🇯🇵 Takeshi Kimura

Takeshi Kimura is a professional endurance racing driver and FIA Bronze-graded competitor who races GT3 and GTE cars in international multiclass championships. He drives for Kessel Racing, the team he has raced with since 2019 across the World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series. His career spans nine seasons from 2018 to the present, with 76 starts in four major endurance series.[1]

Kimura has won four races, all in the European Le Mans Series where he competes in the LMGT3 and LMGTE classes, and taken eleven podiums across his career. His record in the World Endurance Championship, where he holds 25 starts alongside his European Le Mans commitments, comprises two podium finishes; he has also raced in the single-class Asian Le Mans Series and Japan's Super GT championship. His background includes an Asian Le Mans Series class championship and a GT World Challenge Asia title in 2022. The 2026 WEC season is underway, with Kimura currently holding 25th in the championship standings after one round.[2]

His regular opponents in European Le Mans and WEC include Matteo Cressoni, a 2021 European Le Mans Series LMGTE champion and entry-level professional, and Davide Rigon, a Platinum-graded professional and two-time WEC LMGTE Am champion; Kimura runs closely matched with both drivers. He has finished ahead of established professionals including Matt Campbell, a two-time WEC LMGTE Am champion and 2025 IMSA WeatherTech GTP champion, and Maro Engel, a 2024 GT World Challenge Europe champion and Platinum-graded driver. Kessel Racing, which has fielded 117 drivers across 81 race wins in the indexed record, counts James Calado among its established professionals.