Kunimitsu Kinoshita

Miharu Kinoshita Ishibashi (born 9 February 1991), known professionally as **Kunimitsu Kinoshita**, is a Japanese professional racing driver currently competing in the AT&T Champ Car World Series, driving the #18 Honda for Cat Devil Racing. Ishibashi is best known for both her time in Champ Car, where she is a three time Indianapolis 500 winner (2015, 2017, 2018), as well as in Formula One, where she is the 2013 Grand Prix World Driver's Champion.

Ishibashi is the older step-sister of Sakura Ishibashi, who she also competes against in Champ Car. Until the 2016 season, neither had ever competed against each other directly. Ishibashi is the longest tenured driver to race for Cat Devil Racing, having been with the team since 2015, and has been a consistent presence for Honda, both internationally, and in the United States. Ishibashi is currently considered to be the best Champ Car driver to have not yet won a World Driver's Championship in the series.

## Early Years

Kinoshita was born on 9 February 1991, in the Yamashina Ward of western Kyoto, to Yoshimitsu and Azusa Kinoshita. Her father, Yoshimitsu, worked as a security enforcer, while her mother, Azusa, operated as a mechanic. She is the youngest of three siblings; her older brother, Junji, works as a financier for Nomura Holdings, while her older sister, Atsumi, is a fashion model.

Her parents divorced in May of 1993, with both remarrying. Her mother remarried to Takao Ishibashi in January of 2000. Ishibashi, a subway operator, had a daughter of his own, Sakura, who entered motor racing after Kinoshita. Her father remarried to Chika Kaminuma in 1998, a micro-celebrity whom he had been working as security detail for since 1995.

## Junior Categories

### 1996-1998: Nippon Karting Championships

Kinoshita began pursuing racing as a potential career in the summer of 1996, after she turned five years old. Her father supported the majority of her early career, paying for her to join the Cat Devil Racing development academy, which streamlined her way through the kart classes across her three years in regional karting. Kinoshita remained under the radar through the regional system, earning an award for 'Most Consistent Karter' in 1998 before she moved into the continental karting formulas.

### 1999-2003: Continental and World Karting Successes

Cat Devil Racing promoted Kinoshita into the top class of its karting program in 1999, which saw her compete in the Asian Karting Championship in the 150cc class, an unusual move, as most enter the wider karting competitions in lower classes before working up. At the age of 8, it made her the youngest to compete in the class across the continent of Asia at the time, breaking a record set by Mina Oka in 1994 when she competed as a 9 year old. FICA requirements prevented her from competing in the World Championship for 150cc karts until she had turned 10, leaving her two years to refine her craft, which saw her win the 150cc championship twice in a row in 1999 and 2000. Prior to 1999, Kinoshita had only one a single karting race, in 100cc karts in 1997. From late 1999 to the middle of 2000, Kinoshita had a streak of 21 karting wins, just shy of records set by South Korean, Ham Hyun-Tae, who won 23 in a row in 1991, and mainland Chinese driver, Wei Enlei, who retains the record for most consecutive AKC race wins in any class at 27 from 1988 to 1990.

Following her successes, she would be invited to take part in the World Championships for 150cc and 200cc superkarts. She would be successful at both, taking the 150cc class championship in 2001, before exclusively racing in the 200cc class in 2002 and 2003, with her championship year coming in the latter season. Her rocket into karting stardom caught the eyes of European teams, who began submitting offers in the summer of 2003 to move her into single seaters for 2004.

## Formula One career

### 2011

Kinoshita would be announced as one of Honda's two Formula One drivers on 19 November 2010, with the 19 year old pairing with Camyron Jackson at the team for the 2011 season. Kinoshita's F1 debut came at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix, where she would qualify 13th of 26 cars. She'd gain two spots in the race, missing out on her first points by a single position as she finished 11th while Jackson finished 6th. The team were satisfied with her adjustments during the weekend, as she worked to adjust to tools such as DRS, KERS, and multiple pit stops, with Kinoshita having one of the fastest pit stops during the race. The following race in Bahrain, Kinoshita would make it into Q3 for the first time, qualifying 9th while her teammate qualified fourth. Kinoshita would suffer her first retirement in Formula One, as she was hit by the Maserati of Teodoro Abbadia on lap 1.

## Champ Car career

### 2015

Kinoshita made her Champ Car debut in the 2015 Indianapolis 500, racing for Cat Devil Racing, whom she had raced for in Japan prior to moving to Europe. She was given permission to miss the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix to attend the event, per the request of Honda, and she teamed alongside fellow F1 departee in Camyron Jackson, as well as Henna Venalainen, and Steven Gnash. Kinoshita used the #18 for the race, starting a tradition she would carry throughout the next six years.

Kinoshita would qualify poorly in her first attempt at the 'Greatest Spectacle in Racing', but made it up with poise in the race itself, moving from 25th on the grid to become the first, and to date, only driver in the Indycar World Championship-era to win her very first race, and the first rookie since Sonya Bartlett in 2001 to win the Indianapolis 500. The win marked an important moment for Cat Devil Racing as well, after years of near misses and losses at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The two sides promptly negotiated a contract to secure Kinoshita's future in the series until the end of the 2020 season.

### 2021

Kinoshita's 2021 season started off poorly, as all three Cat Devil Racing cars failed to finish at Phillip Island. Kinoshita was scored 21st, while her teammates, Diego Jaramillo, and Camyron Jackson, were scored 24th and 25th respectively. Kinoshita rallied back by finishing the next four races in the top 10 each time, finishing 9th on home soil at Motegi, before adding another 9th to her tally at Richmond. Entering the high speed ovals, Kinoshita did even better, finishing sixth at Texas, before scoring her first top 5 of the season at Chicagoland. Kinoshita would not get to fight for a fourth Indy 500 win, as she was taken out of the race early in a multi-car pileup and scored 30th.

That DNF would cause a slump in Kinoshita's performance, doubled up with the team's chemistry falling apart near the mid-point of the season. It became clear after the Indianapolis 500 that the team would be scaled down, and with Kinoshita the only driver signed beyond 2021, behind the scenes turmoil erupted as Honda of Japan, and Honda of America both began trying to secure the services of Jaramillo, and Jackson elsewhere. The team's loss of support from long-time sponsor, Sony, also became apparent, further complicating issues and causing distractions during the middle stages of the season. In the following four races after Indianapolis, Kinoshita finished top half of the field once, in Toronto, where she finished twelfth. The three races between Indy and Toronto, Kinoshita finished 18th at Belle Isle, 22nd at Brno, and failed to finish at Pocono.

Kinoshita would attempt to rebound her season at the second Canadian race in Vancouver, where she finished seventh. An eighth came after that in Gateway, before another disappointing result in Kentucky left her 20th. At Watkins Glen, Kinoshita finished 11th, and followed it up with a seventh at Road America. After her result in Wisconsin, Kinoshita vocalized her irritation publicly for the first time all year, berating the team for wasting the drivers' collective best race performances behind "subpar equipment and zero effort". She was subsequently fined $75,000 by the team for the outburst. An eleventh place finish at New Hampshire led into the final stretch of races, all three of which presented Kinoshita with a mix of emotions. At the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Kinoshita scored her first, and only podium of the season, but did not celebrate the occasion. The race was shortened to just over half distance, at drivers insistence, following the serious crash of Kinoshita's step sister, Sakura, while the latter was leading the race. The crash was severe enough to cause six fractures across both of her legs, as well as three broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and a severe concussion, the last of which rendered Sakura unconscious for a prolonged period of time. The following race at the new Denver Motorsports Park saw Kinoshita bring the car home in 17th due to a late flurry of cautions, but had spent most of the race battling amongst the top 10, with Kinoshita chalking the result up to poor luck, as Kinoshita had set the third fastest lap of the race. Kinoshita would end the 2021 season on a high note, finishing fifth at the season finale in Fontana, with Camyron Jackson concluding his time as Kinoshita's teammate with a fourth place finish, while Artyom Kozlov, Hazel Lacasse, and Stephanie Porter-Kelley all ended their 2021 seasons with a podium.

Across 2021, Kinoshita ended the season with ten top 10 finishes out of 20 races, with only 3 DNFs. Kinoshita led a career low 24 laps, and scored just a single podium in the season, but scored 392 points, good enough for 8th in the Indycar World Driver's Championship standings. For another consecutive year, Kinoshita was the highest scoring Cat Devil Racing driver, by a larger margin in 2021, with Jackson being the next driver, down in 17th.

### 2022

Kinoshita entered the 2022 Champ Car season with the same number she debuted with in 2015, retaining her now synonymous #18, while her rookie teammate, Valerie Feng, raced with the #16. Initially, Kinoshita contemplated switching to the #61, believing bringing in a palindrome number format for the team would bring good luck, before eventually settling on retaining her normal number.

Kinoshita's 2022 started off better than any of her prior Champ Car seasons. Kinoshita would score a third place finish at the opening round at Phillip Island, following it up by finally getting a win on home soil by dominating Motegi. With her win at Motegi, she finally broke her winless streak at home events dating back to her debut season in Formula One in 2011. It was also the second time in three years that Kinoshita shared the podium with her step-sister, reversing the roles they shared in 2020 when Ishibashi won at Motegi.

Coming off of her win at Motegi, momentum temporarily slowed at Richmond, the third race of the season. Kinoshita could only manage a fifth place finish, while Astrid Krane broke her five year winless drought in equipment assisted by Cat Devil Racing. Her momentum would take a serious hit at the following round in Texas. While leading, Kinoshita suffered a mechanical failure, winding up classified 28th, and losing most of her championship lead while the event was ended prematurely due to a significant accident within the final 50 laps of the race.

Leading up to the month of May, Kinoshita regained form quickly, leading Cat Devil Racing to it's first 1-2 finish since Richmond in 2020, as she dominated the fifth race of the season at Kansas Speedway. Kinoshita led 149 laps, while her teammate Valerie Feng led 40, accounting for 189 of 200 laps. The performance was considered one of Kinoshita's finest on a superspeedway, as Kinoshita navigated traffic with only one caution in the race forcing tire conservation.

## Personal Life

Kinoshita has been reported to be a standout mechanic, having worked on cars, and appliances with her mother in her spare time since she was six years old. Her mother frequents her races and offers support to both Kinoshita, and Sakura Ishibashi once they began racing in the same series in 2016. Kinoshita is an avid cyclist, making a celebrity appearance in 2019 to ride along with riders for the Tour de France between Champ Car races. Kinoshita uses cycling and other cardio exercises to stay in shape for racing, contrasting to drivers such as Evangeline Porter, and Henna Venalainen, who preferred having more muscle to fight through the car's lack of power steering in Champ Car.

### Relationship Rumors

Kinoshita has repeatedly been the focus of rumors since her time in F1, largely regarding her private life. Kinoshita was named as the hottest bachelorette in 2012 and 2013, the height of her Formula One career, with rumors swirling about her sexuality as early as 2009. A report in 2017 indicated that Kinoshita had been married for well over a year, with further reports coming that Kinoshita had been married since 2012. Kinoshita confirmed as such in a rare in depth interview in May of 2018, adding that her spouse had only ever attended one of her races with that moment happening at that year's Indianapolis 500, where she won the race for a third time. Kinoshita did not disclose who her spouse was in the interview, fueling more rumors, which she has largely left unaddressed in the years since, and legal documents surrounding her marriage have been sealed since 2013, with Kinoshita paying to keep those documents sealed at a rate of USD$100,000 per year.

Kinoshita is close friends with fellow Champ Car driver Camyron Jackson, with the two working together in both Formula One from 2011 until 2013, and in Champ Car from 2015 until 2021. Kinoshita cited Jackson's departure from the Honda F1 Team at the end of 2013 as an eye opening moment in her career, as she believed the only top flight series to be in at that point was Formula One. She has on several occasions stated that Jackson was the one teammate she relied on the most regarding setup data, with both drivers requiring similar setups for their driving styles, and expressed a rare moment of anger when it was announced Jackson would be let go from Cat Devil Racing following the 2021 season.

She is also close friends with former Champ Car driver, and current GTPFS star, Evangeline Porter, with the two sharing Porter's home in Cincinnati, Ohio before Kinoshita moved into her own home in Tacoma, Washington, in 2017. Porter, due to her proximity with Kinoshita, was rumored to be in a relationship with Kinoshita during that time span, with Porter coming out on more than one occasion dismissing those rumors.

### Controversies

Kinoshita is reported to have had a contested working relationship with multiple teammates over the years, with allegations that Kinoshita was secretive, aggressive behind the scenes, and demanding. Reports surfaced that Kinoshita did not get along with Henna Venalainen when they were teammates briefly prior to Venalainen's death at the 2016 Indianapolis 500, and Kinoshita was one of very few drivers that did not attend Venalainen's funeral two weeks later. Kinoshita also clashed with Kaylee Zappa when both were teammates in Champ Car, with Kinoshita pushing to have her released on more than one occasion, according to former team employees. Zappa was eventually let go by Cat Devil Racing following the 2020 season. Most recently, Kinoshita came to blows with CDR development driver, Akira Sato, who's three appearances in Champ Car in 2020 resulted in Sato colliding with Kinoshita twice, once at Pocono, and once at the season finale in Fontana. Reports of a physical fight emerged following Fontana, with both drivers avoiding media or comments regarding the fight in the seasons since. Sato was released by Cat Devil Racing at the end of 2021 following what the team called a "less than satisfactory year long performance".

### Rivalries

Kinoshita has had hotly contested rivalries with several drivers across her career. When she first joined Formula One, Kinoshita immediately began clashing with Theo Besson, who called the newcoming Kinoshita "a menace" after Kinoshita blocked Besson repeatedly throughout her 2011 season, with the pair colliding on multiple occasions. John Ingram earned the ire of Kinoshita after he pulled his Chevrolet on track and ruined what would have been a pole lap for Kinoshita in 2012, with Kinoshita retaliating by swerving at Ingram as he was exiting pit lane at Singapore, and then preventing Ingram from setting another lap at Suzuka.

Upon arriving in Champ Car in 2015, Kinoshita's brash nature seemed to have toned down, as Kinoshita learned how to operate on ovals. Her aforementioned relationship with Henna Venalaien soured early in 2016, when Venalainen had Kinoshita's strategy altered to better convenience the Finnish driver, with Kinoshita calling Venalainen a "coward" for requesting team orders. Kinoshita added fuel to the fire by impeding her teammate at St. Petersburg, and later refused to share data in the leadup to the Indianapolis 500 that year. Upon Venalainen's passing during the event, Kinoshita was the only driver not visibly shaken by the event, shrugging off questions about the crash, and later commenting that Venalainen "made a career of risky decisions", which earned her rebuke amongst her peers and critics alike.

Kinoshita was adamantly against Cat Devil Racing signing Italian driver, Kaylee Zappa, in 2017, with Kinoshita vying to have her step-sister pulled onboard in a full time role. Instead, Ishibashi was released, and signed with Team Impulse, infuriating Kinoshita, who refused to work with Zappa during the latter's tenure with the team. The duo clashed on track throughout the 2017, and 2018 seasons, before the team began issuing fines to both drivers for these incidents. Kinoshita got her wish in having Zappa removed after the 2020 season, posting "good riddance" on social media prior to it being announced she was not being resigned by the team.

In 2022, Kinoshita began feuding with 2021 Indycar World Champion, Hazel Lacasse. The rivalry began on social media, in which Kinoshita implied that the closest Lacasse would get to a Grand Prix World Championship trophy would be by viewing Kinoshita's 2013 trophy. The remark came after Lacasse suffered a difficult start to the 2022 season, which had frustrated the Kiwi, given her championship success the year before. The pair met over lunch prior to Indianapolis 500 practice beginning, in late April, but the pair began dueling more aggressively on track, leading many to believe the remarks had set a lasting impact on how the two drivers treated each other.

### Professional Name Choice

Kinoshita raced the entirety of her junior racing career under her given name, Miharu, racing as either Miharu Kinoshita, or Miharu Ishibashi. However, prior to making her Grand Prix debut in Formula One, she announced herself as racing under the name Kunimitsu Kinoshita, electing to use her mother's last name, with a new given name. Kunimitsu, while typically a masculine name in Japanese conventions, has been used occasionally by women. Kunimitsu, which Kinoshita writes as 邦 光, means the light of the country, and represents her pride in representing her home nation internationally. However, Kinoshita has never applied for a formal name change, either in Japan, or in the U.S, where her racing licenses still use Miharu Ishibashi as her legal name.

## Active Records

Kinoshita is the only driver to win on debut in the Indycar World Championship, winning the Indianapolis 500 as a series rookie in 2015. She would go on to win the race two more times, in 2017, and 2018, making her the first driver in the modern era to win the race more than twice outside of the Espinoza, or Germain families.