A love of motorsport has been passed down from father to son in the Nakajima family. Kazuki is the son of Satoru Nakajima, the first Japanese driver to compete in Formula 1. With Lotus and Tyrrell, Nakajima, Sr. did 74 Grand Prix from 1987 to 1991. He instilled in his son a taste for endurance racing thanks to two participations in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, both with Toyota in 1985 and 1986, the years of the Japanese marque's first appearances at Le Mans. And Kazuki is the younger brother of Daisuke who has claimed several podium finishes in their home country in Super Formula and Super GT.

Kazuki Nakajima started out in karting in 1996 and in a few short years was invited to join Toyota's young driver training program. He won his first title in 2003, his first season, in the Toyota Racing Series. He followed that up with Japanese Formula 3, the F3 EuroSeries, then GP2 in 2007 with the French team DAMS, finishing fifth! The next year he took on Formula 1 where he remained for three seasons, competing in 36 Grand Prix with the Williams F1 team.

Before taking part in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) the year of its inception in 2012, he competed in Super Formula and Super GT, the Japanese GT championship, and continues to do so, crowned Super Formula Champion twice in 2012 and 2014.

Six years ago Kazuki Nakajima joined TOYOTA GAZOO Racing and went on to become a cornerstone of the Japanese marque's WEC program. To date, he has already won nine races, including the 6 Hours of Fuji three times. Back in 2012, the Okazaki native debuted at the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the wheel of a Toyota TS030 Hybrid, but was forced to retire. He returned the following year and finished fourth with Nicolas Lapierre and Alexander Wurz.

In 2014, Kazuki Nakajima gave Toyota its first pole position at the 24 Hours of Le Mans since 1999, but as he was in the lead an electrical problem ended the race for the Toyota TS040 Hybrid. The next year wasn't great either with an eighth place finish. But the topper was the 2016 edition: again in the lead, at the wheel one lap from the finish after 24 hours, the #5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid he shared with Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson broke down in the final lap with a turbocompressor problem, ceding the win to Porsche. A few months later Kazuki Nakajima shared: "Yes, I'd had bad moments in my career, but that was the hardest to deal with!" After a difficult 2017 edition, finishing eighth, he approached the 2018 running with a sense of doom. Just one month before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, he admitted: "I haven't forgotten it. I don't talk about it a lot as I'm sure you can understand, but every time Le Mans nears, people remember it and so do I. 2016 was a tough time, but at the same time an experience that made us stronger!" 

But it all changed this year for the 33-year-old driver. Along with Sébastien Buemi and two-time F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso, he finally clinched the win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans that Toyota had been chasing since 1986! And in doing so, he became the third Japanese driver to win Le Mans after Masanori Sekiya (1995) and Seiji Ara (2004), but is currently the only one to reach the top step on the overall podium with a Japanese manufactuer.

So Kazuki Nakajima arrives this weekend at Fuji in the glory of his win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Back home with TOYOTA GAZOO Racing in LMP1 for the first time since the triumph, with on the horizon the possibility of becoming the first Japanese driver to be crowned World Champion! Fingers crossed!

THUMBNAILS: Kazuki Nakajima in 2016 as his car came to a stop in the grandstands straight (photo 1), the Toyota TS050 Hybrid he drove this year (photo 2) and the winner handprint ceremony (photo 3).