Anna Inotsume

 

Anna Inotsume is a Japanese driver who races touring cars and GTs. She is the 2023 Japanese TCR champion.

She began her career in 2015 as part of a women’s motorsport initiative run by Mazda in Japan. She did some racing in an electric car that year. Her involvement continued through 2016 and incorporated her major on-track debut. She represented the women’s team in December’s Mazda Party Race, qualifying on pole and finishing fourth. 

She was selected to race in the 2018 Super Taikyu series in a Mazda Roadster as part of an all-female team picked from the scheme. “Love Drive Racing” was run by Keiko Ihara and Anna, along with Marie Iwaoka, ran the whole season, including a 24-hour race at Fuji. Their best result was sixth in class at Suzuka. Her first steps into Super Taikyu were the final rounds of the 2017 series, with the same team. She shared the car with Marie Iwaoka at Fuji and Okayama. They were eleventh and thirteenth in class. 

At the end of 2018, she made her debut in the Asian Le Mans Series, joining the all-female R24 team for the Fuji race alongside Marie Iwaoka and Stephane Kox. This team was also run by former Le Mans racer Keiko Ihara. They were seventh in the LMP3 class. 

Anna tried out for the 2020 W Series in September 2019 but was not selected, admitting later that she found the F3 car hard to drive due to her lack of single-seater experience. Her first single-seater races were later in the year in the club-level JAF F4 series. On her third race, she scored her first podium finish. Back in a tin-top, she was invited to take part in the Japanese round of the Asian Mini Challenge.

Mazdas had not been forgotten: having represented West Japan in the Mazda Party Race series in 2018, she joined the Mazda Fan Endurance Japan Tour and won. 

Her 2020 activities included a run in the three-round Kyojo Cup, a single-make sportscar series for women drivers. She was third overall, winning the last race of the season. She also participated in the mixed Vita series, which uses the same car. 

She also returned to Super Taikyu after a year away, competing in a Mazda Roadster run by students from Nihon Automobile College. Hiroko Komatsu joined her in the five-driver team for the Fuji 24 Hours. Later in the season, she joined the Natural Tuning/Cusco team in their Roadster for the third Super Taikyu race. She earned her first class podium, a second place at Autopolis, during the fifth round. 

Shortly before that, she tested an Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR car, with a view to participating in the series in future. 

In 2021 she did make her TCR debut, but in a Honda Civic run by Dome Racing. She scored one second place in the Saturday Series at Suzuka and finished eleventh in both the Saturday and Sunday championships.

She continued for Dome in the TCR championship in 2022 and scored her first win at Fuji, swiftly followed by a second win at Suzuka. This followed a run of seven podium finishes, plus two pole positions, netting her second in the championship. This improved to a championship win in 2023, with five wins and two additional podiums for the Dome team. Her car was a Honda Civic.

In September, she made a guest appearance in Formula Regional Japan, finishing fifth and fourth Fuji.

(Image copyright Anna Inotsume)