Keiko Ihara, Japanese race car driver
Keiko Ihara (井原 慶子, Ihara Keiko) (born July 4, 1973) is a Japanese race car driver. She was a former race queen, a model who appears in a swimsuit or other fashionable apparel at race circuits, before deciding to become a racing driver. She is one of the few Japanese women nationals to race internationally at a high level. Her best finishes in the British Formula Three Championship are two 8th places finishes in 2005, which helped her to a final championship standing position of 16th with 12 points. In the 2006 series, she finished in 17th and last position in the Championship Class, with 4 points.
Ihara joined the Gulf Racing Middle East to compete at the FIA World Endurance Championship in the LMP2 class with Jean-Denis Délétraz and Fabien Giroix as codrivers. In 2013, she raced two rounds for Gulf Racing Middle East and four with OAK Racing, both in the LMP2 class. The driver won the Fuji round of the 2014 Asian Le Mans Series for Oak Racing, together with Ho-Pin Tung and David Cheng.
1973Jul, 4
Keiko Ihara
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Events on 1973
- 20Jul
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee, the famous Chinese actor and martial-arts expert, dies in Los Angeles at age 32 from a brain edema possibly caused by a reaction to a prescription painkiller. - 15Aug
Cambodia
Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends. - 22Aug
Salvador Allende
The Congress of Chile votes in favour of a resolution condemning President Salvador Allende's government and demands that he resign or else be unseated through force and new elections. - 17Oct
1973 oil crisis
OPEC imposes an oil embargo against a number of Western countries, considered to have helped Israel in its war against Egypt and Syria. - 4Nov
1973 oil crisis
The Netherlands experiences the first Car-Free Sunday caused by the 1973 oil crisis. Highways are used only by cyclists and roller skaters.