Seven Hoshi Racing

Seven Hoshi Racing originally started as Itakura Racing in 1977 as a Toyota privateer rally team under the ownership of Makoto Itakura, a Nagoya-based businessman who owned several metal-processing plants and had been an amateur rally driver himself. In 1983, after a few years of middling results with a rotating driver cast, he found an unlikely ace driver out of the ‘bottom rung’ of the talent pool; Michitomo Higuchi, a Shizuoka-based street racer and employee at one of Itakura’s metal-processing plants.

Despite scorn and ridicule directed at Makoto from the established national rally teams for drafting an unproven street racer, within the year Michitomo proved to everyone that he belonged behind the wheel of a rally car and dominated the national Japanese rallying scene (what later would become the Japan Rally Masters series.)

Makoto felt that he had the driving talent to take his privateer team onto the world rallying stage; coupled with the introduction of the less costly Group A regulations after the banning of the Group B regulations in 1986, he believed he could take the fight to the factory-backed works outfits from Lancia, Ford, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Nissan, and even Toyota.

The dominance of Lancia in the early 1980s until the end of 1990 meant that even with Michitomo’s excellent talents, he only managed one rally win for the notable and beloved underdogs from Nagoya; a commanding win in the 1990 Acropolis Rally. Aside infrequent podium finishes, it did not appear that the team would ever have the major breakthrough they desired, and this single win remained as the team’s greatest success for nearly five years.

It would not be until 1995 that Michitomo picked up a win again, this time in the brand new Celica ST205, again in the Acropolis Rally against the dominant Subaru factory effort. The next year, Michitomo would take the driver’s championship in his best individual season; never finishing out of the top 5 in any of that season’s 10 rallies while also picking up a pair of wins at the Sanremo Rally and the grueling Safari Rally to take an unlikely championship win over all the factory entries, including Toyota themselves.

The win at Sanremo in the penultimate round would turn out to be Michitomo’s and the team’s final win in Global Rally League competition; an injury suffered in a preseason testing accident robbed him of a chance to defend his title in 1997, and 1998 was a difficult year as the team continued to try and develop the ST205 against the new Toyota Corolla GRL that had been introduced a year prior.

Keen observers of the team’s history point to this season as the year the team began to be known for their independent thinking and characteristic stubbornness; while the new Corolla was faster and more nimble than the aging Celica, the team felt that they did not possess the funds to develop the Corolla to the best of their ability – and the Celica would continue as a proven commodity.

Michitomo retired from full driving duties in 2000 after a severe crash in the Cyprus Rally, passing on the lead driver duties to the young Akira Tamashiro and stepping into a team leader role. 2001 was also the first year the team fielded a Subaru, as Toyota had pulled out of the GRL in 1999 to focus on continued development of the TS020 for the GT Supercar.

Despite no further wins in the years that followed, the team was still a well-respected member of the GRL up until the introduction of the revolutionary Peugeot 307 sport coupe; almost overnight the design focus among many of the factory teams shifted from the four-door sedans to smaller sport coupes – a cost the team could not stomach and would not accept as the new standard; the series of protests lodged against the 307 by the team to the GRL organization are infamous among fans and teams alike, even if they were well-intentioned and grounded in reality.

The 2009 season would be the final one for Itakura Racing in the GRL; a string of poor results, a media and fan backlash, and the loss of Makoto Itakura at the age of 72 essentially tore the team apart from within. He had been, above all else, the one person who had held the team together, and his loss basically ended Itakura Racing for good.

In 2011, a number of new teams and entries were being added to the roster of the J-Speed Association’s Saikou no Taikyu endurance series; one of them was only notable at first glance for the car they had chosen to enter – a Subaru Legacy B4 JSA-GT. The uncommon GT Am machine had been seen in the J-Speed GT Masters the previous year, notably in the hands of Kawashiro YoukaiTech, but had been exclusive to teams with a modicum of factory support until now.

It was only at the first race of the year did anyone realize just exactly who the team running this car was; a number of ex-Itakura Racing personnel and a group of cast-offs from other teams in the J-Speed Association had rebuilt the former rally competitors into something new: Seven Hoshi Racing.
To this day, they have been a consistent presence in the J-Speed Association within the Saikou no Taikyu class; Michitomo has remained the firey managerial force driving the team forward, while the crafty veteran Akira Tamashiro mentors the young defensive maven Shinji Kawamoto. The combination has produced their fair share of on-track incidents throughout the years, but their commitment to improvement and the team’s passion for motorsport is unchanged even through all the turmoil and unrest.

And yet, all is not entirely well for the team. That same distrust of what they consider ‘unnecessary change’ has led them to stick with a machine that is beginning to show its age on the racetrack, long past the time any normal team would have upgraded to something more modern.
The introduction of the Subaru BR-Z JS-2, one of the sport coupes that has dominated the GRL and brand new for this J-Speed GT Masters season has also given the team no small amount of grief, and it is unclear if they will be forced to return into the Saikou no Taikyu series if they wish to keep racing their beloved Legacy – new regulations are on the horizon for the end of 2021, and there is no clear answer to what the team may end up doing after this season.

A longtime competitor in rallying under the Global Rally League and Japan Rally Masters, Akira Tamashiro has seen a lot of drivers and teams come and go during his professional career – and yet, he is still here racing, despite all the obstacles he has had to conquer.

Akira is the youngest of eight siblings, and racing was not something his parents had any opportunity for him to participate in. His uncle introduced Akira to dirt-spec go-karts, developing his love for rallying at a young age and giving him a career goal to follow throughout his entire life.

Michitomo persuaded the late Makoto Itakura to sign him as a development driver after watching Akira in a local Japanese junior rallycross event, and his success in the Japan Rally Masters has been a clear gesture of competence. Although he never won in the Global Rally League, after the collapse of Itakura Racing and subsequent formation of Seven Hoshi Racing, his driving style has made him a fan favorite within the Saikou no Taikyu for years.

On the track, Akira is known as someone who always enjoys battles on track, no matter the circumstance or opposing team, to the point of inviting battles for no real reason other than his own personal satisfaction. To this day, he maintains a friendly rivalry with Yoshiro Arai of Kawashiro Youkaitech, stemming from their days competing against each other in the Japan Rally Masters.

A young prodigy behind the wheel of a race car, Shinji Kawamoto is considered to be one of the rising stars within the ranks of the J-Speed Association despite his young age and lack of experience in a GT car.
Born in Yokohama, Shinji proved even at a young age that he was determined to rise to the top in whatever he so desired, and he boldly declared to his parents that he wanted to be a World Drivers GP Champion when he grew up after seeing a WDGP race at Fuji International Speedway. That was also the year that he began racing in arcade console games and racing simulators, a 'escape' that he has continued to practice and perfect his real-life driving on

His older brother had driven karts as a hobby for a period of time, and Shinji managed to convince his brother to let him try, to astounding results. At only the age of 10 Shinji was a junior karting regional champion; this led him into the Japan Rookie Grand Prix series after his 14th birthday.
The only thing that appears to have stopped him from rising further up the ranks, even with his remarkable success, is a lack of funds; his family was unable to support a continued racing career. As such, he took the step of moving into closed-cockpit race cars with the hope of eventually attracting a team and sponsor from the Japan Super Grand Prix series – leading him to sign with Seven Hoshi Racing for their upcoming J-Speed GT Masters campaign.

Shinji’s signature style of defensive driving is, in his own words, entirely ‘self-learned’ and has earned him a reputation even in the Rookie Grand Prix series of someone who can be incredibly difficult to pass. He can be a bit uptight at times, but the combination of Akira’s tutelage, friendly humor, and Sukemasa's setup knowledge has gotten Shinji to open up more and learn from the experienced crew of Seven Hoshi Racing.

One of the most notorious and legendary success stories to come out of the Japanese illegal street racing scene, Michitomo Higuchi, by all accounts, should have never become a Global Rally League champion – or even a legitimate racer of any kind. His family had no real wealth or assets to speak of, and at the age of 14 he was working nights in a warehouse just to be able to afford an education.

He turned to street racing as a way to earn more funds to support himself and his parents, ‘borrowing’ cars from various different sources until he could afford his own, and once he had graduated from high school he continued to race illegally while working at one of the Itakura foundries.
After he was drafted as a real rally driver, he drove with all the fury and speed of someone who knew they had been given an opportunity to shine and would die before they had to give that opportunity back.

That firey determination shone throughout his entire racing career and continued on into his management of Itakura Racing, then reemerged with the formation of Seven Hoshi Racing. He is known throughout the J-Speed Association paddock as the true driving force behind the team’s push for more cost-effective regulations and the continued usage of ‘outdated’ racing machines.
The one thing that everyone who has worked with him will tell you is not to get on his bad side, and even in his sixties he can still conjure up the firey intensity from his youth at the slightest provocation.

A former engineer for the celebrated Moriyama Speed Shrine racing outfit, Sukemasa Okajima can be best described as ‘difficult’ to work with, despite his excellent technical knowledge and understanding of chassis design.

His upbringing was in stark contrast to Michitomo’s – he is the son of a wealthy family and had his pick of career paths without much resistance, leading him to earn a degree in motorsport engineering from Tokyo City University and almost immediately begin working for the Moriyama Speed Shrine’s racing outfit.
He stayed as a valuable member of the staff at Moriyama Speed Shrine for a number of years, but left after growing dissatisfied with himself and his progress as a ‘complete’ racing engineer – this despite having stated that Moriyama Speed Shrine was the best team he’s ever worked for and left on the best of terms with them.

Years of bouncing from team to team followed, mainly as a result of his acidic and self-denigrating personality until 2016, when Michitomo approached him after his firing from the France-based Aeternam EuroSeries outfit of Equipe Aberrante; he offered Sukemasa the chance to ‘be himself’ with no strings attached.
Today, Sukemasa has toned down his acidic nature to an extent; he is more often likely to actually discuss problems freely than keep his dissatisfaction to himself, although he still pushes himself to be the best and still will berate himself when things do not go according to plan. The team does stand by him regardless of his flaws (self-imagined or otherwise) and consider him the best man for the job.

Most race teams have a PR director or social media director if they are a large organization, so the fact that the small team of Seven Hoshi Racing has one is a bit of an anomaly at first glance, and it wasn't until 2018 that Michitomo even felt the need to hire one at all. He realized that at some point he would need someone capable of handling the contentious situations the team sometimes found itself in, whether it be contentious moments stemming from on-track incidents or continuing to try and work with the governing body of the J-Speed Association.

Maria Capelli is a dedicated motorsport fan, a former member of Scuderia Litorale and was the head of fan relations during her time there. She was part of the staff that was fired after the complete takeover of Scuderia Litorale and had been a valued member of the public relations team for the Aeternam GT Superleague until her hiring by Michitomo in 2020. When asked about her move to Seven Hoshi, seen by many as a lateral move at the best, she replied; "I just need a change of pace."

Although her time at Seven Hoshi has been short, her talents at calming tempers and resolving problems has proven to be invaluable to the rest of the team. She may not be the most knowledgeable about racing, and her driving can be characterized as dangerous, but her passion to make the team more approachable by fans, media, and sponsors is a large part of the reason the team has the funds and the fanbase to support a move to the J-Speed GT Masters' AM class.