Mitsunori Takaboshi

Mitsunori Takaboshi
Nationality	Japanese
Born	(1993-01-24) 24 January 1993 Hiratsuka, Japan
Super GT career
Debut season	2015
Current team	Nismo NDDP
Car number	3
Former teams	Kondo Racing, MOLA, NDDP Racing(GT300), Dijon Racing
Starts	52
Wins	3
Podiums	7
Poles	19
Best finish	2nd in 2022 & 2023
Previous series
2020–2021 2020 2016 2016 2013–2017 2010–2012	Super Formula Super Formula Lights Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup Japanese Formula 3 Championship Formula Challenge Japan
Championship titles
2017	Japanese Formula 3 Championship

Mitsunori Takaboshi (高星 明誠, Takaboshi Mitsunori, born 24 January 1993) is a Japanese racing driver. In 2017, he was crowned champion in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship.

Career

Junior Racing & Formula Racing

Takaboshi started his career in karting in 1998, in which he remained active until 2009. He mainly raced in Japanese championships and won a number of titles. In 2010 he switched to formula racing and competed in the Formula Challenge Japan, in which he competed until 2012. In his first season, he scored no points and his best result was ninth at the Fuji Speedway. In 2011, he improved himself to seventh in the final standings with 22 points and a podium finish. 2012 would prove to be his best season in the class, with two wins at the Twin Ring Motegi and the Suzuka International Racing Course, as well as four other podium finishes. With 65 points, he finished third in the final standings behind Nobuharu Matsushita and Ryō Hirakawa.

In 2013, Takaboshi made his Formula 3 debut in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship, playing as a protégé of Nissan for the NDDP Racing team in the national class. He won eleven races in this class and finished second in the remaining four races to win the convincing championship with 163 points. His results also qualified for the main division, where four fifth places were his best results. He finished seventh overall with 9 points.

In 2014, Takaboshi competed in the Japanese Formula 3 premier class, driving for the B-MAX Racing Team with NDDP. He won three races at Suzuka, Fuji and Motegi and was on the podium in four other races. With 82 points, he finished third in the standings behind Nobuharu Matsushita and Kenta Yamashita. At the end of the year he also drove for B-MAX in the Macau Grand Prix, finishing eighteenth.

In 2015, Takaboshi won the Japanese Formula 3 season opener in Suzuka, adding two more wins later in the year at the Okayama International Circuit. He was on the podium nine more times in the rest of the season. With 92 points, he was again third in the championship behind Nick Cassidy and Kenta Yamashita. At the end of the year, Takaboshi again took part in the Macau Grand Prix, but did not finish the race.

In addition for 2016, he drove in half of the Japanese Formula 3 races with the B-MAX Racing Team with NDDP, winning two races at Suzuka and one at Okayama. Although he missed half the races, he finished fourth overall with 42 points behind Kenta Yamashita, Jann Mardenborough and Sho Tsuboi. In 2017, Takaboshi returned as a full-time driver in Japanese Formula 3 with the B-MAX Racing Team with NDDP. He won seven races: three at Okayama, two at Suzuka and two at Fuji, as well as finishing on the podium in nine other races. He became champion in class with 148 points.

For 2020, Takaboshi returned to open wheel Formula racing, competed with B-Max Racing race in 2020 Super Formula Championship for one round in the second race of the season. He replaces Teppei Natori who raced for 1 round but unable to continue due to medical condition. And also he competed in 2020 Super Formula Lights with the same team. He returned once again in 2021 for Super Formula, but this time he covered up Ryo Hirakawa for Team Impul due to Hirakawa tests Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe's Toyota GR010 Hybrid car.

Super GT & Endurance Racing

Takaboshi made his debut in 2015 competed in the GT300 class of the Super GT at NDDP Racing, sharing a Nissan GT-R GT3 with Kazuki Hoshino. The duo won two races at the Chang International Circuit and Autopolis, and also scored a podium at Fuji. They finished fourth in the final standings with 61 points.

In 2016, Takaboshi made the move to Europe, where he competed in both the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup for Nissan GT Academy Team RJN. In the Sprint Cup he shared a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 with Alex Buncombe, while in the Endurance Cup he shared the same car with Buncombe and Lucas Ordóñez. In the Sprint Cup, a ninth place in the qualifying race on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was his best finish, leaving him scoreless in 33rd place in the championship. In the Endurance Cup, he achieved a podium finish in the season final at the Nürburgring to finish ninth overall with 39 points. In the Super GT, he also drove in three GT300 class races with the Dijon Racing team in a Nissan GT-R GT3, where he shared a car with Takayuki Aoki. Tenth place at Motegi was his best result and he was 28th in the championship with 1 point. Within the Super GT, he also made his GT500 debut in the race at Suzuka with the MOLA team, sharing a Nissan GT-R with Satoshi Motoyama as a one-time replacement for Katsumasa Chiyo. They finished the race in third place, making Takaboshi seventeenth in the final standings with 13 points.

For 2017, he also returned to Super GT with NDDP Racing and again shared a Nissan GT-R GT3 with Kazuki Hoshino for 2017. With a sixth place at Fuji as his best result, he finished seventeenth in the final standings.

In 2018, Takaboshi only competed in the Super GT, in which he made a permanent switch to the GT500 class to share a Nissan GT-R with João Paulo de Oliveira with the Kondo Racing team. Their best results were three sixth places at Okayama, Fuji and the Sportsland SUGO, leaving them with 23 points. Stayed with the same team, but he's teamed up with fellow Nissan driver Jann Mardenborough for 2019 & 2020. For 2021, with Kondo Racing teamed with Daiki Sasaki.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2010	Formula Challenge Japan	NDDP FCJ	11	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2011	Formula Challenge Japan	NDDP FCJ	13	0	0	1	1	22	7th
2012	Formula Challenge Japan	NDDP	12	2	2	3	6	65	3rd
2013	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	NDDP Racing	15	0	0	0	0	9	7th
2014	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	B-MAX Racing Team with NDDP	15	3	4	4	7	82	3rd
	Macau Grand Prix	B-Max Engineering	2	0	0	0	0	N/A	18th
2015	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	B-MAX Racing Team with NDDP	17	3	1	2	12	92	3rd
	Macau Grand Prix	B-Max Engineering	2	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
	Super GT - GT300	NDDP Racing	8	2	0	0	3	61	4th
2016	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	B-MAX Racing Team with NDDP	8	3	1	1	4	42	4th
	Super GT - GT300	Dijon Racing	3	0	0	0	0	1	28th
	Super GT - GT500	MOLA	1	0	0	0	1	13	17th
	Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup	Nissan GT Academy Team RJN	5	0	0	0	1	39	9th
	Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup		8	0	0	0	0	0	33rd
2017	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	B-MAX Racing Team with NDDP	20	7	3	11	16	148	1st
	Super GT - GT300	NDDP Racing	8	0	0	0	0	17	17th
2017–18	Formula E	Renault e.dams	Test driver
2018	Super GT - GT500	Kondo Racing	8	0	0	0	0	23	14th
2018–19	Formula E	Nissan e.dams	Test/reserve driver
2019	Super GT - GT500	Kondo Racing	8	0	0	1	0	17	14th
	24 Hours of Nürburgring - SP9		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	9th
2019–20	Formula E	Nissan e.dams	Test/reserve driver
2020	Super Formula Lights	B-Max Racing	3	0	0	0	0	8	7th
	Super Formula	Buzz Racing with B-MAX	1	0	0	0	0	0	26th
	Super GT - GT500	Kondo Racing	8	0	0	0	0	4	19th
2020–21	Formula E	Nissan e.dams	Test/reserve driver
2021	Super Formula	carenex Team Impul	1	0	0	0	0	0	21st
	Super GT - GT 500	Kondo Racing	8	0	0	0	1	20	15th
	Super Taikyu - ST-Z	B-Max Engineering	1	0	0	0	0	14‡	13th‡
2021–22	Formula E	Nissan e.dams	Test/reserve driver
2022	Super GT - GT500	NDDP Racing	8	2	0	0	2	66	2nd
	Super Taikyu - ST-Q	Max Racing
2023	Super GT - GT500	NDDP Racing	8	1	1	0	3	63	2nd
	Super Taikyu - ST-Q	NISMO
2024	Super GT - GT500	NDDP NISMO
	Super Taikyu - ST-Q	NISMO

‡ Team standings

Complete Japanese Formula 3 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Engine	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Pts
2013	NDDP Racing	Toyota	N	SUZ 1 7	SUZ 2 7	MOT 1 7	MOT 2 7	MOT 3 7	OKA 1 5	OKA 2 6	FUJ 1 8	FUJ 2 5	MOT 1 7	MOT 2 8	SUG 1 5	SUG 2 7	FUJ 1 8	FUJ 2 5						1st	163
2014	B-Max Racing Team with NDDP Racing			SUZ 1 2	SUZ 2 1	MOT 1 3	MOT 2 4	MOT 3 4	OKA 1 3	OKA 2 4	FUJ 1 1	FUJ 2 4	MOT 1 2	MOT 2 1	SUG 1 4	SUG 2 Ret	FUJ 1 4	FUJ 2 5						3rd	82
2015				SUZ 1 1	SUZ 2 2	MOT 1 3	MOT 2 2	MOT 3 4	OKA 1 3	OKA 2 3	FUJ 1 3	FUJ 2 2	OKA 1 1	OKA 2 1	FUJ 1 3	FUJ 2 Ret	MOT 1 4	MOT 2 3	SUG 1 5	SUG 2 8				3rd	92
2016		VW		SUZ 1	SUZ 2	FUJ 1	FUJ 2	OKA 1 4	OKA 2 8	SUZ 1 1	SUZ 2 1	FUJ 1	FUJ 2	MOT 1 7	MOT 2 8	OKA 1 2	OKA 2 1	SUG 1	SUG 2	SUG 3				4th	142
2017				OKA 1 1	OKA 2 2	OKA 3 1	SUZ 1 1	SUZ 2 1	FUJ 1 DSQ	FUJ 2 1	OKA 1 1	OKA 2 4	SUZ 1 3	SUZ 2 3	FUJ 1 1	FUJ 2 2	MOT 1 2	MOT 2 2	MOT 3 2	AUT 1 3	AUT 2 3	SUG 1 4	SUG 2 4	1st	148

Complete Super GT results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	DC	Pts
2015	NDDP Racing	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	GT300	OKA 8	FUJ 2	CHA 1	FUJ Ret	SUZ 14	SUG 8	AUT 1	MOT Ret	4th	61
2016	Dijon Racing			OKA	FUJ	SUG	FUJ 12		CHA	MOT 10	MOT 14	12th	23
	MOLA	Nissan GT-R	GT500					SUZ 3				12th	23
2017	NDDP Racing	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	GT300	OKA 7	FUJ 6	AUT 9	SUG 8	FUJ Ret	SUZ 14	CHA 9	MOT 10	17th	17
2018	Kondō Racing	Nissan GT-R	GT500	OKA 6	FUJ 13	SUZ 9	CHA Ret	FUJ 6	SUG 6	AUT 7	MOT 10	14th	23
2019				OKA 5‡	FUJ 14	SUZ 8	CHA 4	FUJ Ret	AUT 9	SUG 15	MOT 10	14th	17
2020				FUJ 10	FUJ 12	SUZ 11	MOT 13	FUJ 14	SUZ 8	MOT 14	FUJ 13	19th	4
2021				FUJ 14	FUJ 12	SUZ 12	MOT 3	FUJ 6	SUZ 14	MOT 7	FUJ 11	15th	20
2022	NDDP Racing	Nissan Z GT500		OKA 5	FUJ 15	SUZ 1	FUJ 12	SUZ 4	SUG 1	AUT 7	MOT 4	2nd	66
2023				OKA 2	FUJ 5	SUZ 4	FUJ 1	SUZ 12	SUG 9	AUT 3	MOT 13	2nd	63
2024	NISMO NDDP			OKA	FUJ	SUZ	FUJ	SUZ	SUG	AUT	MOT

External links

• Mitsunori Takaboshi career summary at DriverDB.com