Shigeaki "Shige" Hattori (服部 茂章, November 3, 1963) is a Japanese professional race car driver and team owner based in the United States. As a driver, he competed in the CART and IndyCar Series, and the NASCARCraftsman Truck Series. He is not related to Naoki Hattori, whom he briefly raced against in CART.
Prior to moving to the United States, Hattori won the Formula Toyota championship in 1994.[2]
Indy Lights
Hattori moved to the United States in 1995,[2] and began competing in the Indy Lights series in 1996 at the age of 32. After finishing 13th and 25th in points in his first two seasons, he scored his first career win in the series in 1996 at the season-opener at Homestead Miami Speedway.[3] He would win two races that season and finish 14th in points.
Hattori raced in the Indy Racing League from 2000 to 2003. His best IRL finish was a 6th at Texas Motor Speedway in 2002 and he finished 13th in IRL points in 2001 for Treadway-Vertex Cunningham Racing. He led a total of 28 laps in his 26 series starts.
Hattori was signed to drive the No. 9 Tundra for Germain Racing (then Germain-Arnold Racing) for 2005, his rookie season in the Truck Series, with sponsorship from Aisin AW.[6] He failed to qualify in several races, and was released at the end of the season after competing in 10 events and finishing 35th in series points.
Beginning in 2008, Hattori has fielded entries in NASCAR and ARCA competition under the Hattori Racing Enterprises banner.[7][8][9] On August 18, 2013, he made his debut as a NASCARCamping World Truck Series team owner, fielding the No. 16 Goodyear of Japan Toyota at Michigan International Speedway in the National Guard 200. The team finished 17th with driver Brett Moffitt. Hattori's team returned in 2014, fielding the 80 in several Nationwide series events. In 2015, the team fielded the No. 18 for Ross Chastain at Michigan, but he failed to qualify after the rain interrupted. Later on, the team hosted Ross Kenseth's first Truck start in the No. 18 at the fall Martinsville event.
In 2016, Ryan Truex took over Hattori's Truck ride (renumbered from the No. 18 to the No. 81 due to Kyle Busch Motorsports re-taking that number). After the team gave Truex that chance, he nearly won the season-opening race at Daytona, where he finished second. After that strong run, the team and Truex said they would try to run the full season, which ended up not happening due to sponsorship issues. However, Truex drove part-time for the team in select races for the remainder of the season. The two parties ran the full 2017 season in the renumbered No. 16,[10] but Truex was released prior to the 2018 season.[11]
Moffitt returned to HRE in 2018.[12] Despite sponsorship concerns that threatened to cut their season short,[13] Moffitt and HRE went on to win that year's championship. Nevertheless, troubles with funding resulted in Moffitt's release.[14]Austin Hill would take over the No. 16 in 2019.[15] The team expanded to two trucks in 2022 with Tyler Ankrum and Chase Purdy.[16]
