JLM EnduroSport

About

During his teen years, team owner Shiyochi Kazamura was deeply involved in the Japanese street racing scene in the 80’s and 90’s. While he wasn’t among the top dogs, he nonetheless culminated a notorious reputation among his rivals on the sweeping overpasses of the expressways. The surge of crackdowns from police after the fact would force Kazamura to step down and find elsewhere to cure his adrenaline craving, and he found it through the avenue of organized motorsport.

He and his former street crew from the start of the 2000’s to 2009 took on the local time attack scene under the eccentric name of “Broken Velocity”. While their results weren’t anything too impressive, the team still had a substantial following thanks to Kazamura’s previous reputation as well as their bold and ambitious branding at the time. Broken Velocity finally found success in 2007 with a runner-up finish in the standings, and it seemed like the team was set for even more in the coming years. However, all of that would change after 2009, where the vision of the team was set to completely change.

Kazamura during his exposure to officiated motorsport caught onto brief mentions and glimpses of the types of racing that went on in other parts of the world. He began to hear more and more about sportscar racing and how it was surging its way into Asian car culture thanks to the J-Speed Association. During the 2009 time attack season, Kazamura decided to treat his team to a trip to watch the 24 Hours of Le Mans live at the track and finally fulfill his pestering curiosity. After they were all wowed at the sight of cars going at full speed for such long stints of time, the team was eager to jump right into the sportscar racing scene at home, but it came at the cost of shutting down their long-standing time attack presence if they were to have any chance at success.

There was another issue at hand. While Kazamura was still no slouch skill-wise, racing was beginning to wear on him more and more with age, and it became harder for him to double as a driver and team manager. Setting his focus on managing the team, he stepped out of the driver’s seat and into the manager’s chair, and he searched hastily for drivers to fill his place before the team’s new undertaking began. Tsubasa Maeda and Shou Akiyama were quickly selected with not much research taken on their background, and Kazamura initiated his new campaign in the 2010 Saikou no Taikyu championship in the CHIBI class, and to commemorate their inspiration from Le Mans, the team officially rebranded as “JLM EnduroSport”. Despite the blind choice of drivers, luck was on JLM’s side with two promising drivers, and the astounding results rolled in steadily over the course of the next few seasons.

Shou Akiyama would depart from the team in 2013 to claim a drive in the J-Speed GT Masters, and Haisei Takumako would fill in all the way up until the 2015 season. The pair saw dominant success in 2014 and 2015, with the team winning back-to-back championships. Kazamura in bold fashion thrust the team into the SUGOI class for the 2016 season with the Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX GTC, and young hopeful Ryochi Saito would join alongside the still remaining Tsubasa Maeda. Despite unknowingly running an underperforming chassis, JLM still performed well in the mid-pack, and nearly got close to championship podium at the end of the 2018 season before DNFing on the last race.

In 2019 more big changes were made within the team. Kazamura would step away from the role of team manager, and Tsubasa Maeda would fulfill the role of the new principal. The Gallardo chassis would also be swapped for the new and improved Huracan GTC, and the team immediately started seeing better results. Not only did they score a championship podium that year, but finally clutched their first championship in 2020 as well. For 2021, Kazamura announced JLM EnduroSport’s move from Saikou no Taikyu to J-Speed GT Masters in the AM class, and that Tsubasa Maeda would step in for the role of team manager. As the team shoots their way up in the motorsports world, the ultimate goal is to return to the same place that inspired the start of their sportscar journey – not as spectators, but race-winning competitors.

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Drivers

Ryochi Saito
Tripwire: @ryosaito

Gender: Male (he/him)
Age: 25
Birthdate: October 4th
Height: 5’ ft 5” in (166 cm)
Birthplace: Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Interests: Snowboarding, Hiking, Mountain Biking

(bio soon)

Lan Yang
Tripwire: @yxnglxng

Gender: Non-Binary (they/them)
Age: 23
Birthdate: July 6th
Height: 5’ ft 9” in (175 cm)
Birthplace: Shanghai, China
Interests: Music, Art, Anime, Video Games

(bio soon)

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Staff

Shiyochi Kazamura - Team Founder and Owner
Tripwire: @jlm_kazamura

Gender: Male (he/him)
Age: 59
Birthdate: May 13th
Height: 5’ ft 6” in (167 cm)
Birthplace: Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan

Tsubasa Maeda - Team Manager
Tripwire: @jlm_tsubasa

Gender: Male (he/him)
Age: 41
Birthdate: August 2nd
Height: 5’ ft 3” in (160 cm)
Birthplace: Toon, Ehime, Japan