Team Taisan

Founded	October 1983 (October 1983)
Founder(s)	Yasutsune Chiba
Base	Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
Team principal(s)	Yasunori Chiba
Current series	All Japan EV-GP Series
Former series	Fuji Long Distance Series, All-Japan Sports Prototype Championship, Japanese Touring Car Championship, Asian Le Mans Series, Super GT Series
Current drivers	Shinnosuke Yamada Shintaro Kawabata
Teams' Championships	JGTC GT500: 1995 JGTC/Super GT GT300: 1996, 1998, 2000–2003, 2012 GP-EV: 2011 ALMS LMGTE: 2013
Drivers' Championships	JTCC JTC-2: 1989 JGTC/Super GT GT300: 1996, 1998, 2000, 2012 ALMS LMGTE: 2013

Team Taisan (チーム・タイサン, stylized as Team TAISAN) is a Japanese auto racing team founded in 1983 by Yasutsune "Ricky" Chiba and owned by the Taisan Industrial Company.^[1] Most active in the Super GT Series, formerly known as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), Taisan has been involved in all but one season from 1994 to 2018, taking a sabbatical in 2015. During that time they have won eight team championships and four drivers championships, representing manufacturers Ferrari, Porsche, Dodge, Toyota, Nissan, and Audi. Team Taisan has also participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, winning their class on their debut in 2000. For nearly their entire career, Taisan has been sponsored by tire manufacturer Yokohama Rubber Company, often carrying the name of Yokohama's Advan brand.

History

The Team Taisan Endless Porsche which won the 2012 GT300 Drivers and Teams Championships

The team was initially formed through Nova Engineering and their efforts in the All Japan Endurance Championship and Fuji Long Distance Series. Taisan operated one of the teams' Porsche 962C with drivers Kunimitsu Takahashi and Kenji Takahashi. Kunimitsu went on to win the Endurance Championship three times from 1985 to 1987, while Nova Engineering won the team championships in the Fuji Long Distance Series those same years. Taisan expanded their program to include the Japanese Touring Car Championship in 1989 with BMW M3s, adding Briton Will Hoy to the team in 1990. A Group A category Nissan Skyline GT-R was added to the team in 1991 for Kenji Takahashi and Keiichi Tsuchiya while their BMWs continued in the lower JTC-2 category. Kunimitsu replaced Kenji in the Skyline for 1992 and 1993 before Kunimitsu and Tsuchiya left to form their own racing team and the JTCC eliminated the Group A cars from the series, leaving the team with a single Super Touring BMW for Kazuo Mogi in 1994.

Taisan returned to sports car racing in 1994 in the new All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the team participating with one of their former 962Cs and teamed alongside a Ferrari F40. Masahiko Kondo and Anthony Reid won one race for the Porsche while Tetsuya Ota and Oscar Larrauri earned one victory in the Ferrari. A switch to a pair of Porsche 911 GT2s earned three GT1 victories in 1995 and the teams championship for the GT1 category,^[2] while the team also added a GT2 class campaign under the Team Taisan Jr. moniker for a Porsche 964. Taisan Jr. became a dominant team in the rechristened GT300 class, winning the drivers and teams championships in 1996, followed by second place in 1997 and another championship in 1998 while campaigning a new Toyota MR2 in cooperation with Tsuchiya Engineering.^[2]

Taisan's success led to the team being invited to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2000 for the LMGT category. Their Porsche 911 GT3-R, driven by Hideo Fukuyama, Atsushi Yogo, and Bruno Lambert won the category by a six-lap margin. Upon returning to Japan, Taisan began a streak of four consecutive GT300 team championships from 2000–2003, including a drivers championship with Fukuyama in 2000. Another Le Mans also earned the team a podium finish in their class for 2002.^[2] Taisan downsized to a single Porsche team from 2004 onward as the JGTC transitioned to the new Super GT Series; Taisan eventually joined with Endless for a joint program that earned them another drivers and teams championships in 2012. The team expanded once again in 2013, retaining the Porsche in Super GT while joining the new Asian Le Mans Series with a Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, winning the series championship and earning the team an automatic invitation to Le Mans, their first since 2006.^[2] A difficult 2014 season with a new Nissan GT-R led Taisan to take a sabbatical year from Super GT,^[3] returning in 2016 with an Audi R8 LMS in cooperation with SARD.

Team Taisan also began to embrace electric motorsport by participating in the All Japan EV-GP Series in 2011 with Tesla Roadsters as well as a modified Porsche 914, winning the 2011 championship. The team also began developing electric karts.^[4] In 2018 Chiba announced an auction of many former Taisan racing cars dating back to the early 1990s, including several JGTC and Super GT machines.^[2] Chiba also announced at the conclusion of the 2018 Super GT season that the team would cease participation in Super GT, instead concentrating solely on electric motorsports.^[5]

• 
  1991 Nissan Skyline GT-R Group A
• 
  1994 Porsche 962C
• 
  1994 Ferrari F40
• 
  2012 Porsche 911 GT3 R
• 
  2014 Nissan GT-R GT3
• 
  2017 Audi R8 LMS

Complete JGTC Results^[6][7]

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

Year	Car	Tyres	Class	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pos	Pts
1994	Ferrari F40 LM	Y	GT1	34	Keiichi Suzuki Hideshi Matsuda	FUJ	SEN	FUJ	SUG	MIN 8				2nd	64
	Porsche 962C			35	Anthony Reid Kazuo Mogi Masahiko Kondo	FUJ NC	SEN	FUJ 1	SUG	MIN 3
	Ferrari F40 LM			40	Tetsuya Ota Keiichi Suzuki Anthony Reid Oscar Larrauri	FUJ 3	SEN 3	FUJ 3	SUG Ret	MIN 1
1995	BMW M3 (E30)	Y	GT2	26	Motoji Sekine Fumio Mutoh Junichi Yamanashi Masaoki Nagashima	SUZ 4	FUJ 11	SEN 6	FUJ 5	SUG 5	MIN Ret			5th	44
				28	Motoji Sekine Fumio Mutoh	SUZ	FUJ	SEN	FUJ Ret	SUG 4	MIN 4
	Porsche 911 GT2		GT1	33	Hideshi Matsuda Kaoru Iida Keiichi Suzuki	SUZ	FUJ 1	SEN 8	FUJ Ret	SUG	MIN			1st	80
	Ferrari F40 LM			34	Anthony Reid Masahiko Kondo Hideshi Matsuda Takeshi Tsuchiya Oscar Larrauri Keiichi Suzuki	SUZ 11	FUJ Ret	SEN 3	FUJ 5	SUG 6	MIN 1
	Porsche 911 GT2
				35	Keiichi Suzuki Hideshi Matsuda Takeshi Tsuchiya Anthony Reid Masahiko Kondo	SUZ Ret	FUJ 7	SEN	FUJ 9	SUG 1	MIN 9
	Ferrari F40 LM			40	Oscar Larrauri Tetsuya Ota	SUZ Ret	FUJ 9	SEN	FUJ 18	SUG	MIN 12
1996	Porsche 964 RSR	Y	GT300	26	Keiichi Suzuki Morio Nitta	SUZ 1	FUJ 2	SEN Ret	FUJ 2	SUG 1	MIN 1			1st	93
	BMW M3 (E30)			28	Masaoki Nagashima Junichi Yamanashi Manabu Orido Takeshi Tsuchiya	SUZ 12	FUJ	SEN	FUJ
	Toyota MR2									SUG 4	MIN DNA
	Porsche 993 RSR			38	Adrian Fu Rodney Jones Masaoki Nagashima	SUZ 9	FUJ DNA	SEN 8	FUJ 12	SUG DNA	MIN 8
	Porsche 993 GT2		GT500	34	Hideshi Matsuda Osamu Nakako	SUZ 9	FUJ 9	SEN Ret	FUJ 12	SUG 12	MIN 6			8th	12
				35	Takeshi Tsuchiya Anthony Reid Oscar Larrauri Mitsuhiro Kinoshita	SUZ 12	FUJ 7	SEN Ret	FUJ DNS	SUG 15	MIN Ret
1997	Porsche 993 RSR	Y	GT300	26	Keiichi Suzuki Morio Nitta	SUZ 4	FUJ 1	SEN 3	FUJ 1	MIN 3	SUG 2			2nd	89
	Porsche 993 GT2		GT500	34	Keiichi Tsuchiya Hideshi Matsuda	SUZ	FUJ	SEN 10	FUJ Ret					13th	4
	Chrysler Viper GTS-R									MIN 14	SUG 8
1998	Toyota MR2	Y	GT300	25	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi	SUZ 1	FUJ C	SEN 1	FUJ 1	MOT 6	MIN 1	SUG 1		1st	106
	Chrysler Viper GTS-R		GT500	55	Hideshi Matsuda Eiichi Tajima Fuminori Mizuno Anthony Reid	SUZ 14	FUJ C	SEN	FUJ 14	MOT	MIN DNA	SUG 10		17th	1
1999	Porsche 993 GT3-R	Y	GT300	26	Hiroaki Suga Dilantha Malagamuwa Dominik Schwager Hideshi Matsuda Tomohiko Sunako	SUZ 5	FUJ Ret	SUG Ret	MIN Ret					5th	48
	Porsche 996 GT3-R									FUJ 1	OKA Ret	MOT 1
	Porsche 993 GT3-R			55	Hiroaki Suga Eiichi Tajima					FUJ 7	OKA 6	MOT 11		14th	10
	Chrysler Viper GTS-R		GT500		Eiichi Tajima Hideshi Matsuda Dominik Schwager	SUZ 9	FUJ 13	SUG 15	MIN 13					13th	2
2000	Porsche 996 GT3-R	Y	GT300	26	Hideshi Matsuda Hideo Fukuyama Fuminori Mizuno	MOT 1	FUJ 1	SUG 9	FUJ 7	OKA 7	MIN 1	SUZ 2		1st	101
				28	Hiroaki Suga Shinsuke Shibahara	MOT	FUJ	SUG 10	FUJ 1	OKA 8	MIN 3	SUZ Ret
	Chrysler Viper GTS-R			55	Hiroaki Suga Shinsuke Shibahara Eiji Yamada Takahide Tasaki						MIN 10	SUZ 15		17th	1
			GT500			MOT 16	FUJ Ret	SUG DNA	FUJ 18	OKA DNA				NC	0
2001	Porsche 996 GT3-R	Y	GT300	24	Hideshi Matsuda Kazuyushi Nishizawa	OKA 11	FUJ 4	SUG 5	FUJ 7	MOT 3	SUZ 16	MIN 2		1st	74
				26	Hideo Fukuyama Atsushi Yogo	OKA 4	FUJ 17	SUG 7	FUJ 13	MOT 2	SUZ 3	MIN 8
	Chrysler Viper GTS-R			55	Eiji Yamada Takayuki Kinoshita	OKA 8	FUJ 9	SUG DNA	FUJ 9	MOT 14	SUZ DNA	MIN 3		12th	19
2002	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Y	GT300	24	Hideo Fukuyama Mitsuhiro Kinoshita	OKA 2	FUJ Ret	SUG 16	SEP 5	FUJ 1	MOT 7	MIN Ret	SUZ 2	1st	102
				26	Atsushi Yogo Kazuyushi Nishizawa Takayuki Kinoshita	OKA 5	FUJ 3	SUG 7	SEP 10	FUJ 7	MOT 3	MIN 3	SUZ 17
				28	Yutaka Yamagishi Yukihiro Hane Sunako Jukuchō	OKA 11	FUJ 7	SUG 6	SEP 11	FUJ 11	MOT 17	MIN Ret	SUZ 8	9th	33
	Chrysler Viper GTS-R			55	Eiji Yamada Takashi Shimizu Takayuki Kinoshita	OKA 10	FUJ 16	SUG 5	SEP 9	FUJ 8	MOT 9	MIN 4	SUZ 21
2003	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Y	GT300	24	Akihiro Asai Atsushi Yogo Adam Wilcox	OKA 1	FUJ 11	SUG 13	FUJ 8	FUJ 10	MOT 18	AUT 8	SUZ 5	9th	38
				26	Shinichi Yamaji Kazuyushi Nishizawa	OKA 2	FUJ 1	SUG 8	FUJ 6	FUJ 4	MOT Ret	AUT 3	SUZ 9	1st	88
	Dodge Viper Competition Coupe			55	Eiji Yamada Takayuki Kinoshita	OKA 16	FUJ 16	SUG Ret	FUJ 1	FUJ 5	MOT Ret	AUT 7	SUZ Ret
2004	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Y	GT300	26	Yutaka Yamagishi Kaoru Ijiri Akihiro Asai	OKA 9	SUG 10	SEP Ret	TOK 11	MOT Ret	AUT 13	SUZ 8		14th	6

Complete Super GT Results^[8][9]

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

Year	Car	Tyres	Class	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pos	Points
2005	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	Y	GT300	26	Yutaka Yamagishi Kaoru Ijiri Takashi Inoue Isao Ihashi	OKA Ret	FUJ 12	SEP 16	SUG	MOT	FUJ	AUT	SUZ 19		NC	0
2006	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	Y	GT300	26	Kazuyuki Nishizawa Shinichi Yamaji	SUZ	OKA 8	FUJ 7	SEP	SUG	SUZ	MOT	AUT	FUJ 8	18th	10
2007	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	Y	GT300	26	Nobuteru Taniguchi Shinichi Yamaji Kazuyuki Nishizawa Dominik Farnbacher	SUZ 11	OKA 3	FUJ 19	SEP 13	SUG Ret	SUZ Ret	MOT 1	AUT 8	FUJ 1	5th	72
2008	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	Y	GT300	26	Nobuteru Taniguchi Shinichi Yamaji Keita Sawa Dominik Farnbacher	SUZ 3	OKA 2	FUJ Ret	SEP 15	SUG 7	SUZ 5	MOT 4	AUT 15	FUJ 1	4th	83
2009	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	Y	GT300	26	Haruki Kurosawa Tsubasa Abe Katsuhiko Tsutsui Tsubasa Kurosawa	OKA 10	SUZ 10	FUJ 4	SEP Ret	SUG 7	SUZ 16	FUJ 14	AUT 9	MOT 9	11th	38
2010	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	Y	GT300	26	Igor Sushko Masayuki Ueda Shogo Mitsuyama	SUZ 11	OKA 13	FUJ 10	SEP	SUG 18	SUZ Ret	FUJ C	MOT 11		20th	12
				51	Yuya Sakamoto Shogo Mitsuyama Hideki Yamauchi	SUZ	OKA	FUJ 20	SEP	SUG 15	SUZ	FUJ C	MOT 16		22nd	5
2011	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	Y	GT300	26	Kyosuke Mineo Hideshi Matsuda Junichiro Yamashita Shogo Mitsuyama	OKA 12	FUJ 11	SEP 13	SUG 11	SUZ 14	FUJ 15	AUT 20	MOT 10		16th	19
	Ferrari F430 GT2			41	Shinichi Yamaji Hiroshi Koizumi Kyosuke Mineo	OKA 9	FUJ 9	SEP	SUG 12	SUZ 17	FUJ 21	AUT	MOT Ret		17th	15
2012	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Y	GT300	911	Kyosuke Mineo Naoki Yokomizo	OKA 2	FUJ 8	SEP 2	SUG 5	SUZ Ret	FUJ 4	AUT 2	MOT 1		1st	102
2013	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Y	GT300	0	Kyosuke Mineo Naoki Yokomizo	OKA 10	FUJ Ret	SEP 11	SUG 3	SUZ 7	FUJ 19	AUT 8	MOT 10		9th	40
2014	Nissan GT-R GT3	Y	GT300	67	Shogo Mitsuyama Naoki Yokomizo Kyosuke Mineo	OKA 19	FUJ 9	AUT 9	SUG 5	FUJ 17	SUZ Ret	BUR	MOT 16		16th	24
2016	Audi R8 LMS	Y	GT300	26	Shogo Mitsuyama Yuya Motojima Tsubasa Kondo	OKA 20	FUJ 15	SUG 19	FUJ 8	SUZ 20	CHA	MOT 6	MOT 7		16th	27
2017	Audi R8 LMS	Y	GT300	26	Shinnosuke Yamada Jake Parsons Christian Klien	OKA 21	FUJ 21	AUT 14	SUG 18	FUJ 19	SUZ Ret	CHA 19	MOT 14		24th	11
2018	Audi R8 LMS	Y	GT300	26	Shinnosuke Yamada Shintaro Kawabata Shinji Nakano	OKA 9	FUJ 15	SUZ 28	CHA	FUJ Ret	SUG 20	AUT 20	MOT 16		19th	16

References

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