A spotlight on Keiko Ihara
Keiko Ihara is the only female competitor in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and one of the few Japanese women nationals to race internationally at a high level, but she is treated the same as all the other drivers within the Gulf Racing Middle East team – just as she would wish it.
Born and bred in Tokyo, in 1973, Keiko was always determined and achieved all her goals once she set her mind to something. When she was in high school, her family moved from Tokyo to Sapporo and she had a little trouble settling in. To prove to her teachers that she could succeed, she practiced skiing non-stop until she was good enough to enter competitions – a trait that was very useful when she decided to become a racing driver.
She became a motorsport fan when she visited a circuit for a job as a “Benetton F1 Image girl”, and did her ‘apprenticeship’ as a driver in junior single-seaters, achieving her best results in the very competitive British F3 Championship in 2005. Alongside this, Keiko has also raced in Super GT, Le Mans Endurance Series, the Aston Martin Asia Cup and the Formula Le Mans Cup, broadening her experience in different types of cars.
Ill health in 2009 led Keiko to take a break from racing, and she used the time to teach English and lecture. She also got married – her husband is an energy science researcher and assistant professor at the National Institute for Fusion Science. As her health and fitness returned to 100%, Keiko felt she still had unfinished business to attend to in racing, and desperately wanted to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A seat in Gulf Racing Middle East’s No. 29 Lola-Nissan allowed her to fulfil this aim and, although the team hasn’t enjoyed the best of luck so far, Keiko will be hoping for a strong performance on ‘home’ soil. As for her husband, it’s possible he will be watching the hybrid-powered LMP1 cars as closely as the LMP2 of his wife!
Fiona Miller
Photo: SEBRING INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY (SEBRING, FLORIDA, USA), SEBRING 12 HOURS, FRIDAY 16TH MARCH 2012, PRACTICE. The No.29 Gulf Racing Middle East Lola-Nissan which Keiko Ihara will drive with Fabien Giroix and Jean-Denis Deletraz in the 6 Hours of Fuji.
