Keiichi Tsuchiya


Keiichi Tsuchiya is a professional race car driver. He is known as the Drift King for his nontraditional use of drifting in non-drifting racing events and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. In professional racing, he is a two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner and the 2001 All Japan GT Championship runner-up. He is also known for touge driving.
The car he drives, a Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno, has become one of the most popular sports cars; the car is also known as "Hachi-Roku" in Japan ; his car is also called "The Little Hachi that could." A video known as Pluspy documents Tsuchiya's touge driving with his AE86.
He was a consultant for the popular manga and anime series, Initial D, of which the main character Takumi Fujiwara is a character which describes him. He also served as a stunt coordinator and stuntman on , where he also made a cameo appearance.

Biography

Tsuchiya started his career through the Fuji Freshman series in 1977. Unlike many drivers who came from wealthy families or motorsport backgrounds, he honed his skills from street racing and became an underground legend.

Racing career

; National championships
He would continue to take part in the Japanese Formula Three Championship, Japanese Touring Car Championship, the latter while driving a Cosmo Oil Sierra Cosworth and Nissan Skyline GT-R in the Group A championships and later a Honda Civic in the Supertouring car championships.
; Le Mans
He went on to score a class win and an 8th place overall at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Honda NSX. In 1999 of the same race, this time in a Toyota GT-One, during the last hour while co-driver Ukyo Katayama was building up pace to the leading BMW V12 LMR he was forced into the grass by a backmarker privateer's BMW LMP, blowing the tire out. They survived the ordeal and went on to score the fastest lap but were forced to settle for second.
; NASCAR
He has raced in NASCAR-sanctioned exhibition races at Suzuka Circuit and at Twin Ring Motegi Superspeedway for the 1998 NASCAR-sanctioned exhibition and 1999 NASCAR Grand National Division, AutoZone West Series races at the circuit, both named the Coca-Cola 500K.

Drifting career

When Tsuchiya was a freshman in circuit racing, he got his racing license suspended because of the illegal racing he was recording for the Drift Pluspy video. In the movie series Shuto Kousoku Trial, he advised street racers to leave the illegal racing scene if they want to become involved with professional racing.

After his retirement

After his retirement, he remained in racing and is now an official Drift Muscle judge after quitting D1 in January 2011 and was Team Director for both GT500 for one year and GT300 Class of ARTA JGTC Team until the team disbanded their GT300 operation at the end of the 2005 season. He owned the aftermarket company Kei Office until he sold the business in the end of 2005 to form DG-5. His trademark color is jade green which appears on his overalls and helmet and is the adopted color of the former company. It was also the colour of the D1 Grand Prix Kei Office and DG-5 S15 Silvia of driver and employee Yasuyuki Kazama who also wears a suit similar in pattern.
He also hosts the video magazine "Best Motoring" which features road tests of new Japanese cars including a special section called "Hot Version" which focuses on performance-modified cars. He is a guest presenter in Video Option, a monthly video magazine, similar to Hot Version except regularly covers the D1GP and its sister video magazine Drift Tengoku which deals purely with drifting.
He has been an editorial supervisor on the televised anime Initial D and Wangan Midnight. He also appeared in the semi biographical film Shuto Kousoku Trial 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 was also featured in the Super GT magazine show in Japan. His life in driving is parallel to that of the Initial D main character, Takumi, as both of them started exploring their local touge while doing regular deliveries for their family businesses. He makes a number of cameos in the series: in the First Stage, he briefly converses with Takumi's father; in the Third Stage, a motorcycle rider wearing a similar racing suit overtake Takumi as he was en route to an initiation battle with Ryosuke Takahashi; and in the Final Stage, he meets Takumi in person while the latter spectates a circuit race in the end credits. The color of Tomo's racing suit from the Initial D 4th Stage is jade green and has a similar pattern to Tsuchiya's suit. He also made an appearance opposite Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson in a Motorworld in Japan special showing drifting competition in the mid 1990s in Japan.
After 1995, he sometimes appeared as a Formula One guest commentator in Japanese Fuji TV.
In 2006, he made a cameo as a fisherman in the movie in which he served as a stunt coordinator and stunt man.
In 2014, he announced a joint venture with King of Europe ProSeries in order to create King of Asia ProSeries. He would also act as one of the main judges for several important races in the King of Europe Drift ProSeries, being called in as a guest representative throughout the years.

Career summary

Complete JGTC/Super GT results

YearTeamCarClassRd.1Rd.2Rd.3Rd.4Rd.5Rd.6Rd.7Rd.8Rd.9DCPts
1994Team KunimitsuPorsche 911GT1FUJ
SEN
FUJ
Ret		SUG
1		MIN
2		7th35
1995Team KunimitsuPorsche 911GT1SUZ
14		FUJ
3		SEN
4		FUJ
8		SUG
8		MIN
Ret		10th28
1996Team KunimitsuHonda NSXGT500SUZ
Ret		FUJ
8		SEN
12		FUJ
7		SUG
10		MIN
11		17th8
1997Team Taisan with AdvanDodge Viper GTS-RGT500SUZ
FUJ
SEN
10		FUJ
Ret		MIN
14		SUG
8		23rd6
1998TOYOTA TEAM SARDToyota SupraGT500SUZ
3		FUJ
C		SEN
4		FUJ
9		MOT
Ret		MIN
3		SUG
Ret		6th36
1999TOYOTA TEAM SARDToyota SupraGT500SUZ
16		FUJ
15		SUG
Ret		MIN
7		FUJ
10		TAI
13		MOT
Ret		22nd5
2000Autobacs Racing Team AguriHonda NSXGT500MOT
7		FUJ
Ret		SUG
15		FUJ
1		TAI
Ret		MIN
Ret		SUZ
Ret		13th24
2001Autobacs Racing Team AguriHonda NSXGT500TAI
2		FUJ
6		SUG
2		FUJ
12		MOT
11		SUZ
1		MIN
Ret		2nd56
2002Autobacs Racing Team AguriHonda NSXGT500TAI
7		FUJ
4		SUG
13		SEP
6		FUJ
9		MOT
8		MIN
8		SUZ
2		10th46
2003Autobacs Racing Team AguriHonda NSXGT500TAI
11		FUJ
Ret		SUG
11		FUJ
11		FUJ
12		MOT
8		AUT
Ret		SUZ
6		19th9

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results