Karting Born in the
Setagaya Ward of
Tokyo, Nakayama began his racing career in
karting at the age of six and raced in various local championships, progressing to the
KF2 category in 2007, finishing seventh in the Asia-Pacific Championship.
Early career In 2008, Nakayama graduated to single–seaters into the
Formula Challenge Japan mono-series. He finished thirteenth in the series standings, without scoring a podium. He stayed in the series for another season, progressing to fourth position in the standings, collecting six podiums. Nakayama stayed in the series for a third successive season in
2010. He dominated the whole season and won ten from twelve races, finishing every race in the podium positions and finally taking the championship title. He also contested the final rounds in
Formula BMW Pacific, joining the
Asia Racing Team.
All-Japan Formula Three In
2011, Nakayama stepped up to the National class of the
All-Japan Formula Three Championship with the
TOM'S Spirit team. He finished third, taking three class wins. In
2012, Nakayama switched to the series' Championship class, joining the main
TOM'S team. He finished as runner-up to
Ryō Hirakawa, winning races at
Motegi,
Sugo and
Fuji. During the season he also appeared in the
Macau Grand Prix, finishing 21st. Nakayama continued his collaboration with
TOM'S in
2013. This time he dominated the championship, finishing each of the 13 races he contested – 11 wins and a pair of runner-up placings – on the podium, clinching the championship title before the final round of the season, that he was forced to miss. He also repeated his effort to win the
Macau Grand Prix trophy with
TOM'S.
Super Formula Nakayama made his début in
Super Formula in 2014 with
KCMG. He finished in eighteenth position in the championship standings, without scoring a point. Despite this, the team decided to retain him for the
2015 until
2016 season. Nakayama replaced
Artem Markelov at the sixth round due to Markelov being called up to race for
BWT Arden in the
FIA Formula 2 Championship. Nakayama then return to KCMG for 2 rounds to cover Kamui Kobayashi. Nakayama covers for
Sacha Fenestraz at
Kondo Racing after Fenestraz unable obtain visa entrance to Japan. Nakayama did not score a point, and competed all but two rounds that season.
Super GT Nakayama made his debut in the series' GT300 Class for apr for one round off in 2013, and 2014. Nakayama joined the team as a full time driver for two seasons, as he was paired with
Koki Saga. Both pair won three times in that two seasons, and many podiums. Both managed to clinch third place, and runners up place in each season. Nakayama then move to LM Corsa for 2017 & 2018. Nakayama then steps up to GT500 with
SARD Team in 2019. He is already with the team till now where he raced alongside
Heiki Kovalainen for 2019 to 2021, then with GT500 Champion
Yuhi Sekiguchi from 2022 onwards. ==Racing record==