Ukyo Sasahara

Ukyō Sasahara (笹原 右京) is a Japanese racing driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing who is currently competing in Super GT and Super Formula for TOM'S. He was previously a factory driver for Honda, and has achieved successes in a wide variety of motorsport disciplines.

Karting
Sasahara began karting aged seven in 2003. He won numerous domestic titles, including becoming JAF All Japan Championship Junior Champion in 2009. In the same year, he beat Matt Parry to win the Rotax Max Challenge Junior Grand Final, a title he went on to win for a second time in 2011. He went on to enjoy further success in the category, winning the Rotax Max Euro Challenge Junior title in 2011, and the Central Eastern European Rotax Max Challenge Senior title in 2012, his final year in karting.

European racing career
Sasahara graduated to single-seaters in 2013, racing in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps championship for Vincenzo Sospiri's Euronova Racing team. He finished in the points on seven occasions, taking a best race result of sixth at Misano to finish 13th in the championship. During the season, he also took part in the Spa-Francorchamps and Barcelona rounds of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 season with Euronova Racing as a guest driver.

For 2014, Sasahara continued with Euronova Racing, switching to the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC championship. He took a single podium position, finishing second to Louis Delétraz in the opening race of the season at Monza, and finished in the points in all the remaining races except one to finish sixth in the championship.

In 2015, Sasahara joined the ART Junior Team to contest both the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 NEC championships. After failing to score points in the opening round of the Eurocup at Motorland Aragón, Sasahara took his first race victory in the following round at Spa-Francorchamps, becoming only the second Japanese driver to win a Eurocup race after Kamui Kobayashi in the 2005 season.

In the NEC championship, Sasahara won the opening race of the season at Monza ahead of Manor MP Motorsport's Ignazio D'Agosto.

In June 2014, Sasahara took part in the opening round of the Italian F4 Championship at Adria International Raceway for Euronova Racing, replacing Italian driver Andrea Fontana who missed the event due to illness. After finishing fifth in the opening race, he won the reversed-grid second race ahead of the Prema Powerteam entry of eventual series champion Lance Stroll.

In 2016, initially Sasahara did not have a full time seat. He competed for 2 rounds at Spa-Francorchamps & Imola with Threebond T-Sport.

Japanese F4 and Japanese F3
Sasahara returns to Japan, where he competed in F4 Japanese Championship in 2017 with Honda backing. He competed with Honda Formula Dream Project, alongside Yuki Tsunoda & Toshiki Oyu as his teammates. He managed to get runners up place beating his teammates, but lose out to the eventual champion Ritomo Miyata. Sasahara made his step up to the Japanese Formula 3 Championship with ThreeBond Racing. He only managed to claim third in the championship standings, with couple of podiums to his name. He lose out to the TOM'S pairing of Sho Tsuboi who is the champion, and the runners up Ritomo Miyata.

F3 Asia and Porsche Carera Cup Japan
Unfortunately for Sasahara, he dropped by Honda for the 2019 season with no drive in Japanese F3 or even Super GT. With that Sasahara competed in Porsche Carrera Cup Japan. He competed as well in F3 Asian Championship with Hitech Grand Prix that season. Sasahara eventually won both of the series. He makes a return in the 2019–20 F3 Asian Championship as a guest with the same team.

Super GT
Sasahara made his debut in Super GT GT500 for Honda's Team Mugen, partnered alongside Hideki Mutoh. Sasahara took his maiden podium at Motegi. Sasahara continues to compete at Super GT, Team Mugen retained him, with new teammate Toshiki Oyu. Both pairs claimed their maiden pole in GT500 at Sportsland SUGO.

For 2023, Sasahara left Honda, and moved to Toyota. Sasahara competed with Deloitte Team TOM'S, alongside Giuliano Alesi.

Super Formula
Sasahara made his Super Formula debut with Team Mugen, replacing Juri Vips where initially to compete in this series, but due to COVID-19 border restriction in Japan prevents Vips to entering Japan, and compete for the entire season. Initially Sasahara not compete in Super Formula for 2021, but he competed for the first 2 rounds as he replaces Tadasuke Makino at Dandelion Racing after Makino suffered meningitis. Sasahara claimed his maiden podium in the series on the second round. Sasahara returns to Team Mugen for 2022 season of Super Formula with Team Mugen. Sasahara made his maiden win in Super Formula, as he won at Fuji, and finished 6th in the standings.

Sasahara competed in Super Formula as well, after replaces his Super GT Teammate Alesi in the Vantelin Team TOM'S for the last four rounds.

Racing career summary
† As Sasahara was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.
 * Season still in progress.

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 Alps Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

† As Sasahara was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Italian F4 Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

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

Complete F4 Japanese Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

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

Complete F3 Asian Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

† As Sasahara was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points

Complete Super GT 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.

Complete Super Formula results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
 * Season still in progress.