Kosuke Matsuura

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Kosuke Matsuura
Kosuke Matsuura gets ready for a practice run prior to the 2007 Indy 500.
Nationality	Japanese
Date of Birth	September 4, 1979 (1979-09-04) (age 28)
Place of Birth	Aichi, Japan
IndyCar Series
Years active	2004-2007
Teams	Aguri Panther Aguri Fernandez
Starts	64
Wins	0
Poles	0
Best finish	13th in 2006
Awards
2004 2004	IndyCar Rookie of the Year Indy 500 Rookie of the Year

Kosuke Matsuura (松浦孝亮, born September 4, 1979 in Aichi, Japan) is a race car driver currently competing in the Formula Nippon series. He previously competed in the IRL IndyCar Series.

1 Early career
2 IRL IndyCar Series
3 Motorsports Career Results
- 3.1 American Open-Wheel
  - 3.1.1 IndyCar
- 3.2 Indy 500 results
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Early career

After winning the Japanese Formula Dream Championship in 2001, Kosuke attracted the attention of former Formula One driver Aguri Suzuki as a teenager and was placed into Suzuki's driver development program, the ARTA Project. He went on to finish 2nd in the 2002 German Formula Three Championship winning 2 races and finished 3rd in the 2003 European Formula Renault V6 Championship, winning 3 races before replacing Roger Yasukawa at Super Aguri Fernandez Racing in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series in 2004.

[edit] IRL IndyCar Series

In 2004, he was the Bombardier Rookie of the Year, finishing 14th in points. He was also the 2004 Bank One Rookie of the Year for the 2004 Indianapolis 500.

In 2005, he again drove for Super Aguri Fernandez Racing, and again finished 11th in the Championship with a best place finish of 6th in the two road course races. He continued with the team in 2006 and finished a career best 13th in points with a best finish of 6th.

For 2007, Autobacs Racing Team Aguri switched allegiance to Panther Racing, teaming Matsuura with Vitor Meira.

During the 2007 IndyCar Series season, Matsuura retired from 6 of the first 11 races and finished no better than 8th in the others. His struggles prompted speculation from media and fans that he might be dropped by Panther Racing, culminating on July 20, 2007, when Speed TV posted an article on its website stating that Matsuura would be immediately replaced by Autobacs Racing Team Aguri Indy Pro Series driver Hideki Mutoh. While the report was incorrect^[1] and the article has since been removed^[2], it did little to stop speculation that Matsuura will be replaced following the 2007 season.

On August 5, 2007, Matsuura matched a career best with a 4th-place finish at the Firestone Indy 400 at Michigan. This prompted Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network play-by-play Mike King (radio announcer) to suggest that the finish may help him stay in IRL for the 2008 season. The finish, however, only came in the aftermath of his avoiding a major back straightaway incident involving most of the front half of the field.

For 2008 after long time sponsors Panasonic switched their sponsorship to Hideki Mutoh of the Andretti Green Racing team in IndyCar Series, Kosuke returned to Japan to compete in the Formula Nippon Series.

[edit] Motorsports Career Results

[edit] American Open-Wheel

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

[edit] IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
2004	Aguri Fernandez	HMS 11	PHX 11	JPN 8	IND 11	TXS Ret	RIR 14	KAN Ret	NSH 9	MIL 10	MIS 17	KTY 4	PPIR 13	NZR Ret	CHI Ret	CAL 13	TX2 Ret		14th	280
2005	Aguri Fernandez	HMS Ret	PHX 10	STP Ret	JPN 9	IND Ret	TXS 7	RIR 9	KAN Ret	NSH Ret	MIL 11	MIS Ret	KTY 8	PPIR 13	SNM 6	CHI Ret	WGL 6	CAL Ret	14th	320
2006	Aguri Fernandez	HMS 6	STP 7	JPN 7	IND 15	WGL Ret	TXS 8	RIR 12	KAN 8	NSH Ret	MIL Ret	MIS 9	KTY Ret	SNM 13	CHI 11				13th	273
2007	Panther	HMS Ret	STP 17	JPN Ret	KAN Ret	IND 16	MIL 11	TXS 9	IOW Ret	RIR Ret	WGL 8	NSH Ret	MDO 12	MIS 4	KTY 11	SNM 10	DET 5	CHI Ret	16th	303