Hiroki Yoshimoto

With rare exception, most car owners rely on the skills of a trained driver to take their vehicle to its four-wheeled limit. Take, for instance, time attacks. Who that driver is and how well the car performs depends on how well the owner is connected. Drifters, instructors, or even a journalist might get the proverbial nod from the sidelines to rip off their jumpsuit and get on the track to play. My bench, however, is still very warm and toasty.

If you're 5Zigen USA, who do you call to come and fight in Super Lap Battle? Hiroki Yoshimoto, a driver whose laundry list of accomplishments includes GP2, Super GT, and Super Taikyu, among others. Half-Japanese, half-Korean and fully fluent in Japanese, English-he grew up in Australia-and car control, Yoshimoto tells us what he thinks of U.S. tuning, what makes a great race car, crashing at 270 km/h, a high speed chase with the cops, and the life of a rock star. Yes, a rock star.

What did you think of Super Lap Battle?
It was my first time at a time attack type of event, but it wasn't much different than qualifying for a race, we ran OK, but I could've run a quicker lap time. We were limited in time and I only pulled off three proper laps. It was a lot of fun and we ended up placing the fastest in the FF class.

How was racing in Long Beach?
The track itself was shorter than I thought, but street circuits are always fun. I've raced in Macau and Monaco, and I love street circuits.

What's the difference between a street circuit and a track?
Everything's different. Racetracks are usually pretty clean and designed for speed. Street circuits have walls, bumps, dust, dirt, and oil. The trick with street courses is that you can go much faster on the last day from all the tire rubber coating the road.

Your opinion on the U.S. built cars?
Our Honda Euro-R (Acura TSX in the U.S.) had less power, but the braking and suspension has been fine-tuned. It is a well-balanced car. The U.S. cars, on the other hand, were too focused on power. Reliability on the U.S. cars was sacrificed, and a lot of them blew up on the track. I think if the U.S. cars focused more on balance than raw power they would have been much more successful.

What makes a great race car?
Stability on braking. It's very important that you can push on the braking. The better the brakes, the faster you can go. A small amount of understeer is also good. You can carry a lot more speed if you have a little understeer. Oversteer is good for drifting and sliding around spectacularly, but you lose too much speed.

Did you ever run at Tsukuba?
I did, I think my fastest time was a 49.7 with Formula 3.

Favorite Japanese track?
Suzuka. To be honest, I hate Tsukuba. There are too many hairpins so you don't build speed and there's no challenging corner. It's good for Time Attack because it's relatively simple. Difficult tracks like Suzuka have fast corners.

So how does one become a race car driver in Japan?
You have to be rich. But if you're not, like me? Prove you're fast. With my own money, I did it in FJ1600, it's like Formula Ford but with less power.

How much of your own money did you spend before you got sponsors?
Close to a $100,000. I sold cars, worked at Pachinko parlors, a gym, and I spent most of my sister's salary. If you don't have a lot of money, you have to be really dedicated to become a racer.

Who was your first sponsor?
It wasn't a company, but a rich guy who helped me out. I think it was $500. Not a lot, but I remember I was really happy.

What series have you raced in?
FJ1600, Formula Toyota, F1800 in Korea, F3, Super GT, Super Taikyu, World Series by Nissan, Formula Nippon, GP2 series, and GP2 Asian series.

Which was the most difficult series?
GP2 was very difficult. All drivers are of the highest level, so it tested my abilities. Most of the GP2 drivers-Lewis Hamilton, Nelson Piquet Junior, Timo Glock, Nico Rosberg-ended up in Formula 1. GP2 is the final stepping-stone before you get into Formula 1.