Hideki Mutoh

Hideki Mutoh
Hideki Mutoh at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2010.
Nationality	Japanese
Born	October 6, 1982 Tokyo
Super GT GT300 career
Debut season	2011
Current team	Team Mugen
Car no.	16
Starts	5
Wins	0
Previous series
2003–2004 2006 2007 2008-2011 2006, 2010	Japan Formula 3 Formula Nippon Indy Pro Series IndyCar Series Super GT GT500
Championship titles
2002	Formula Dream Champion
Awards
2008	IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year

Hideki Mutoh (武藤 英紀 Mutō Hideki, born October 6, 1982) is a Japanese race car driver from Tokyo currently racing in Super GT.

Career

History

He began karting at age 12 in 1996 and quickly moved through the ranks, becoming a part of Honda's Formula Dream Project. He moved to Europe in 1998 to compete in Formula Vauxhall. He then moved on to the Formula Ford European Championship and competed in the Formula Ford Festival, finishing seventh in 2000 and third in 2001. He then moved back to Asia to compete in Asian Formula 2000 and Formula Dream, where he finished second in his rookie season. He won the Formula Dream championship in his second year in 2002. Mutoh then moved to Japan Formula 3, finishing 9th and third in his two seasons there. In 2006, he drove in Formula Nippon and Super GT 500–class.

2007

In 2007, Autobacs Racing Team Aguri (ARTA) announced that Mutoh had been signed to drive their new entry in the Indy Pro Series in a car prepared by Panther Racing, who had last competed in IPS in 2003, winning the championship with driver Mark Taylor. Mutoh captured his first win in Liberty Challenge Race 1 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on United States Grand Prix weekend.

On September 9, Mutoh made his Indy Racing League IndyCar Series debut with Panther Racing at Chicagoland Speedway in the Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 in the one-off entry #60 car, sponsored by the Formula Dream Project. Mutoh finished 8th and clocked the fastest lap of the race. On October 31, 2007 it was announced Mutoh would replace 2007 IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti at Andretti Green Racing in the team's full-time #27 IndyCar for 2008.^[1]

Mutoh practicing for the 2008 Indianapolis 500.

2008

Mutoh at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2009.

Mutoh made his debut for Andretti Green Racing at Homestead-Miami Speedway in March and in May was the highest qualifying rookie for the 2008 Indianapolis 500. He finished 7th in the race, the second best finishing position for a Japanese driver in the history of the race.

Mutoh scored his best finish of his IndyCar Series career in June at the Iowa Speedway, finishing second to Dan Wheldon, setting a new mark for best IndyCar finish by a Japanese driver, surpassing the 3rd place of Tora Takagi at Texas Motor Speedway in 2003. He failed to finish higher than 6th in the remainder of the season, but beat transitional driver Justin Wilson to the Rookie of the Year title and 10th place overall in the series.

2010

Mutoh announced he will participate in the 2010 season with Newman/Haas Racing on his official website.

2011

Mutoh has been announced as an Aguri Suzuki Honda driver in the Super GT series in Japan for 2011, alongside Takashi Kobayashi.^[2]

On September 1, Mutoh confirmed he would be part of the 2011 Indy Japan: The Final race at Motegi to drive No. 17 for Sam Schmidt Motorsports/AFS Racing.^[3] Mutoh finished 19th on the lead lap.

Motorsports career results

Complete Formula Nippon/Super Formula results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	DC	Points
2006	Nakajima Racing	FUJ 19	SUZ 6	MOT 8	SUZ Ret	AUT 17	FUJ 16	SUG 10	MOT 10	SUZ Ret	14th	1
2011	Real Racing	SUZ	AUT	FUJ	MOT 10	SUZ	SUG	MOT1 Ret	MOT2 9		15th	0
2013	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	SUZ 13	AUT Ret	FUJ 13	MOT 12	SUG 10	SUZ1 12	SUZ2 10			NC	0
2014	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	SUZ 10	FUJ1 10	FUJ2 12	FUJ 11	MOT 5	AUT 10	SUG 12	SUZ1 13	SUZ2 12	15th	4

Complete Super GT results

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	DC	Pts
2006	Nakajima Racing	Honda NSX	GT500	SUZ 15	OKA Ret	FUJ 7	SEP 9	SUG 5	SUZ 4	MOT 8	AUT 12	FUJ 1	11th	51
2011	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda HSV-010 GT	GT500	OKA 9	FUJ 12	SEP 9	SUG 10	SUZ 9	FUJ 14	AUT 12	MOT 13		15th	7
2012	Team Mugen	Honda CR-Z	GT300	OKA	FUJ	SEP	SUG 16	SUZ 11	FUJ 3	AUT 10	MOT 11		15th	12
2013	Team Mugen	Honda CR-Z	GT300	OKA 7	FUJ 2	SEP 2	SUG 2	SUZ 5	FUJ 8	FUJ 1	AUT 9	MOT 2	1st	85
2014	Team Kunimitsu	Honda NSX-GT	GT500	OKA 9	FUJ Ret	AUT 6	SUG 11	FUJ 7	SUZ 6	BUR 8	MOT 8		14th	23

American open–wheel racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
2007	Super Aguri Panther Racing	HMS 3	STP1 2	STP2 4	INDY 5	MIL Ret	IMS1 1	IMS2 3	IOW 3	WGL1 2	WGL2 6	NSH 6	MDO 5	KTY 1	SNM1 19	SNM2 10	CHI	2nd	481

IndyCar Series

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2007	Panther Racing	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI7R V8	HMS	STP	MOT	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	MIS	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI 8			25th	24
2008	Andretti Green Racing	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI7R V8	HMS 24	STP 6	MOT^1 11	LBH^1 DNP	KAN 6	INDY 7	MIL 12	TXS 6	IOW 2	RIR 13	WGL 9	NSH 14	MDO 9	EDM 27	KTY 18	SNM 13	DET 11	CHI 22	SRF^2 8	10th	346
2009	Andretti Green Racing	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI7R V8	STP 15	LBH 20	KAN 8	INDY 10	MIL 8	TXS 21	IOW 3	RIR 4	WGL 18	TOR 12	EDM 14	KTY 13	MDO 5	SNM 5	CHI 23	MOT 14	HMS 6			11th	353
2010	Newman/Haas Racing	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI7R V8	SAO 20	STP 14	ALA 15	LBH 13	KAN 23	INDY 28	TXS 12	IOW 20	WGL 12	TOR 12	EDM 17	MDO 18	SNM 17	CHI 13	KTY 17	MOT 14	HMS 20			18th	250
2011	Sam Schmidt Motorsports AFS Racing	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI7R V8	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY	TXS1	TXS2	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	MDO	NHM	SNM	BAL	MOT 18	KTY	LVS		42nd	12

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points race.

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)**	Top 10s (Non-podium)***	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
5	4	54	0	0	2	15	0	0

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indianapolis 500

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team	Note
2008	Dallara	Honda	9	7	Andretti Green	Fastest rookie qualifier 2nd best rookie finisher
2009	Dallara	Honda	16	10	Andretti Green	Completed every lap
2010	Dallara	Honda	9	28	Newman/Haas Racing	Completed 76 laps

References

1. Freeman, Glenn. Mutoh confirmed at AGR for 2008, Autosport.com, October 31, 2007
2. Beer, Matt. Mutoh returns to Japan in GT move, Autosport.com, February 7, 2011
3. Hideki Mutoh To Drive No. 17 AFS/SSM Entry at Motegi

• Mutoh moving quickly as Indy 500 rookie

External links

• Hideki Mutoh official website
• Hideki Mutoh official Twitter
• IndyCar Driver Page