was a Japanese race car driver. He formerly raced in the Japanese Grand Touring Championship, currently known as Super GT.
Yamaji's race debut was in 1986. He competed for YOURS Sports in the RX-7 at the JSS race at Fuji. He went on to take the championship in the RX-7 class of the Fuji Freshman Race series and from 1994 moved up to the All Japan GT Championship. He is widely remembered for an incident that occurred at the start of the 1998 race at Fuji in which, following a serious accident that resulted in an outbreak of fire, he rushed over to the stricken car and frantically worked to extinguish the engulfing flames. Thanks to his heroic efforts the driver, Tetsuya Ota, was able to escape with his life. In recent years, he served as the Clerk of the Course at various events such as Fuji Speedway races and the D1 Grand Prix. In 2011, he retired from Super GT300. On May 25, 2014, he checked into a hospital due to a worsening illness and died the next day.
Complete JGTC/Super GT Results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 89 DC Pts 1994Racing Team NakaharuNissan Skyline GT-RGT1FUJSENFUJSUGMIN3rd47 1996RE AmemiyaMazda RX-7GT300SUZFUJSENFUJSUGMIN6th40 1997RE AmemiyaMazda RX-7GT300SUZFUJSENFUJMINSUG8th31 1998RE AmemiyaMazda RX-7GT300SUZFUJSENFUJMOTMINSUG10th28 1999 Matsumotokiyoshi Team Tom'sToyota Supra GT500SUZFUJSUGMINFUJTAIMOT 16th 27 2000MatsumotoKiyoshi Team Tom'sToyota Supra GT500MOTFUJSUGFUJTAIMINSUZ 14th 18 2001TOMs Racing TeamToyota SupraGT500TAIFUJSUGFUJMOTSUZMIN6th46 2002Tsuchiya EngineeringToyota SupraGT500TAIFUJSUGSEPFUJMOTMINSUZ15th32 2003Team Taisan AdvanPorsche 996 GT3 RGT300TAIFUJSUGFUJFUJMOTAUTSUZ3rd72 2004RE AmemiyaMazda RX-7GT300TAISUGSEPTOKMOTAUTSUZ4th55 2005RE AmemiyaMazda RX-7GT300OKAFUJSEPSUGMOTFUJAUTSUZ9th41 2006Team Taisan AdvanPorsche 996 GT3 RSRGT300SUZOKAFUJSEPSUGFUJ18th16RE AmemiyaMazda RX-7SUZ910 Racing with Team IshimatsuPorsche 996 GT3 RMOTAUT 2007Taisan with NishizawaPorsche 996 GT3 RSGT300SUZOKAFUJSEPSUGSUZMOTAUTFUJ21st12 2008Taisan with NishizawaPorsche 911 GT3 RSGT300SUZOKAFUJSEPSUGSUZMOTAUTFUJ8th51 2011Team Taisan CinecittaFerrari F430GT300OKAFUJSEPSUGSUZFUJAUTMOT18th4
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