Masanori Sekiya won the 24 Hours with Yannick Dalmas and J.J. Lehto, Seiji Ara did so with Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen, and Kazuki Nakajima won with Fernando Alonso and Sébastien Buemi. The three Japanese winners have participated in the race a total of 25 times. But the best result for a 100% Japanese team remains for now the second place finish achieved by Ukyo Katayama, Toshio Suzuki and Keiichi Tsuchiya in 1999 at the wheel of the Toyota GT-One.

Masanori Sekiya, the first winner - Born in 1949, Masanori Sekiya is first and foremost a longtime and loyal representative of Toyota: in 11 participations, he competed at the 24 Hours eight times on behalf of the Japanese marque. In 1992, along with British driver Kenny Acheson and French driver Pierre-Henri Raphanel, he claimed Toyota's first podium finish (second) at the race and then reached the top 5 again the following year (fourth). In 1995, at the wheel of a McLaren F1 GTR, he became the first Japanese citizen to win Le Mans. Eight years later, he even got married during the race on Sunday morning in the chapel at the circuit!

Kazuki Nakajima and Kamui Kobayashi, one victory and one record - These two Japanese drivers are practically twins: they were both born in 1985 and their careers are intimately linked with Toyota, at Le Mans as well as in Formula 1. From 2007 to 2009, Kazuki Nakajima did all 26 of his Grand Prix at the wheel of a Williams powered by Toyota before becoming the first Japanese driver to score the pole at the 24 Hours (2014) and the first to win with a Japanese car (2018). In 2009, Kamui Kobayashi participated in his first two Grand Prix with Toyota in 2009 before joining Sauber (2010-2012) then Caterham (2014). The last Japanese driver to reach a podium finish in Formula 1 (at home in 2012), in June of 2017 he became the fastest driver in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans thanks to his pole position clocked at an average of nearly 252 km/h.

Yojiro Terada, the veteran - Now 71 years young, Yojiro Terada never won Le Mans, but he still holds an important place in the 24 Hours record book as the Japanese driver with the most participations (29). Only French driver Henri Pescarolo (33) and Bob Wollek (30) took the start at more editions of the race. Like Sekiya with Toyota, Terada represented Mazda at most of them, with 18 participations at the wheel of a car fielded by the first Japanese marque to win, with as best result seventh place in 1995...the year one of his fellow countrymen won for the first time. "When if first started out, I dreamed of doing Formula 1, but that dream faded when I joined Mazda," he explains. "The 24 Hours made my motorsport hopes come true, and Steve McQueen's film 'Le Mans' as well. Everything I knew about the race came from that movie, and that's true for my fellow drivers in Japan too. One of my wishes, when I first came to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, was to have the Japanese national anthem play at one of the greatest races in the whole world."

PHOTOS (Copyright - ACO Archives) - In 2018, Kazuki Nakajima (at top) clinched his second pole position and first win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Below from left to right, the McLaren F1 GTR driven by winner Masanori Sekiya in 1995, the pole record set by Kamui Kobayashi (center with his teammates Stéphane Sarrazin and Mike Conway) in 2017, and the Kudzu Mazda of Yojiro Terada, LMP2 winner in 1996.