Haruki Kurosawa
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Haruki Kurosawa

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Haruki Kurosawa (黒澤 治樹; born 26 September 1977 in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese racing driver best known for winning the 2018 Super GT GT300 championship with the family-operated LEON Racing team, a title he secured by overcoming a twelve-point deficit to win the season-ending race at Motegi. He also serves as team director of LEON Racing.

Kurosawa came to motorsport through motorcycle racing and karting, graduating from the Suzuka Racing School Junior (SRS-J) programme and competing in motocross and pocket bikes events near Mount Fuji. After completing SRS-F at the end of 1996, he entered three Japanese Formula 3 races for Nakajima Racing, scoring a championship point at Sendai in his debut season.

For 1997, Kurosawa moved to the British Formula Three Championship, where he managed a single points finish at Pembrey. He returned to Japanese Formula 3 in 1998, spending two years with Lian Racing before joining the prominent TOM'S team for 2000. That season brought his only Formula 3 race win, at Motegi, along with a second place at Sugo, earning him sixth in the championship standings.

Kurosawa made his Japan GT Championship debut in 2002 with Team Take One, racing in GT500 across nine events between 2002 and 2003 before making a GT300 appearance at the 2003 Suzuka finale for SigmaTech Racing, where he finished third.

Returning to GT300 for 2005 with M-TEC alongside Shinya Hosokawa, Kurosawa won both races at the newly rebuilt Fuji circuit and scored two further second places to finish runner-up in the standings. This immediate competitiveness announced him as a serious GT300 contender.

He joined R&D Sport for 2006 and 2007 alongside Shinsuke Shibahara. The partnership produced a win at Autopolis in 2007 and further podiums at Suzuka and Motegi, culminating in third place in the championship. After a third season at R&D Sport yielded just one podium, Kurosawa moved through Team Taisan and Team Mach between 2009 and 2011 without adding to his podium tally.

At the end of 2011, Kurosawa left Team Mach to co-found LEON Racing alongside his father Motoharu, a former racing driver. The team entered Super GT GT300 with a partnership with Hironori Takeuchi's Shift team in 2012, and Kurosawa and Takeuchi scored LEON's first GT300 podium at SUGO.

As the team found its footing, Kurosawa raced with various co-drivers, including his brother Tsubasa from 2013 onwards. A major step forward came when LEON Racing switched to the Mercedes-AMG GT for the 2016 season: Kurosawa and Naoya Gamou won the opening round at Okayama, giving the team and car their first Super GT victory.

In 2017, Kurosawa started with a podium at Okayama and won two of the final three races to finish runner-up in GT300. That near-miss set the stage for 2018, when, despite trailing by twelve points with one race remaining, Kurosawa won the season finale at Motegi to claim the GT300 title. It was the culmination of a patient, team-first approach built over more than a decade in the series.

Kurosawa competed in the Le Mans Endurance Series in 2004 with Choro-Q Racing Team in the GT class, finishing third at Monza and second in class on his Le Mans debut. He returned in 2005 for the LMP1 class with Team Sport alongside Sam Hignett and John Stack, taking a podium at Monza.

In 2006, now with Courage Compétition, Kurosawa scored in the Le Mans Series before making a one-off appearance for Zytek Engineering at the Petit Le Mans in the American Le Mans Series, finishing second. The following year, racing for Barazi-Epsilon and Zytek Engineering at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP2, Kurosawa finished second in class despite losing time to repairs.

He withdrew from a planned 2011 Le Mans entry following the Tohoku earthquake and returned in 2012 for Jota in LMP2. His final international prototype outing came in the 2019-20 Asian Le Mans Series for K2 Uchino Racing, where he scored a podium at the season-ending round in Buriram.

Kurosawa's career is notable for its consistency across three decades in Japanese motorsport and his role in establishing a competitive family-run team in the Super GT series. The 2018 championship with LEON Racing stands as the crowning achievement of both driver and team, earned through gradual development rather than big-budget recruitment. As team director, Kurosawa continues to guide the squad's programme in Super GT and Super Taikyu.

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