Keiko Ihara

Keiko Ihara
Keiko Ihara at the 2014 6 Hours of Fuji
NationalityJapan Japanese
Born (1973-07-04) July 4, 1973 (age 51)
Tokyo, Japan
FIA World Endurance Championship career
Debut season2012
Current teamLarbre Compétition
Racing licence FIA Bronze
Car number50
Starts2
Wins0
Poles0
Fastest laps0
Previous series
2009
2008
2005-06
2005
2004
2003
2003
2002
2001
2000
Formula Le Mans Cup
Aston Martin Asia Cup
British Formula Three
Masters of Formula 3
Le Mans Endurance Series
Super GT
Formula BMW Asia
Asia Formula 2000
French Formula Three
Formula Renault 2.0 UK

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.