 | |
| Founded | 1991 |
|---|---|
| Base | Oyama, Shizuoka Prefecture |
| Team principal(s) | Yuji Tachikawa |
| Founder(s) | Masayuki Sato |
| Current series |
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| Current drivers |
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| Teams' Championships |
2017 |
| Drivers' Championships |
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| Website | cerumo |
Cerumo Co., Ltd. (stylized as CERUMO) is a Japanese racing team headquartered in Oyama, Shizuoka Prefecture. The competed in Super Formula together with INGING Motorsport, and participated in Super GT GT500 Class. In January 2016, former Bridgestone Scuderia Ferrari engineer Hirohide Hamashima joined the team and became general manager in both the Super GT and Super Formula categories. At the shareholders' meeting in February 2019, founder Masayuki Sato resigned as president, and Hamashima also resigned as general manager. In his place, Haruhisa Urabe will become president and chairman, and Hiroaki Ishiura will become a director. After that Yuji Tachikawa picked as the director.
The founder, Masayuki Sato, is a famous engineer known as "Bate-san" in the domestic racing world. As Tadashi Sakai's chief mechanic, he was in charge of machines such as the Fuji GC, and in 1981 he took over Sakai Engineering and established Cerumo. The company name is derived from the Italian word for steady. While operating as a maintenance garage, then formed the team in 1991. Since then, he has competed in SUPER GT (formerly All Japan GT Championship JGTC) and Formula Nippon then the current Super Formula.
At the end of 2007, Haruhisa Urabe, the owner of INGING, became the new owner, and the integration of INGING and the factory is underway. The team has run with Roberto Streit, Yuji Tachikawa, Takuto Iguchi. In 2011 Project mu joined the team as the main sponsor for the team. Their success was during the Dallara SF14 era where Hiroaki Ishiura and Yuji Kunimoto won the drivers title from 2015 to 2017, with Ishiura won in 2015 & 2017 and Kunimoto in 2016. The team also won constructor champion in 2016 & 2017. Sho Tsuboi replaces Kunimoto in 2019.[1] And he clinched third place in 2020 in which the highest position he achieved in the series to date. Hiroaki Ishiura stepped down from racing in Super Formula, and he worked with Tachikawa. His replacement was Sena Sakaguchi.[2] For 2023, INGING acquired a new title sponsor in finance advisory firm Vertex Partners, with the team now named Vertex Partners Cerumo・INGING. Toshiki Oyu joined Toyota and drive for INGING, replacing Sho Tsuboi who moves to TOM'S.[3]
Cerumo has competed in the All Japan GT Championship (JGTC) since 1995 and in SUPER GT since 2005, winning the Driver's Championship three times in 2001, 2005, and 2013 which Yuji Tachikawa won it all, with Hironori Takeuchi, Toranosuke Takagi, and Kohei Hirate each won respectively. Cerumo participating in SUPER GT under the entrant name "TGR Team ZENT Cerumo" from 2020, but already with sponsorship from the pachinko and amusement chain ZENT since 2009. The director was Takeuchi in 2008 and 2009, Takagi from 2010 to 2017, Hirohide Hamashima in 2018, and Tachikawa has been appointed general director since 2019. In 2021, Junichi Murata will remain the general manager of Tachikawa and become the team manager. Kotaro Tanaka will lead the team in 2022, and Junichi Murata will lead the team again from 2023. Tachikawa retired from the series after the 2023 season and he returns to the team as team director.[4] Tachikawa's replacement at Cerumo will be Toshiki Oyu who moves from Honda. Cerumo's long time sponsor ZENT will not be the main sponsor and KeePer will replace it.
