Mako Sato

Mako Sato (佐藤 真子 Satō Mako, known as Maya in the Tokyopop version) is the driver of Impact Blue, and one of Takumi Fujiwara's opponents before he joins Project D. She drives a Nissan SilEighty, and was known as the fastest on Usui pass alongside Sayuki, her navigator, before she becomes a professional racer at the end of Final Stage. She was also Koichiro Iketani's only love interest in the series, which went the other way around as well.

The White Ghost of Akina
Very little is known about Mako's past life, but she has a soft spot for cars and men who like cars. She was first introduced by Koichiro Iketani when he met her repairing her city car. Iketani helps her fix it and Mako gives her number to him. Iketani falls in love with her and even goes on a date with her.l, but Iketani was not aware of the fact that Mako was the fastest racer of Usui. He finds it out later on when the Akina SpeedStars visits Mt Usui and Iketani passes Impact Blue, when he spun out in front of them. Mako later tells Iketani the truth, and about the fact that he gave him the number soo that she can battle with Takumi Fujiwara, who was the fastest of Mt Akina at the time. Mako event that far as to promising Iketani to give her virginity if she is able battle with Takumi. Iketani refuses that offer, but accepts her proposal to let her battle with Takumi before she planned to quit her racing career. After Iketani pleads to Takumi to battle with her, Takumi finally agrees on it. Takumi takes the chasing position and they battle goes on, with Takumi chasing them despite being completely new to the course, much to Impact Blue's surprise, Takumi even catches up to them at C-121 corner, showing Takumi's skills. The race ends after Mako enters a corner too quickly, and spins out, almost causing an accident between the two cars. As a result, despite the race nearly ending in a tie, Mako concedes the victory to Takumi.

After the battle, Impact Blue and the SpeedStars go on a water park for the summer vacation. In between all this, Iketani accidentally finds Ryosuke Takahashi's picture in Mako's purse, creating a a misunderstanding between them. Mako waits at a hotel for Iketani, while Iketani, who initially decided not to go, but then changed his mind thanks to his boss Yuichi Tachibana clearing out the misunderstanding. Iketani arrives at the hotel too late thanks to the heavy traffic, by that time Mako had already left, thinking he would never come.

The Emperor
Later on, Mako faces on some Lan Evo drivers of Emperor team who came with the intent to defeat Usui drivers. Fortunately for her, neither Kyoichi Sudo, nor Seiji Iwaki was present at the time. Instead, Mako and Sayuki battles Satake, an average skilled Lan Evo driver who makes fun of Mako and Sayuki as he believed female racers are not too fast. Mako battles his Evo IV as the former takes the lead. Satake keeps up with them until Mako speeds up into C-121 corner and drifts into it while Satake, who came into the corner way too fast, understeers and crashes into the guardrail.

Later on, Impact Blue and Shingo and Nakazato spends their Christmas vacation on a snow park. One of the members of the Myogi NightKids member, Miyahara showed feelings for Mako and asks her if she can leave street racing so that they can date and settle down. Mako considers this at first, but later on after Mako takes him in her SilEighty and drives hard on the mountain pass, Miyahara understands she still wants to continue street racing, hence they both move on.

Project D - Tochigi
Some while later, Impact Blue once again battles in Usui, this time a duo in an Altezza challenges them to a battle as they didn't stop bothering Mako and Sayuki while they were training in Usui. Mako chases them and keeps up with them until she decided to overtake them before C-121 corner, winning the battle.

After some while Mako and Sayuki spots Iketani once again after a long time, this time when Iketani was on his way to a family meeting and they coincidentally meet at a parking lot. Iketani was destined to meet Mako once again later on to tell his true feelings to her, but another incident made him almost miss his chance to meet her. Iketani was about to tell that he actually loved her, but when Mako tells him that she will become a professional racer, Iketani decided not to open his feelings to her as that can distract her career and affect her negatively. Despite saying they will meet later on, they never met ever since.

Kanagawa Expedition
Mako also attends Takumi's final race against Shinji Inui of Sidewinder with Sayuki, engaging in conversation with Shinji Inui during the hillclimb race between Keisuke Takahashi and Go Hojo, not knowing that he is Takumi's opponent for the downhill until he reveals that he is. Shinji was attracted to Mako, and it was only due to her presence Shinji decided to battle with Takumi, so that he can show off his skills in front of her. When Takumi and Shinji came to the corner where spectators such as Sayuki and Mako were located, Shinji suddenly overtakes Takumi right in front of them, surprising them even more. Sayuki realizes that Shinji did that just so that he can impress Mako. As mentioned earlier, Mako is seen becoming a professional racer at Tsukuba Circuit with her SilEighty modified as a race car.

Trivia
Despite the fact that both Iketani and Mako were at the same place during Project D's final battles in Tsubak Line in Kanagawa, they never met, as mentioned previously in Extra Stage 2. Even when they Akina SpeedStars and Impact Blue (along with others) were present at the exact same spot to congratulate Takumi for winning the final battle of Project D.