
Fastest laps	1 (1 in GT300)
Best finish	5th in 2019
Super Formula career
Debut season	2014
Current team	Kondō Racing
Car number	4
Former teams	KCMG, Team LeMans
Starts	36
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	1
Best finish	16th in 2015
Previous series
2011–13 2010 2008–10	All-Japan Formula Three Formula BMW Pacific Formula Challenge Japan
Championship titles
2013 2010	All-Japan Formula Three Formula Challenge Japan

Career

Karting

Born in the Setagaya Ward of Tokyo, Nakayama began his racing career in karting at the age of six and raced in various local championships, progressing to the KF2 category in 2007, finishing 7th in the Asia-Pacific Championship.^[1]

Early career

In 2008, Nakayama graduated to single–seaters into the Formula Challenge Japan mono-series. He finished thirteenth in the series standings, without scoring a podium.^[2] He stayed in the series for another season, progressing to fourth position in the standings, collecting six podiums.^[3]

He stayed in the series for a third successive season in 2010. He dominated the whole season and won ten from twelve races, finishing every race in the podium positions and finally taking the championship title. He also contested the final rounds in Formula BMW Pacific, joining the Asia Racing Team.^[4]

All-Japan Formula Three

In 2011, Nakayama stepped up to the National class of the All-Japan Formula Three Championship with the TOM'S Spirit team.^[5] He finished third, taking three class wins.^[6]

In 2012 he switched to the series' Championship class, joining the main TOM'S team. He finished as runner-up to Ryō Hirakawa, winning races at Motegi, Sugo and Fuji.^[7] During the season he also appeared in the Macau Grand Prix, finishing 21st.^[8]

He continued his collaboration with TOM'S in 2013.^[9] This time he dominated the championship, finishing each of the 13 races he contested – 11 wins and a pair of runner-up placings – on the podium, clinching the championship title before the final round of the season, that he was forced to miss.^[10] He also repeated his effort to win the Macau Grand Prix trophy with TOM'S.^[11]

Super Formula

Nakayama made his début in Super Formula in 2014 with KCMG.^[12] He finished in eighteenth position in the championship standings, without scoring a point. Despite this, the team decided to retain him for the 2015 until 2016 season.^[13] Nakayama replaced Artem Markelov at the sixth round due to Markelov being called up to race for BWT Arden in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.^[14] Nakayama then return to KCMG for 2 rounds to cover Kamui Kobayashi.^[15] Nakayama covers for Sacha Fenestraz at Kondo Racing after Fenestraz unable obtain visa entrance to Japan.^[16] Nakayama did not score a point, and competed all but two rounds that season.

Super GT

Nakayama made his debut in the series' GT300 Class for apr for one round off in 2013, and 2014. Nakayama joined the team as a full time driver for 2 seasons, as he was paired with Koki Saga. Both pair won 3 times in that 2 seasons,and many podiums. Both managed to clinch third place, and runners up place in each season. Nakayama then move to LM Corsa for 2017 & 2018. Nakayama then steps up to GT500 with SARD Team in 2019. He is already with the team till now where he raced alongside Heiki Kovalainen for 2019 to 2021, then with GT500 Champion Yuhi Sekiguchi from 2022 onwards.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	FLaps	Podiums	Points	Position
2008	Formula Challenge Japan	TDP Scholarship FCJ	16	0	0	0	0	32	13th
2009	Formula Challenge Japan	FTRS RAJAS FCJ	14	0	0	2	6	41	4th
2010	Formula Challenge Japan	TDP Scholarship	12	10	12	9	12	135	1st
	Formula BMW Pacific	Asia Racing Team	3	0	0	1	0	0	NC†
2011	Japanese Formula 3 Championship - National	TOM'S Spirit	14	3	1	2	9	83	3rd
2012	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	Petronas Team TOM'S	15	6	4	7	9	103	2nd
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	21st
2013	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	Petronas Team TOM'S	13	11	11	11	13	146	1st
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	12th
	Super GT - GT300	apr	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2014	Super Formula	KCMG	9	0	0	1	0	0	18th
	Super Taikyū - ST-1	KeePer Tomei Sports	5	3	2	3	4	111‡	1st‡
	Super GT - GT300	apr	1	0	0	0	1	18	18th
2015	Super GT - GT300	apr	8	2	2	0	3	69	3rd
	Super Formula	KCMG	8	0	0	0	0	1.5	16th
	Super Taikyū - ST-3	Le Beausset Motorsports						54‡	6th‡
2016	Super GT - GT300	apr	8	2	1	0	2	60	2nd
	Super Formula	KCMG	9	0	0	0	0	0	18th
	Super Taikyū - ST-3	Le Beausset Motorsports		1			3	90.5‡	2nd‡
	Audi R8 LMS Cup China	KCMG	2	0	0	0	0	7	16th
2017	Super GT - GT300	LM corsa	8	1	0	0	3	61	3rd
	Super Taikyū - ST-3	Le Beausset Motorsports	5	2	2	1	4	95‡	2nd‡
2018	Super GT - GT300	K-tunes Racing LM corsa	8	2	1	0	2	45	6th
	Super Formula	carrozzeria Team KCMG	1	0	0	0	0	0	21st
	Super Taikyū - ST-4	TOM'S Spirit	6	4	5	2	5	159‡	1st‡
	24 Hours of Nürburgring - SP-Pro	Toyota Gazoo Racing	1	1	0	0	1	N/A	1st
2019	Super GT - GT500	Lexus Team SARD	8	1	0	0	1	44	5th
	Super Formula	UOMO Sunoco Team LeMans	2	0	0	0	0	0	22nd
	Super Taikyū - ST-4	TOM'S Spirit	6	2	4	1	4	123.5‡	2nd‡
	24 Hours of Nürburgring - SP-Pro	Toyota Gazoo Racing	1	1	0	1	1	N/A	1st
2020	Super GT - GT500	TGR Team SARD	8	1	0	0	1	42	9th
	Super Formula	carrozzeria Team KCMG	2	0	0	0	0	0	22nd
	Super Taikyū - ST-X	apr	1	0	0	0	1	79‡	5th‡
2021	Super GT - GT500	TGR Team SARD	8	0	0	0	0	34	13th
	Super Formula	Kondō Racing	5	0	0	0	0	0	23rd
	Super Taikyū - ST-X	Porsche Center Okazaki	5	1	3	0	3	98.5‡	3rd‡
		apr	1	0	0	0	0	64‡	5th‡
2022	Super GT - GT500	TGR Team SARD	8	0	0	0	1	33	8th
	Super Taikyū - ST-1	Tracy Sports	6	1	2	0	5	128‡	3rd‡
2023	Super GT - GT500	TGR Team SARD	8	0	0	0	2	38	9th
	Super Taikyū - ST-X	apr	1	0	0	0	0	118‡	2nd‡
	TGR GR86/BRZ Cup	Ibaraki Toyopet Racing Team	5	1	0	0	2	49	5th
2024	Super GT - GT500	TGR Team SARD	8	1	0	1	2	46	7th
	Super Taikyu - ST-X	apr
	Michelin Pilot Challenge - GS	TGR Team Hattori Motorsports	1	0	0	0	0	100	71st
	TGR GR86/BRZ Cup	Ibaraki Toyopet Racing Team	8	0	0	1	2	53	5th
2025	Super Taikyu - ST-Q	GR Team Spirit

†– As Nakayama was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points. ^* Season still in progress.

‡ Team standings.

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	Points
2013	apr	Toyota Prius	GT300	OKA	FUJ	SEP	SUG	SUZ 15	FUJ	FUJ	AUT	MOT	NC	0
2014	apr	Toyota Prius	GT300	OKA	FUJ	AUT	SUG	FUJ	SUZ 2	CHA	MOT		18th	18
2015	apr	Toyota Prius	GT300	OKA 1	FUJ 4	CHA 9	FUJ 9	SUZ 10	SUG 2	AUT 13	MOT 1		3rd	69
2016	apr	Toyota Prius	GT300	OKA 12	FUJ 20	SUG 1	FUJ 25	SUZ 2	CHA 5	MOT 24	MOT 2		2nd	60
2017	LM corsa	Lexus RC F GT3	GT300	OKA 8	FUJ 1	AUT 6	SUG 13	FUJ 9	SUZ 6	CHA 1	MOT 6		3rd	61
2018	K-tunes Racing LM corsa	Lexus RC F GT3	GT300	OKA 14	FUJ 14	SUZ 1	CHA 10	FUJ 10	AUT 14	SUG 1	MOT 10		6th	45
2019	Lexus Team SARD	Lexus LC 500	GT500	OKA 11	FUJ 4	SUZ 5	CHA 5	FUJ Ret	AUT 1	SUG 7	MOT 11		5th	44
2020	TGR Team SARD	Toyota GR Supra	GT500	FUJ 5	FUJ 6	SUZ 5	MOT 9	FUJ 1	SUZ 11	MOT 8	FUJ 14		9th	42
2021	TGR Team SARD	Toyota GR Supra	GT500	OKA 4	FUJ 6	SUZ 10	MOT 14	SUG 5	AUT 5	MOT 11	FUJ 4		13th	34
2022	TGR Team SARD	Toyota GR Supra	GT500	OKA 8	FUJ 13	SUZ 4	FUJ 6	SUZ 3	SUG 6	AUT 10	MOT Ret		8th	33
2023	TGR Team SARD	Toyota GR Supra	GT500	OKA 8	FUJ 8	SUZ 15	FUJ 9	SUZ 2	SUG 3	AUT 14	MOT 7		9th	38
2024	TGR Team SARD	Toyota GR Supra	GT500	OKA 22	FUJ 9	SUZ 11	FUJ 15	SUG 1	AUT 5	MOT 10	SUZ 11		7th	46

^* Season still in progress.

Complete Super Formula results

(Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	DC	Points
2014	KCMG	Toyota	SUZ Ret	FUJ1 13	FUJ2 16	FUJ 10	MOT Ret	AUT 16	SUG 13	SUZ1 Ret	SUZ2 18	18th	0
2015	KCMG	Toyota	SUZ 13	OKA Ret	FUJ 15	MOT 16	AUT 19	SUG 10	SUZ Ret	SUZ 6		16th	1.5
2016	KCMG	Toyota	SUZ 13	OKA 10	FUJ 9	MOT 15	OKA 17	OKA 13	SUG Ret	SUZ 14	SUZ 11	18th	0
2018	carrozzeria Team KCMG	Toyota	SUZ	AUT	SUG	FUJ	MOT 13	OKA	SUZ			21st	0
2019	UOMO Sunoco Team LeMans	Toyota	SUZ	AUT	SUG	FUJ	MOT	OKA 15	SUZ 16			22nd	0
2020	carrozzeria Team KCMG	Toyota	MOT	OKA 11	SUG	AUT 18	SUZ	SUZ	FUJ			22nd	0
2021	Kondō Racing	Toyota	FUJ 14	SUZ 14	AUT 15	SUG Ret	MOT 13	OKA	SUZ			23rd	0

^* Season still in progress.