Drift and Pikes Peak champ Yoshihara enters TC America

Drifting and Pikes Peak champion Daijiro “Dai” Yoshihara is joining SRO Motorsports America’s TC America powered by Skip Barber series with the Florida-based Victor Gonzalez Racing Team. Comprised of three competition classes – TCX, TC, and TCA – …

Drifting and Pikes Peak champion Daijiro “Dai” Yoshihara is joining SRO Motorsports America’s TC America powered by Skip Barber series with the Florida-based Victor Gonzalez Racing Team.

Comprised of three competition classes — TCX, TC, and TCA — all TC America powered by Skip Barber championships utilize factory-built or supported turn-key race cars, with TCX supporting the BMW M2 CS Racing platform and other homologated cars.

Now in its fourth year, VGRT has competed in TC America, GR Cup, and the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, taking second place in the TCR championship, over 20 podiums and four outright wins, the team’s resume continues to speak for itself. Yoshihara will drive a a Honda FK8 Civic Type R TCR in the series.

“We are super excited to have Dai as part of the VGRT family — he is an excellent ambassador for the sport and a good race car driver,” said Victor Gonzalez, VGRT. “We will push to give him a car to go and fight for wins in every race. We are a team of diversity and he is a perfect fit for our program.”

Yoshihara (pictured above) is one of three drivers in the VGRT TC America entry list: Ruben Iglesias Jr. represents the team in TCA, Michael Hurczyn in TC and Yoshihara in TCX. While the other Hondas in the team’s lineup are production models modified for racing, Yoshihara’s Type R is built by JAS Motorsport — the official Honda motorsport engineering and customer service partner since 1998.

Yoshihara’s participation is another step forward in his athlete management portfolio with the Pit+Paddock group. During his inaugural year under the Pit+Paddock flag, not only did Yoshihara build three highly impactful cars for SEMA (including a pre-runner-style Nissan Frontier, an R33 GT-R and a 2023 Acura Integra), he drove the fastest EV at the 100th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, allowed fans to experience his Formula DRIFT Pro class BRZ during the nationwide “Ride with Dai Experience” and became an official ambassador for Turn 14 Distribution, ENEOS, and Yokohama Tire.