Fujinami Vertigo Racing Team

About

(Original team backstory)

Francesco Cucinella is an ex successful Pro-Tuned and Drift driver from Italy, having won the Kaido Battle Championship 2 times in the early 90s with his old custom built RB26 powered Mk3 Supra and the Japan Drift Grand Prix in the early 00s for 4 years in a row driving for the Fujinami Racing Team as part of a 2-car effort alongside the now team manager Chihiro Fujinami running a Silvia S14 and a Silvia S15.

After retiring in 2005 he decided to open a small shop in Ashikaga, Tochiji repairing and selling parts for Nissans and Toyotas, during this time he started restoring his old Supra from back in the days and, thanks to his experience with Nissan engines, he fine tuned the engine of the car to reach 950bhp with the goal in mind of reaching 350km/h however, a heavy crash during testing in which the car was completely totaled prevented him to reach it.

In 2010 he decided that it was time to comeback in the racing world as he founded the Vertigo Racing alongside a couple of friends from back in the Kaido Battle, the first years have been pretty successful having achieved wins and championships in the Japan Drift Grand Prix and in the minor series running various cars ranging from Silvias to Skylines and even running a drift tuned Nissan Pulsar for a couple of rounds, unfortunately as the years went by the results struggled to come and he almost disbanded the team in 2018 but one day an unknown offer to buy the team came by, that turned out to be the Fujinami Racing Team, the team he raced with in the Japan Drift.

After having reached an agreement the team now lives on as Fujinami Vertigo Racing Team.

(New team backstory)

The Fujinami Co., Ltd. is a company formed in 1972 in Ashikaga, Tochiji by Byakuya Fujinami, a former Nissan engineer. Originally the company started out by tuning L24's and S20's engines to compete in the local races with various degrees of success.

In 1995 the company started the Fujinami Racing Team to compete in the Saikou no Taikyu as one of Nissan's works team racing R33 GT-Rs and 300ZXs and in the early 00s R34 GT-Rs, they also competed for 7 years in the Japan Drift Grand Prix winning 4 times in a row with Francesco Cucinella and Chihiro Fujinami (son of Byakuya Fujinami) as the drivers.

In 2008 they switched from Saikou no Taikyu to J-Speed GT Masters competing with the all new Nissan GT-R in the GTE-AM class with Maiko Fujihara and Haruna Fujimoto as the driver lineup.
After 8 years of struggling for good results the team decided to change the lineup for the 2017 season to make space for the Fujinami Twins to step at the wheel of the GT-R, after a couple of races where the two girls had to gain confidence with the car they finally finished in the podium and, at the end of the season, the team finally got their first victory.

In 2021, thanks in part to the good results of the last seasons, the team is gonna switch to the GTE-PRO GT-R ahead of the new season but they are going to also run a second car that, strangely, is not a GT-R but a Jaguar XJR-75, with the original drivers of the GT-R at the wheel of this car.

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Drivers

Chiaki Fujinami
Rank/Archetype: Veteran/Lightfooted
Tripwire: @chiaki_fjn

Gender: Female (She/Her)
Age: 22
Birthday: March 14th
Height: 5’ ft 3” in (160 cm)
Birthplace: Ashikaga, Tochiji Prefecture, Japan
Interests: Video Games, PC Building, Cats


Ibuki Fujinami
Rank/Archetype: Veteran/Aggressor
Tripwire: @ibuki_fjn

Gender: Female (She/Her)
Age: 22
Birthday: March 14th
Height: 5’ ft 3” in (160 cm)
Birthplace: Ashikaga, Tochiji Prefecture, Japan
Interests: Cars, Motorcycles, Rock Music


Maiko Fujihara
Rank/Archetype: Veteran/Hotlapper
Tripwire: @fujihara_queen

Gender: Female (She/Her)
Age: 31
Birthday: March 20th
Height: 5’ ft 5” in (166 cm)
Birthplace: Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan
Interests: Modelling, Travel


Haruna Fujimoto
Rank/Archetype: Veteran/Lightfooted
Tripwire: @mt_haruna_ghost

Gender: Transgender Female (They/Them)
Age: 30
Birthday: September 18th
Height: 5’ ft 7” in (169 cm)
Birthplace: Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture, Japan
Interests: Prefers to keep them private