# Hiro Matsushita

Hiroyuki Matsushita (松下弘幸, Matsushita Hiroyuki), also known by Hiro Matsushita (ヒロ松下), is a Japanese businessman and former racing driver. He is the grandson of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic. In 1989, Matsushita won the Toyota Atlantic Championship (Pacific), becoming the first and only Japanese driver to do so. He was also the first Japanese driver to race in the Indy 500.

## Early life

Matsushita was born in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture as the youngest son of Masaharu Matsushita, who was the second president of Panasonic for sixteen years from 1961. He graduated from Konan University. His elder brother, Masayuki Matsushita served as a vice chairman of Panasonic for over a decade.

## Racing career

Despite being the grandson of the founder of Panasonic, he refused to be labelled as a rich kid who could buy his way into anything. He instead worked his way up from the bottom, starting his career racing motorcycles in his home country between 1977 and 1980, before switching to four wheels. He retired from Motocross racing by becoming Champion in Kansai region in 1980 at the age of 19.
In 1987, Matsushita started racing Formula Fords - the Class A of auto racing - In the following year, he teamed up with Jim Downing in a Camel Lights car and secured a second-place finish in class at the 24 Hours of Daytona and a third-place finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring. In 1989, Matsushita fearlessly entered the Formula Atlantic series and, by the end of that year, he had claimed four victories and the Toyota Atlantic championship (Pacific division) with the largest point margin of all time. He then tried Formula Pacific in New Zealand and became the first Japanese driver to win the prestigious Lady Wigram Trophy Race.
He graduated to Champ Car in 1990, scoring one point in his debut season. He became the first Japanese driver to race in the Indianapolis 500. In 1991, and followed that achievement with a top-ten finish at Milwaukee. Matsushita missed the 1992 Indy 500 after suffering a broken leg during a practice crash. He was sidelined for several weeks and missed the next six events.
At the Phoenix race in 1994, Matsushita endured a horrific crash in which his car was cut in half by Jacques Villeneuve's car travelling at nearly full speed. He emerged from his destroyed car with only minor injuries. The same year, he earned his best career finish of 6th position at the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway. This result was made possible by an extraordinarily high rate of attrition that saw only 8 cars finish the race. Matsushita was 11 laps behind the leader at the drop of the checkered flag.
By the time he retired in 1998, Matsushita had started 117 Champ Car races for Dick Simon Racing, Walker Racing, Arciero/Wells Racing and Payton/Coyne. He holds the record for most starts in American Championship Car Racing history without scoring a Top 5.
In 2001, Matsushita competed in the Baja 1000 off-road race, in a Mitsubishi Montero.

## Racing record
### WCAR/SCCA Western Formula Atlantic Championship results

| Year | Team | Points | Car | races | wins | podiums | pole positions | Pos. |
| 1988 | Panasonic Racing | 118 | Swift DB4 | 10 | 1 | 4 | | 3 |

### IMSA Camel Lights results

| Year | Team | Points | Car | races | wins | podiums | pole positions | Pos. |
| 1988 | Downing/Atlanta Racing | 64 | Argo JM19 Mazda | 6 | | 3 | | 11 |

### Toyota Atlantic Championship (pacific) results

| Year | Team | Points | Car | races | wins | podiums | pole positions | Pos. |
| 1989 | Panasonic Racing | 141 | Swift DB4 | 9 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 1 |

### Lady Wigram Trophy results

| Year | Team | Car | race | Laps | Pos. |
| 1989 | Team Panasonic | Swift Cosworth | 1 | 8 | 1 |

### American open–wheel racing results
#### Indy Lights

| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Rank | Points |
| 1989 | Panasonic Racing | PHX | LBH | MIL | DET | POR 13 | MEA 12 | TOR 6 | POC | MDO | ROA | NAZ 8 | LAG | 18th | 14 |

#### CART

| Year | Team | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | Rank | Points |
| 1990 | Dick Simon Racing | Lola T89/00 | Cosworth DFS V8 t | PHX | LBH 19 | INDY DNQ | MIL | DET 19 | POR 12 | CLE | MEA 16 | TOR | MIS | DEN 15 | VAN 23 | MDO 17 | ROA 18 | NZR 21 | LS 23 | | | | 31st | 1 |
| 1991 | Dick Simon Racing | Lola T90/00 | Cosworth DFS V8 t | SRF 21 | | PHX 14 | | MIL 10 | DET 14 | POR 14 | | | | | | | | | | | | | 23rd | 6 |
| 1991 | Dick Simon Racing | Lola T91/00 | Cosworth DFS V8 t | | LBH 13 | | | | | | CLE 14 | MEA 12 | TOR 15 | MIS 19 | DEN 14 | VAN 16 | MDO 14 | ROA 12 | NZR 12 | | | | 23rd | 6 |
| 1991 | Dick Simon Racing | Lola T91/00 | Buick 3300 V6 t | | | | INDY 16 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 23rd | 6 |
| 1991 | Dick Simon Racing | Lola T91/00 | Chevrolet 265A V8 t | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | LS 20 | | | 23rd | 6 |
| 1992 | Dick Simon Racing | Lola T92/00 | Chevrolet 265A V8 t | SRF DNS | PHX 16 | LBH 10 | INDY DNS | DET | POR | MIL | NHM | TOR | MIS | CLE 24 | ROA 14 | VAN 13 | MDO 18 | NZR 14 | LS 15 | | | | 27th | 3 |
| 1993 | Walker Racing | Lola T93/00 | Ford XB V8 t | SRF 11 | PHX 10 | LBH 14 | INDY 18 | MIL 13 | DET 13 | POR 21 | CLE 12 | TOR 16 | MIS 14 | NHM 13 | ROA 13 | VAN 12 | MDO 13 | NZR 21 | LS 19 | | | | 26th | 7 |
| 1994 | Dick Simon Racing | Lola T94/00 | Ford XB V8 t | SRF 15 | PHX 27 | LBH DNQ | INDY 14 | MIL 23 | DET DNQ | POR 21 | CLE 15 | TOR 18 | MIS 6 | MDO 18 | NHM 17 | VAN DNQ | ROA 14 | NZR 16 | LS 23 | | | | 26th | 8 |
| 1995 | Arciero-Wells Racing | Reynard 94i | Ford XB V8 t | MIA 26 | SRF 11 | PHX 22 | LBH 19 | NZR DNS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 28th | 5 |
| 1995 | Arciero-Wells Racing | Reynard 95i | Ford XB V8 t | | | | | | INDY 10 | MIL 19 | DET 14 | POR 17 | ROA 13 | TOR 19 | CLE 13 | MIS 20 | MDO 15 | NHM 22 | VAN 17 | LS 22 | | | 28th | 5 |
| 1996 | Payton/Coyne Racing | Lola T96/00 | Ford XB V8 t | MIA 18 | RIO 24 | SRF 10 | LBH 28 | NZR 26 | 500 14 | MIL 28 | DET 19 | POR 21 | CLE 17 | TOR 27 | MIS 15 | MDO 19 | ROA 15 | VAN 15 | LS 23 | | | | 28th | 3 |
| 1997 | Arciero-Wells Racing | Reynard 97i | Toyota RV8A V8 t Toyota RV8B V8 t | MIA 21 | SRF 25 | LBH 20 | NZR 25 | RIO 23 | STL 15 | MIL 17 | DET 19 | POR 15 | CLE 20 | TOR 22 | MIS 9 | MDO 19 | ROA 24 | VAN 14 | LS 28 | FON 23 | | | 27th | 4 |
| 1998 | Arciero-Wells Racing | Reynard 98i | Toyota RV8C V8 t | MIA 23 | MOT 16 | LBH 19 | NZR | RIO 15 | STL | MIL | DET | POR | CLE | TOR | MIS | MDO | ROA | VAN | LS | HOU | SRF | FON | 30th | 0 |

### 24 Hours of Le Mans results

| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
| 1999 | Team Goh David Price Racing | Hiroki Katoh Akihiko Nakaya | BMW V12 LM | LMP | 223 | DNF | DNF |

## Nickname

Matsushita earned the nickname "King Hiro" from Emerson Fittipaldi, who was complaining about Matsushita's reluctance to cede track position when getting lapped by the leaders. The nickname came about as a result of the voice-activated microphone ("vox") Roger Penske's team was using. Fittipaldi's epithet was said so quickly that the circuit cut off the first syllable of the first word he used. Fittipaldi, allegedly, had intended to say "Fucking Hiro!"

## Business career

Matsushita, a successful businessman, owns Matsushita International Corp, a firm specializing in real estate, finance, and insurance. This company has ownership of Swift Engineering, an American engineering firm that builds autonomous systems, helicopters, submarines, spacecraft, ground vehicles, robotics, and composite parts. Swift was well-known for producing racing cars for various open-wheel racing series such as Formula Ford, Formula Atlantic, the Champ Car World Series, and Formula Nippon.

## Awards

In 1998, Nov 2, Hiro Matsushita was awarded Champion Culbs during the CART Year End Banquet at the Century Plaza in Los Angeles, California.

## Matsushita family tree

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Matsushita Uemon | Matsushita Uemon | Matsushita Uemon | Matsushita Uemon | Matsushita Uemon | Matsushita Uemon |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Yasuda Koichiro | Yasuda Koichiro | Yasuda Koichiro | Yasuda Koichiro | Yasuda Koichiro | Yasuda Koichiro | | | Tokue Matsushita | Tokue Matsushita | Tokue Matsushita | Tokue Matsushita | Tokue Matsushita | Tokue Matsushita | | | Masakusu Matsushita | Masakusu Matsushita | Masakusu Matsushita | Masakusu Matsushita | Masakusu Matsushita | Masakusu Matsushita | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hirata Tosuke | Hirata Tosuke | Hirata Tosuke | Hirata Tosuke | Hirata Tosuke | Hirata Tosuke | Maeda Toshiaki (前田利昭 | Maeda Toshiaki (前田利昭 | Maeda Toshiaki (前田利昭 | Maeda Toshiaki (前田利昭 | Maeda Toshiaki (前田利昭 | Maeda Toshiaki (前田利昭 | Mitsui Takamine10th head of the Mitsui family | Mitsui Takamine10th head of the Mitsui family | Mitsui Takamine10th head of the Mitsui family | Mitsui Takamine10th head of the Mitsui family | Mitsui Takamine10th head of the Mitsui family | Mitsui Takamine10th head of the Mitsui family |
| Tetsujiro Nakao | Tetsujiro Nakao | Tetsujiro Nakao | Tetsujiro Nakao | Tetsujiro Nakao | Tetsujiro Nakao | Yasue | Yasue | Yasue | Yasue | Yasue | Yasue | Jun Iue | Jun Iue | Jun Iue | Jun Iue | Jun Iue | Jun Iue | Yurou Iue | Yurou Iue | Yurou Iue | Yurou Iue | Yurou Iue | Yurou Iue | Toshio Iue | Toshio Iue | Toshio Iue | Toshio Iue | Toshio Iue | Toshio Iue | | | Mumeno | Mumeno | Mumeno | Mumeno | Mumeno | Mumeno | | | Konosuke Matsushita | Konosuke Matsushita | Konosuke Matsushita | Konosuke Matsushita | Konosuke Matsushita | Konosuke Matsushita | | | | | Hirata Shodo | Hirata Shodo | Hirata Shodo | Hirata Shodo | Hirata Shodo | Hirata Shodo | Shizuko | Shizuko | Shizuko | Shizuko | Shizuko | Shizuko | Maeda Toshisada | Maeda Toshisada | Maeda Toshisada | Maeda Toshisada | Maeda Toshisada | Maeda Toshisada | Keiko | Keiko | Keiko | Keiko | Keiko | Keiko | Mitsui Takakimi11th head of the Mitsui family | Mitsui Takakimi11th head of the Mitsui family | Mitsui Takakimi11th head of the Mitsui family | Mitsui Takakimi11th head of the Mitsui family | Mitsui Takakimi11th head of the Mitsui family | Mitsui Takakimi11th head of the Mitsui family |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Satoshi Iue | Satoshi Iue | Satoshi Iue | Satoshi Iue | Satoshi Iue | Satoshi Iue | | | | | | | Matsushita Sachiko | Matsushita Sachiko | Matsushita Sachiko | Matsushita Sachiko | Matsushita Sachiko | Matsushita Sachiko | | | Masaharu Matsushita | Masaharu Matsushita | Masaharu Matsushita | Masaharu Matsushita | Masaharu Matsushita | Masaharu Matsushita | | | | | | | Hirata Katsumi | Hirata Katsumi | Hirata Katsumi | Hirata Katsumi | Hirata Katsumi | Hirata Katsumi | | | | | | | Nobuko | Nobuko | Nobuko | Nobuko | Nobuko | Nobuko | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Iue Toshimasa | Iue Toshimasa | Iue Toshimasa | Iue Toshimasa | Iue Toshimasa | Iue Toshimasa | | | | | | | Hiro Matsushita | Hiro Matsushita | Hiro Matsushita | Hiro Matsushita | Hiro Matsushita | Hiro Matsushita | | | Masayuki Matsushita (松下正幸) | Masayuki Matsushita (松下正幸) | Masayuki Matsushita (松下正幸) | Masayuki Matsushita (松下正幸) | Masayuki Matsushita (松下正幸) | Masayuki Matsushita (松下正幸) | Atsuko | Atsuko | Atsuko | Atsuko | Atsuko | Atsuko | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

## Personal life

Matsushita resides in San Clemente, California. He has a son called Takayuki Matsushita who is a lawyer resides in the USA.