Haruo Tsuchiya: 1945-2021

DSC is saddened to learn that Haruo Tsuchiya, the founder of legendary Japanese privateer racing team Tsuchiya Engineering, passed away on Sunday, 11 April at the age of 76 following a lengthy bout with cancer.

Haruo Tsuchiya’s career in motor racing began in motocross, as a rider for the legendary Suzuki factory racing team Johoku Riders in the early 1960s. In 1968, Tsuchiya joined the upstart Tomei Automotive engineering company, where he began his transition to four-wheel racing, as well as his transition to the engineering side of racing by being in charge of engine building for the company.

In 1971, Tsuchiya left Tomei to form his own independent racing shop, Tsuchiya Engineering – where he built his own engines, and fabricated his own chassis and bodies. Tsuchiya would establish himself as one of the most successful and respected privateer constructors over the decades to come.

Prior to entering the All-Japan GT Championship (JGTC, later Super GT) in 1996, Tsuchiya Engineering were a fixture in the 1300cc Touring Car races supporting the Fuji Grand Champion Series – Takao Wada won a series title in 1982 aboard Tsuchiya’s #25 Advan Nissan Sunny B110.

Following that, Tsuchiya entered the All-Japan Touring Car Championship (JTC). During the Group A touring era, Tsuchiya’s Advan Toyota Corolla Levin AE92 won back-to-back Division 3 titles, in 1989 with Kazuo Mogi and Sakae Obata, and in 1990 with Morio Nitta and Keiichi Suzuki.

Tsuchiya Engineering partnered with Team Taisan for the 1998 JGTC season, where the #25 Tsuchiya Toyota MR2 of Keiichi Suzuki and Shingo Tachi won the team’s first championship – winning a record five out of six races contested that year.

In 1999, with new sponsorship, drivers, and a new partner in A’PEX Racing (now apr Racing), the Tsuchiya MR2 won back-to-back titles, and star driver Morio Nitta won his second GT300 Drivers’ Championship. After that, Tsuchiya took his team to the top flight, competing in GT500 with the fourth-generation Toyota Supra.

Successes in GT500 were few and far between for Tsuchiya Engineering, but in 2005, Manabu Orido and Dominik Schwager won the opening round of the season at Okayama International Circuit, giving them their first and only victory in GT500 – in the series’ first race since rebranding as Super GT.

The 2008 recession forced Tsuchiya to suspend his team’s activities. But Tsuchiya’s son Takeshi, who spent nearly a decade as a Toyota works racing driver, was already following in his father’s footsteps as a driver, engineer, and mechanic. Takeshi Tsuchiya established 25 Racing/Team Samurai during the recession, laying the foundation for his father’s famous team to return to Super GT.

Tsuchiya Engineering returned to GT300 in 2015, with team president Haruo Tsuchiya leading the development of the new Toyota 86 Mother Chassis constructed by Dome, and Takeshi Tsuchiya driving alongside his protegé Takamitsu Matsui, while simultaneously serving as the team’s Chief Engineer.

After a first win for the new VivaC Toyota MC86 in 2015, Tsuchiya and Matsui won the GT300 Championship in 2016. As the chequered flag fell in the last race at Twin Ring Motegi, both father and son embraced on the pitwall as they celebrated their first championship together.

Ten days after winning the championship, Haruo Tsuchiya was admitted to hospital where he was diagnosed with oral cancer. Takeshi Tsuchiya, who had retired from racing full-time, took over the day-to-day operations of his father’s team.

Haruo Tsuchiya was still an ever-present figure at his team’s shop in Fujisawa, until his condition worsened towards the end of 2020.  He passed away in the company of his family at home at 11:13 AM on Sunday, 11 April.

That day, his team, under the stewardship of his son Takeshi, raced in the first round of the 2021 Super GT Series at Okayama – beginning Tsuchiya Engineering’s 50th anniversary of racing, which will now sadly go forward without the presence of their founder.

On behalf of dailysportscar, we would like to extend our condolences to the Tsuchiya family.

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