Before loading their cars on a cargo ship in Japan for the 2015 Great Race, two Japanese teams took a great photo in front of Mt. Fuji near Tokyo. The blue car on the right is a 1970 Datsun KP510, which will be driven by Ricky Chiba and navigated by Eji Chiba. The red car on the left is a 1968 Datsun SR311, which will be driven by Kuniaki Shimizu and navigated by Hitoshi Dobashi. Both cars are right hand drive and will arrive in Long Beach, California in the next week for transport to Kirkwood, Missouri for the start of the Great Race on June 20. In all, there are eight rookie Japanese teams in this years event. There are more than 40 rookies total out of the field of 117 cars.
Shimizu, the second from the left, is the Japanese equivalent to Dean Martin here in the U.S. Shimizu is a singer, movie star and TV star in Japan. While I was in Japan in January, I was having lunch with Shimizu and others at a restaurant while one of his TV show reruns was airing on the restaurant TV above the bar.
Ricky Chiba, third from left, is well know in Asia and Europe in automobile circles. He is best known as the team owner for Team Taisan and has fielded teams at the 24 Hours of LeMans. Click the link to read an interesting feature:
http://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/le-mans-2014-team-taisan-from-the-reservists-list-to-the-entry-list-in-the-lm-gte-am-class_2_2_1746_14474.html
its great to see yoji come back to the great race with more japanese teams. he was a lot of fun on the great race last year. lots of laughs and funny memories. its very cool to see the great old cars from japan that we never had in america. welcome back yoji.