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Successful racer and championship-winning workforce proprietor ‘Shige’ Hattori has died. Hattori was concerned in a three-car visitors accident on Saturday morning. The tragic incident occurred round 9:15 a.m. EST on I-77 northbound in Mecklenburg County, about half-hour north of Charlotte, North Carolina. He was driving a 2025 Toyota Crown when he crossed the middle line, colliding with one other car. Everybody else concerned suffered non-life-threatening accidents.
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The Huntersville Police Division confirmed Hattori’s passing and the small print of the crash on Monday morning. Dashing or impairment weren’t believed to have been elements within the tragic accident, which stays beneath investigation.
Hailing from Okayama, Japan, Hattori moved to the States in 1995 as he branched out into the American open-wheel racing scene. He competed full-time as an Indy Lights driver for 3 years, successful twice throughout the 1998 season at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Gateway.
He graduated to CART and IndyCar within the years to observe, driving for varied groups and beginning over two dozen races. His tenure in CART was tumultuous, however he improved mightily as an IndyCar driver. His profession included three Indianapolis 500 makes an attempt, making the long-lasting race twice in each 2002 and 2003, ending as excessive as twentieth. His greatest exhibiting in IndyCar got here whereas driving for Bradley Motorsports, ending sixth at Texas Motor Speedway throughout the 2002 season.
Shigeaki Hattori
Shigeaki HattoriEarl Ma
Earl Ma
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Nevertheless, Hattori’s motorsports journey then took him from open-wheel racing to inventory automobiles round 2004. Competing with Germain Racing within the NASCAR Truck Sequence, he struggled to acclimate and crashed out in six of the ten races he began. However this was not the top of his NASCAR experiment.
His true influence on the game would come just a few years later as he ventured into workforce possession. Hattori Racing Enterprises was established in 2008 and began actively competing in each the NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Sequence in 2013. He introduced new sponsors into the game and gave alternatives to future Cup stars like Alex Bowman and Ross Chastain. Whereas the group by no means positioned greater than fifth in an Xfinity Sequence race, Hattori’s NASCAR operation reached beautiful heights within the Truck Sequence.
Brett Moffitt, Hattori Racing Enterprises, Toyota Tundra AISIN Group celebrates his win with a burnout
Brett Moffitt, Hattori Racing Enterprises, Toyota Tundra AISIN Group celebrates his win with a burnout Russell LaBounty / NKP / Motorsport Pictures
Russell LaBounty / NKP / Motorsport Pictures
The race workforce received a complete of 14 Truck races with Brett Moffitt and Austin Hill, however their crowning achievement got here in 2018. Moffitt led the workforce to the Championship 4, beating Noah Gragson and Kyle Busch Motorsports to win the NASCAR Truck Sequence title. Hattori’s workforce moved away from full-time competitors in 2023, solely operating a partial schedule lately, however his influence on the game’s decrease divisions has been immense.
