Kenta Yamashita

Kenta Yamashita (山下 健太) is a Japanese racing driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing who is currently competing in Super GT for ROOKIE Racing and in Super Formula for Kondō Racing. He won the GT500-class Super GT championship title in 2019, driving alongside Kazuya Oshima, and previously won the 2016 All-Japan Formula 3 Championship and the 2013 Formula Challenge Japan titles.

Karting
Yamashita competed in karts before graduating to single-seater cars in 2012.

Formula Super FJ and Formula Challenge Japan
Yamashita began his racing car career in the 2012 Motegi Championship Formula Super FJ, which he won in his first season. In all four starts, he took the pole, fastest lap, and race win. In 2013, he progressed to the Formula Challenge Japan series, which was a racing category intended for drivers between entry level and Formula 3. He scored 7 podiums and in 12 races, including 4 wins, and took the championship title.

All-Japan Formula Three
In 2014, Yamashita graduated to the All-Japan Formula Three Championship with the Petronas Team TOM'S. He finished runner-up in the championship to the more experienced Nobuharu Matsushita.

In 2015, Yamashita continued to race in the All-Japan Formula Three Championship with TOM'S, he managed to clinch runners up, just lose out to Nick Cassidy the eventual champion. 2016, Yamashita won the title in the final round, pips out Jann Mardenborough to the title.

Super GT
In 2015, Yamashita made his debut in GT300 class with Porsche Team KTR alongside Alexandre Imperatori. Then he made one off appearance the next season with Tsuchiya Engineering. Then he stayed with the team for full time. That season he won his first race alongside Takamitsu Matsui.

Yamashita made one off appearance with Racing Project Bandoh in Fuji Speedway. Then for 2018 he steps up to GT500 with Bandoh, as he replaces Yuhi Sekiguchi. Yamashita then transferred to Lexus Team Wako's LeMans, replacing Felix Rosenqvist, who left Super GT to compete in the IndyCar Series. He then with Kazuya Oshima won the title at the final race of the season. That would be Team LeMans final title as the team discontinued their campaign in GT500. For 2020, Yamashita initially did not listed to compete in Super GT as he was focused to do WEC. But because of the pandemic happened, he did couple of races in that year. He covered up for Heikki Kovalainen at Team SARD for Round 1 because Kovalalinen unable to enter Japan. Then Yamashita do 2 rounds to replaces Nick Cassidy, as Cassidy began preparations for his debut in the 2021 FIA Formula E World Championship.

Yamashita then returns to the series full time in 2021 with new Rookie Racing with his former champion pair Oshima. During his time with the team he won 2 races, and couple of podiums. For 2024, he moves to 2023 champion team Team au TOM'S to pair with Sho Tsuboi as he replaces Ritomo Miyata.

Super Formula
Yamashita made his Super Formula debut in 2017 with Kondo Racing alongside his 2015 title rival Cassidy. Yamashita stayed with the same team for over seven years, and he managed only to win once.

FIA World Endurance Championship
Yamashita made his international racing debut in the 2019-20 FIA World Endurance Championship, driving in the LMP2 class for Danish team High Class Racing alongside Anders Fjordbach and amateur driver Mark Patterson. Yamashita would impress in qualifying sessions throughout the season, outmatching more experienced opponents on a regular basis, but the team would ultimately achieve little success in races and ended the season as the last-placed LMP2 team. Yamashita reached the Hyperpole session in qualifying for the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans before the team was forced to retire with a gearbox problem.

Career summary

 * Season still in progress.

‡ Team standings.

Complete Japanese Formula 3 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Super GT results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) † Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance. ‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.
 * Season still in progress.

Complete Super Formula results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) ‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.
 * Season still in progress.