is a Japanese racing driver affiliated with

Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) is a motorsport division of the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota. Alongside competition activities, the division develops technologies for the Gazoo Racing (GR) sub-brand of Toyota's sports and performance-oriented pro ...

who currently competes in

Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is the top level of ...

for Hoppy Team Tsuchiya. A longtime competitor in the series, he is best known for winning the 2016 championship in the GT300 class, driving alongside

Takeshi Tsuchiya is a professional race car driver. Racing Record Complete Japanese Formula 3 results ( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) 24 Hours of Le Mans results Complete Formula Nippon results ...

. He is also a four-time class champion in the Super Taikyū endurance racing series, winning the title in 2009,

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, and

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, as well as a two-time class winner at the

Nürburgring 24 Hours The Nürburgring 24 Hours is a 24-hour annual touring car racing, touring car and Grand tourer, GT Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing event that takes place on a combination of the Nordschleife ("North Loop") and the GP-Strecke ("Gr ...

Career

Early career

Matsui began his racing career in

kart racing Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on kart circuit, scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on fu ...

in 2001, and competed primarily in regional championships in

Okayama is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...

until his move up to

single-seaters An open-wheel car is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have their wheels below the body or inside fend ...

in 2006. He made his debut in the Okayama FJ1600 series in 2006, taking four wins and the championship, and made cameos in the national FJ1600 series at Motegi and

Formula Toyota Formula Toyota was a spec racing series in Japan between 1991 and 2007. Many Japanese Formula One drivers, like Kazuki Nakajima and Toranosuke Takagi, made their racing debut in the Formula Toyota. The class folded after the 2007 season when it wa ...

Fuji Speedway is a motorsport race track standing in the foothills of Mount Fuji, in Oyama, Shizuoka, Oyama, Suntō District, Shizuoka, Suntō District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It was built in the early 1960s. In the 1980s, Fuji Speedway was used for the ...

. After catching the attention of , a retired racing driver and director of

Okayama International Circuit Okayama International Circuit (岡山国際サーキット), formerly known as TI Circuit Aida (TIサーキット英田) before 2005, is a private motorsport race track in Mimasaka, Okayama Prefecture, Japan Japan is an island country ...

, Matsui joined the Toyota Young Driver Program (TDP) the following year and moved to the

Formula Challenge Japan Formula Challenge Japan was an open wheel racing series based in Japan. The first season was in 2006 and carried on from the defunct Formula Dream series. It is promoted as a young driver development project jointly by Honda, Toyota and Nissan a ...

series with Toyota support, but was released from the programme after the 2008 season. In 2009, Matsui switched to endurance racing following his departure from Toyota, competing in the Super Taikyū Series in a

Honda Civic Type R The is a series of hot hatchback and sports sedan models based on the Honda Civic, Civic, developed and produced by Honda since September 1997. The first Civic Type R was the third model to receive Honda's Honda Type R, Type R badge (after the ...

for Tatsuya Tanigawa's BOLD Motor Sports and winning the class title despite claiming only one victory. He returned to Formula Challenge Japan for 2010, this time with manufacturer support from

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

, and finished runner-up to the dominant Yūichi Nakayama. Despite this, he left Nissan at the end of the year and would not drive full-time for the next two years, instead getting a job in the shipping industry. However, after being contacted by

, who had previously worked with him during his time as a Toyota junior, Matsui returned to his full-time racing career in 2014, competing for Tsuchiya's teams in the

Asian Le Mans Series The Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS) is an Asian sports car racing endurance series created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and based in Asia. It is the successor to the defunct Japan Le Mans Challenge which folded in 2007 after its second s ...

and the newly introduced

Japan Formula 4 Formula Beat, known as until its rebranding in 2023, is a formula racing class in Japan. The class was founded in 1993 by the Japan Automobile Federation as a class above FJ1600 and below the former All-Japan Formula Three Championship and th ...

. With the exception of a one-round cameo in the

All-Japan Formula Three Championship was a national motor racing championship that takes place in Japan. It is a junior-level feeder formula that uses small single seater Formula Three chassis. As a result of Formula 3 naming regulations by the FIA, on 13 August 2019, series pr ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, where he won both races in the somewhat poorly contested National class, Matsui has competed exclusively in

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing that uses sports cars with two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built Sports prototype, sports prototypes, which are the highest level in sports car racing; or grand to ...

since 2014.

Super GT

Matsui made his debut in the top-flight

series' GT300 category in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, driving a

Dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

-developed Toyota 86 MC alongside Takeshi Tsuchiya for Tsuchiya's VivaC Team Tsuchiya, which returned to the series for the first time since 2008. Matsui would rejoin Toyota in 2015 alongside his Super GT commitments after being recommended by

Naoya Gamou is a Japanese professional racing driver who currently competes in Super GT for K2 R&D LEON Racing alongside Togo Suganami is a racing driver from Japan who currently competes in Super GT. Career Formula career Suganami started his first ...

, returning to Super Taikyū for the

TOM'S is an automotive aftermarket parts manufacturer and tuner of Toyota and Lexus vehicles, as well as a factory-backed racing team. The TOM'S head office is located in Tokyo, Japan. TOM'S most prominently produces aftermarket parts for current ...

-run

team and making his international debut with TGR at the 2015 Nürburgring 24 Hours. After claiming one race victory at Sugo during his 2015 campaign, Matsui remained with the team for

to contest what would be his most successful season in the category, taking a dominant victory at Chang (now

Buriram Buriram (, , ; Northern Khmer: ) is a city municipality ('' thesaban nakhon'') in Thailand, capital of Buriram Province, about northeast of Bangkok. incorporating Nai Mueang and Isan Subdistricts and parts Samet Subdistricts of Mueang Burira ...

) and charging from the midfield at Motegi to emerge as series champion alongside his teammate Tsuchiya, who retired from full-time driving duties at the end of the year to focus on team management. Despite his performances, Matsui did not move up to GT500, and instead remained with Tsuchiya's team in the GT300 class for

, partnered by

Super Formula 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 ...

driver

Kenta Yamashita is a Japanese racing driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing who is currently competing in Super GT for Rookie Racing, ROOKIE Racing and in Super Formula Championship, Super Formula for Masahiko Kondō, Kondō Racing. He won the GT500-class Super GT cham ...

. Alongside Yamashita and fellow Toyota-supported formula racers

Sho Tsuboi is a Japanese racing driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing and TOM'S, TOM'S Racing, who currently competes in the Super GT, Super GT Series GT500 class and Super Formula Championship.DriverDB Internetseite: Tsuboi is a three-time Super GT GT500 champ ...

and

Kimiya Sato is a Japanese racing driver. He currently competes in Super GT. Career After competing in karting in Asia, Sato spent two seasons in Formula BMW UK, ending fourth in 2007. He returned to Japan and resulted runner-up in the 2008 Formula Challe ...

, Matsui would spend 2017,

, and

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

in inconsistent form, demonstrating exceptional qualifying pace and taking pole positions but more frequently finishing towards the end of the field. Results would dip further after the team's switch to the

Porsche 911 GT3 R The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a range of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national ...

for the

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

season, and remained unremarkable until Matsui's departure at the end of the 2022 season. Matsui joined Team Mach alongside professional sim racer Yusuke Tomibayashi for the 2023 season, driving the familiar Toyota 86 MC. However, the team would ultimately fail to score a single point over the course of the year.

Racing record

Career summary

* Season still in progress.

Complete Super GT results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Matsui, Takamitsu 1987 births Living people Japanese racing drivers People from Fukuyama, Hiroshima Sportspeople from Hiroshima Prefecture Super GT drivers Japanese Formula 3 Championship drivers Formula Challenge Japan drivers Asian Le Mans Series drivers Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers TOM'S drivers Porsche Carrera Cup Japan drivers