Kunimitsu Takahashi – SC | The “forgotten” drivers of F1

1970 – An amazing photo of the Skyline GT-R at the 1970 JAF Grand Prix! Nissan veteran Kunimitsu Takahashi would be behind the wheel of this GT-R, which at this event would be one of 8 GT-R entries! This event was mainly symbolic for the growing rivalry between Nissan and Mazda – Nissan with their Skyline, and Mazda with their Rotary Coupe. It wouldn’t be up until 1972 that Mazda hit major success with the RX-3. Until then, the Touring car series was absolutely dominated by the Skyline, racking up a total of 50 consecutive wins in its heyday. A Skyline would win this event in fact! Takashi qualified for 4th on the grid with a time of 2:08.16, alongside other Skylines. Sadly he would crash out at lap 18, but not before showing quite a performance by even leading for a bit! Photo/info: unknown via FB Historic Japanese Racing Cars

Kunimitsu Takahashi No.1 I hope I understood it well: Snapshot of the short-lived Hokkaido Speedway’s opening race in 1970! The turbulent history of Hokkaido Speedway is rather notable, as very few major races were held here in its short original life as the “next big race venue” of Japan. Opened on July 5th 1970, with an opening event showcasing the Nissan R380 A-III (Kai), which both returned from Australia after winning the 1969 Chevron Paradise 6 Hour in November. Both still wore their Datsun sponsoring from the race! The race itself was a mix between sportscars and touring cars, the majority of the grid being Nissan’s of all sorts of shapes and sizes. The only prototypes racing along were the aforementioned R380’s. Unsurprisingly, the R380’s finished 1st (Takahashi) and 2nd (Sunako), with a 3 lap lead over the 3rd place finishing Nissan 240Z 432R. Noise complaints from the nearby university caused lots of cancelled events and restrictions to be laid on the new venue, and by September 1974 Hokkaido Speedway had already been closed due to the bankruptcy of its owner, Sakata Land. The famed Grand Champion series visited the track after it was saved from demolition by its new owners, though this would end up being the final event ran at Hokkaido Speedway. It would be almost 30 years later that the site of the former Hokkaido Speedway would host racing events again, with the reopened and rebranded Shiraoi Car Land in 2002. Photo Nissan News and info Historic Japanese Racing Cars

1971 Photo/info: unknown via FB Historic Japanese Racing Cars

1973 In this photo we see Kunimitsu Takahashi’s Sunny 1400 leading over Hiroyuki Kukidome Celica 1600 over a position in the 2nd class of the race. Kukidome would win this duel with a 5th place overall in the standings, while Takahashi finishes a decent 9th in his class. Photo Sanei Shobo info Historic Japanese Racing Cars FB page

1978 Fuji Grand Champion Series. Photo Osamu Aihara

1978 Fuji Grand Champion Series. Photo Tano Kiyohito

1978 Fuji Grand Champion Series. Photo Tano Kiyohito

19XX Suzuka?. Photo via Twitter

19XX Suzuka?. Photo via Twitter

198x Fuji Grand Champion Series