Keisuke Kunimoto
Keisuke Kunimoto (Japanese国 本 京 佑, Keisuke Kunimoto; born January 9, 1989 in Yokohama ) is a Japanese ( zainichi in 3rd generation) racecar driver. He is the older brother of the racer Yuji Kunimoto.
Career
Kunimoto is considered one of the most talented young Japanese pilots. After he had been active from 2001 to 2006 in karting, he began at the age of 17 years, his single-seater career and went into the Formula Challenge Japan. This racing formula is a junior formula that allows young drivers to enter with a reasonable financial cost in motorsports. In 2007, he won the championship this formula and moved in 2008 to the Japanese Formula 3 Championship, he was the runner-up in the same year. He won three races and finally succumbed to his teammates Carlo van Dam. He also competed in the Super GT, a Japanese GT racing series, finishing with a victory in ninth place overall. At the end of the year, he became the second Japanese after Takuma Satō the prestigious Macau Grand Prix Formula 3 cars.
In 2009, he rose in the Formula Nippon in which he finished in 13th and last place overall, and was one of the youngest ever rider to his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. As a partner of Sascha Maassen and Seiji Ara but he had to retire the race after an accident in the Porsche RS Spyder. He also competed in four races of the World Series by Renault for Epsilon Euskadi. 2010 Kunimoto contested alongside Albert Costa for Epsilon Euskadi for the complete season in the World Series by Renault. While Costa finished the season in fifth place, the Japanese occupied the 22th place overall.
Statistics
Career stations
- 2001-2006: Karting
- 2006: Formula Challenge Japan ( 7th place)
- 2007: Formula Challenge Japan (Master)
- 2008: Japanese Formula 3 Championship (2nd place)
- 2009: Formula Nippon ( 13th place); World Series by Renault ( No. 32 )
- 2010: World Series by Renault ( 22nd place)