Takuma Miyazono: Our Hero of the Month

Takuma Miyazono: Our Hero of the Month

Feb 3, 2021 6 Min Read Posted by Nana Krustofski

OverTake presents our Hero of the Month for January: Japanese GT world champion Takuma Miyazono.

Photo credit: Takuma Miyazono

“I still think I have things I need to work on and next year I want to come back even stronger”. Humble and yet ambitious words from the 2020 Gran Turismo World Champion, as he has just won the FIA GT Nations Cup. And this isn’t his only victory: he has won the World Tour in Sydney, the online season, the Regional Finals, the GR Supra GT Cup, the Manufacturer Series and the Nations Cup.

With this Grand Slam of first places and incredible dominance over the past year that peaked in the December Final, we at OverTake have decided that Takuma Miyazono is our Hero of the Month for January. Let’s learn more about the GT star!

Hero of the Month

Driving with passion and respect

Takuma Miyazono (宮園 拓真) is a GT esports racer and World Champion from Japan. Like many esports racers and motorsports fans, Takuma’s passion for fast cars started at a young age due to his family. His father often watches various series like Formula 1 or the World Rally Championship. As he grew up in a racing-enthusiast environment, Takuma’s own passion soon followed too.

He had an inspirational figure who he looked up to as a child: WRC icon, Petter Solberg. The Norwegian two-time championship winner had a big influence on Takuma’s love of motorsports. When it comes to other esports racers, the Japanese talent has a lot of respect for Mikail Hizal from Team Redline. Takuma states that he is an incredibly fast driver and a very good person who is considerate of others. The Turkish racer was also part of the Subaru team together with Takuma and Daniel Solis in the 2020 Manufacturers Series.

Third time is a charm

Speaking of the GT World Championship, the 2020 edition might have been Takuma’s most successful run, but not his first one – nor was it the highlight of his career. In 2018, the rising star competed in his first FIA GTC at the Red Bull Hangar-7 in Salzburg, Austria. This was also his first time visiting another country and an exciting experience of racing against foreign players.

While he is of course delighted about winning the trophy in 2020, he also remembers the 2019 World Tour in New York. During that event, he felt confident for the first time and realized that he can perform well in a World Championship. And rightly so, as he brought a top performance which nearly got him onto the podium. Due to an opponent’s maneuver that blocked him and caused him to spin, he lost some valuable time which resulted in fourth place overall. An impressive run by Takuma that he would surpass one year later, when he delivered one of the closest and most legendary battles ever – against the very person that caused him to spin the year before.

A racing hero who still needs a confidence boost

Outside the world of esports racing, Takuma enjoys spending his time watching anime. His favorites are Neon Genesis Evangelion and Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World. And, like probably most people, he really likes animals, especially cats. Therefore he often enjoys some cute cat content on YouTube.

When asked to share something not everyone knows about him, the World Champion replied that he doesn’t have much confidence in many fields. He explains that this makes him very cautious, but it might also be the reason why he achieved such great results in esports racing.

We would say that Takuma definitely can be extremely confident in himself and his racing abilities. With his fast pace, racecraft and fair play, he will surely be able to achieve the next goal in his career: to keep winning.

(Translation: This year was an irregular year, but I was able to achieve good results at Gran Turismo. Thank you to everyone who was involved in the event and made it a great accomplishment even in these difficult circumstances, to the rivals who fought together, and to everyone who supported us. I wish you a good year!)

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Are there any personalities in esports racing you would like to nominate for the next edition of Hero of the Month? Tell us on Twitter at @overtake_gg or in the comments down below!

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