Hideki Mutoh

Hideki Mutoh
Hideki Mutoh at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Pole Day for the 2009 Indianapolis 500.
Nationality	Japanese
Date of birth	October 10, 1982 (1982-10-10) (age 27)
Place of birth	Tokyo
2009 IndyCar Series
Debut season	2007
Current team	Andretti Green Racing
Car no.	27
Former teams	Super Aguri Panther Racing
Starts	26
Wins	0
Poles	0
Best finish	10th in 2008
Previous series
2003-2004 2006 2006 2007	Japanese Formula Three Formula Nippon Super GT Indy Pro Series
Championship titles
2002	Formula Dream Champion

Hideki Mutoh (武藤 英紀, Mutō Hideki^?, born October 10, 1982) is a Japanese race car driver from Tokyo currently racing in the IndyCar Series for Andretti Green Racing.

Career

History

He began karting at age 12 in 1996 and quickly moved through the ranks, becoming a part of Honda's Formula Dream Project. He moved to Europe in 1998 to compete in Formula Vauxhall. He then moved on to the Formula Ford European Championship and competed in the Formula Ford Festival, finishing 7th in 2000 and 3rd in 2001. He then moved back to Asia to compete in Asian Formula 2000 and Formula Dream, where he finished second in his rookie season. He won the Formula Dream championship in his second year in 2002. Mutoh then moved to Japanese Formula Three, finishing 9th and 3rd in his two seasons there. In 2006 he drove in Formula Nippon and Super GT 500-class.

2007

In 2007, Autobacs Racing Team Aguri (ARTA) announced that Mutoh had been signed to drive their new entry in the Indy Pro Series in a car prepared by Panther Racing, who had last competed in IPS in 2003, winning the championship with driver Mark Taylor. Mutoh captured his first win in Liberty Challenge Race 1 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on United States Grand Prix weekend.

On September 9, Mutoh made his Indy Racing League IndyCar Series debut with Panther Racing at Chicagoland Speedway in the Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 in the one-off entry #60 car, sponsored by the Formula Dream Project. Mutoh finished 8th and clocked the fastest lap of the race. On October 31, 2007 it was announced Mutoh would replace 2007 IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti at Andretti Green Racing in the team's full-time #27 IndyCar for 2008.^[1]

Mutoh practicing for the 2008 Indianapolis 500

2008

Mutoh made his debut for Andretti Green Racing at Homestead-Miami Speedway in March and in May was the highest qualifying rookie for the 2008 Indianapolis 500. He finished 7th in the race, the second best finishing position for a Japanese driver in the history of the race.

Mutoh scored his best finish of his IndyCar Series career in June at the Iowa Speedway, finishing second to Dan Wheldon, setting a new mark for best IndyCar finish by a Japanese driver, surpassing the 3rd place of Tora Takagi at Texas Motor Speedway in 2003. He failed to finish higher than 6th in the remainder of the season, but beat transitional driver Justin Wilson to the Rookie of the Year title and 10th place overall in the series.

Career Results

IndyCar

(Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2007	Panther Racing	HMS	STP	MOT	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	MIS	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI 8			25th	24
2008	Andretti Green	HMS Ret	STP 6	MOT 11	LBH1 DNP	KAN 6	INDY 7	MIL 12	TXS 6	IOW 2	RIR Ret	WGL 9	NSH 14	MDO 9	EDM Ret	KTY Ret	SNM 13	DET 11	CHI 22	SRF2 8	10th	346
2009	Andretti Green	STP Ret	LBH 20	KAN 8	INDY 10	MIL 8	TXS Ret	IOW 3	RIR 4	WGL Ret	TOR 12	EDM 14	KTY 13	MDO 5	SNM 5	CHI Ret	MOT 14	HMS 6			11th	353

¹ Run on same day

² Non-points race

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indianapolis 500 results

References

• Mutoh moving quickly as Indy 500 rookie

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hideki Mutoh

• Hideki Mutoh official website