, also known by , is a Japanese businessman and former

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

. He is the grandson of

Kōnosuke Matsushita was a Japanese industrialist who founded Panasonic Corporation, Panasonic, the largest Japanese consumer electronics company. Matsushita is referred to as the "God of Management" in Japan. Childhood Kōnosuke Matsushita was born on 27 Novemb ...

, the founder of

Panasonic is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...

. In 1989, Matsushita won the Toyota Atlantic Championship (Pacific), becoming the first and only Japanese driver to do so. He was also the first Japanese driver to race in the

Indy 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

Early life

Matsushita was born in

Nishinomiya 270px, Nishinomiya City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Nishinomiya city center 1985 270px, Hirota Shrine is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 484,368 in 218,948 households and a population density ...

Hyōgo Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to th ...

as the youngest son of Masaharu Matsushita, who was the second president of Panasonic for sixteen years from 1961. He graduated from

Konan University is a university on the slopes of Mount Rokkō in Higashinada-ku, Kobe, Japan. It was founded by business tycoons of major companies for their children. A private university with approximately 10,000 students, it offers a wide variety of progra ...

. His elder brother, Masayuki Matsushita served as a vice chairman of

for over a decade.

Racing career

Despite being the grandson of the founder of

, he refused to be labelled as a rich kid who could buy his way into anything. He instead worked his way up from the bottom, starting his career racing motorcycles in his home country between 1977 and 1980, before switching to four wheels. He retired from

Motocross Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom. History Motocross first evolved in Britain from motorcycle trials competi ...

racing by becoming Champion in

Kansai region The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropol ...

in 1980 at the age of 19. In 1987, Matsushita started racing Formula Fords - the Class A of auto racing - In the following year, he teamed up with

Jim Downing James Downing (born January 4, 1942) is an American former professional race car driver, he is a five-time IMSA Championship winner, owner/driver of Downing/Atlanta Racing, and was principal in the development of the HANS device. Personal life ...

in a Camel Lights car and secured a second-place finish in class at the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car racing, sports car Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Flo ...

and a third-place finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring. In 1989, Matsushita fearlessly entered the Formula Atlantic series and, by the end of that year, he had claimed four victories and the

Toyota Atlantic The Atlantic Championship Series is an American open-wheel racing series with races throughout North America. It has previously been called Champ Car Atlantics, Toyota Atlantics (after its then engine supplier for sponsorship reasons), or just ...

championship (Pacific division) with the largest point margin of all time. He then tried Formula Pacific in New Zealand and became the first Japanese driver to win the prestigious Lady Wigram Trophy Race. He graduated to Champ Car in 1990, scoring one point in his debut season. He became the first Japanese driver to race in the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

. In 1991, and followed that achievement with a top-ten finish at

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

. Matsushita missed the 1992 Indy 500 after suffering a broken leg during a practice crash. He was sidelined for several weeks and missed the next six events. At the Phoenix race in 1994, Matsushita endured a horrific crash in which his car was cut in half by

Jacques Villeneuve Jacques Joseph Charles Villeneuve (; born 9 April 1971) is a Canadian former racing driver, who competed in IndyCar from 1994 PPG Indy Car World Series, 1994 to 1995 PPG Indy Car World Series, 1995, and Formula One from to . Villeneuve won t ...

's car travelling at nearly full speed. He emerged from his destroyed car with only minor injuries. The same year, he earned his best career finish of 6th position at the Marlboro 500 at

Michigan International Speedway Michigan International Speedway (formerly named as the Michigan Speedway from 1997 to 2000) is a D-shaped oval superspeedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. It has hosted various major auto racing series throughout its existence, including NASCAR, Cham ...

. This result was made possible by an extraordinarily high rate of attrition that saw only 8 cars finish the race. Matsushita was 11 laps behind the leader at the drop of the checkered flag. By the time he retired in 1998, Matsushita had started 117 Champ Car races for

Dick Simon Racing Dick Simon Racing was a race team owned by racer Dick Simon that competed in the CART Championship Car series from 1983 to 1995 and the Indy Racing League from 1999 to 2001. CART The team was founded in 1983 when Simon decided to bring his spons ...

Walker Racing Walker Racing was a racing team founded by Derrick Walker in 1991 racing originally in the CART Championship Car series. It last competed in the United SportsCar Championship under the name of Team Falken Tire until Falken Tire pulled out of n ...

, Arciero/Wells Racing and Payton/Coyne. He holds the record for most starts in

American Championship Car Racing American open-wheel car racing, generally and commonly known as Indy car racing, is a category of professional automobile racing in the United States. As of 2025 IndyCar Series, 2025, the top-level American open-wheel racing championship is sa ...

history without scoring a Top 5. In 2001, Matsushita competed in the

Baja 1000 The Baja 1000 is an annual Mexican off-road motorsport race held on the Baja California Peninsula, with a course of up to about 850 or more miles. It is one of the most prestigious off-road races in the world, having attracted competitors from ...

off-road race, in a Mitsubishi Montero.

Racing record

WCAR/SCCA Western Formula Atlantic Championship results

IMSA Camel Lights results

Toyota Atlantic Championship (pacific) results

Lady Wigram Trophy results

American open–wheel racing results

Indy Lights

CART

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Nickname

Matsushita earned the nickname "King Hiro" from

Emerson Fittipaldi Emerson Fittipaldi (; born 12 December 1946) is a Brazilian former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Fittipaldi won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in and with Team ...

, who was complaining about Matsushita's reluctance to cede track position when getting lapped by the leaders. The nickname came about as a result of the voice-activated microphone ("vox") Roger Penske's team was using. Fittipaldi's epithet was said so quickly that the circuit cut off the first syllable of the first word he used. Fittipaldi, allegedly, had intended to say "Fucking Hiro!"

Business career

Matsushita, a successful businessman, owns Matsushita International Corp, a firm specializing in real estate, finance, and insurance. This company has ownership of

Swift Engineering Swift Engineering is an American engineering firm that builds Autonomous robot, autonomous systems, helicopters, submarines, spacecraft, ground vehicles, robotics, and composite parts. The chairman and CEO is Hiro Matsushita, a former racecar dr ...

, an American engineering firm that builds autonomous systems,

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...

, ground vehicles,

robotic Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...

s, and composite parts. Swift was well-known for producing racing cars for various open-wheel racing series such as

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single-seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

Formula Atlantic Formula Atlantic is a specification of open-wheel racing car developed in the 1970s. It was used in professional racing through the IMSA Atlantic Championship until 2009 and is currently primarily used in amateur racing through Sports Car Club ...

, the

Champ Car World Series Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), ...

, and

Formula Nippon The Japanese Super Formula Championship is a formula racing series held primarily in Japan. It is considered to be the pinnacle of single-seater racing in Japan or Asia as a whole, making it one of the top motorsport series in the region. The s ...

Awards

In 1998, Nov 2, Hiro Matsushita was awarded Champion Culbs during the CART Year End Banquet at the Century Plaza in Los Angeles, California.

Matsushita family tree

Personal life

Matsushita resides in

San Clemente, California San Clemente (; Spanish for " St. Clement" ) is a coastal city in southern Orange County, California, United States. It was named in 1925 after the Spanish colonial island (which was named after a Pope from the first century). Located in the ...

. He has a son called Takayuki Matsushita who is a lawyer resides in the USA.

References

External links

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MOTORSPORT STATS
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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Matsushita, Hiro 1961 births Hiro Matsushita Japanese racing drivers Living people Champ Car drivers Indianapolis 500 drivers Indy Lights drivers Atlantic Championship drivers Panasonic Sportspeople from Kobe 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers Japanese IndyCar Series drivers 20th-century Japanese businesspeople Walker Racing drivers Dale Coyne Racing drivers David Price Racing drivers People from Nishinomiya 21st-century Japanese businesspeople Team Goh Motorsports drivers