🇯🇵 Juichi Wakisaka

Juichi Wakisaka was an established professional racing in Japan's Super GT championship, a multiclass endurance series in which cars are shared by multiple drivers. He raced the GT500 class, driving purpose-built machines for Lexus, primarily with Lexus Team Petronas TOM'S. Wakisaka held a Silver FIA grade, marking him as a professional-tier driver within sportscar racing. He also contested the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, a multiclass endurance championship in Germany where he raced the SP 8 class of modified production-based cars for Gazoo Racing.[1]

Wakisaka won the Super GT GT500 championship in 2009 alongside teammate André Lotterer, taking three wins and 14 podiums across 65 Super GT starts between 2008 and 2015. He had won the championship twice before, in 2002 and 2006, making him a three-time champion in the series. In the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie he took two wins from three starts between 2010 and 2012. His final indexed season was 2015, when he finished 12th in the Super GT standings.[2]

In Super GT company, Wakisaka raced regularly against established professionals including multiple-time GT500 champions. He finished ahead of Tomoki Nojiri, a two-time Super Formula champion, in five meetings, and ahead of Naoki Yamamoto, a Platinum-graded driver who won the GT500 title three times during Wakisaka's career, in 19 races. He was closely matched against Ronnie Quintarelli, himself a three-time GT500 champion, and against João Paulo de Oliveira, a Platinum-graded professional and two-time GT300 champion, both regular opponents across his years in the series. Wakisaka retired from driving at the conclusion of the 2015 season and moved into a team management role.