ESPLAR History Files - Samurai Rivalry

ESPLAR History Files - Series 3 Story 5: The Great Samurai Rivalry (2015 - )

(Updated 3 January 2023)

Of all the modern-day motorsport rivalries in the world, none have made the ESPLAR Elite Series more electrifying, entertaining, and contentious than the rivalry between two of the series' elite giants, Osaka-based Saihara Motorsports, and Tokyo-based Greater Kanto Motorsports. Their rivalry may be young, but their defining rivalry throughout the five seasons they've competed against each other so far has become one of the series' legendary rivalries, exceeding that of the great rivalries between the Hennivan Racing teammates of Max Edwards and Drew Bright in the early 1980s, the rivalry between Matthew Chapman and Lucian Croft in 2000, and even the self-proclaimed "Great Rivalry" between Team Nitra and Saihara Motorsports. In just 3 seasons, both teams have become the top juggernaults in a series rapidly advancing to the new future where advanced motorsport and safety technologies have become the incredible focal points of the series as a whole, spearheaded by the ever-expanding influence of Leiko-Ulist based Arktene and Anaheim Industries of Estlenhar.

It is often easy to note how this particular rivalry began, but many fans point to this rivalry as the offshoot of the 2010s Great Rivalry between Saihara and Team Nitra as Saihara broke away from Team Nitra's philosophy and struck out on their own to win a championship in their name, but they were never able to achieve this in the early years until Greater Kanto came along.

The major spark that led to the start of the rivalry was a small team named Greater Kanto Motorsports. It was formed at the end of 2015 through a Toyota-backed scheme that was to be Toyota's major breakthrough into the ESPLAR Elite Series. Previously, Toyota had been manufacturers to a number of other teams, but it was the first time that Toyota had made serious commitment for the top tier of the ESPLAR Leagues. At the time, Greater Kanto was called 6AM Motorsports, and was a grassroots team formed in San Leandro, California for Japanese-American young racers. It was (in 2016) racing in the ESPLAR Premier Regional (Tier 3) series with Keiko Namakawa as their driver. This team would suddenly disappear in the middle of 2016, and would reform with 4 races left with a mysterious racer named Julia Truong at the helm of that team's #14 car.

Very little is known about Truong prior to the 2017 ESPLAR Lites season, but for the purposes of this story, she would become center-focus in a large group of racers in the 2016-2018 ESPLAR seasons, educated in San Leandro's prestigious SL Academy for Multimedia during the 2010s, as would her future teammate Katya Alarcon.

(TBD)