Motor Sport magazine has a page of tributes, articles and stories, extracts from Tremayne's biography of Jim Clark plus videos from Indy etc etc, all available from this link.
Love the video. Good find.
Reading your write up it's amazing how from such humble beginnings as a scenic drive we now have what has evolved into one of the most iconic and respected circuits on the planet. And we still have racing there every Easter.
* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left
“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)
* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
15 years ago on April 20th 2003 we lost Motorcycling star Daijiro Kato.
Daijiro had succumbed to an accident he had suffered at Suzuka some 2 weeks earlier at the Japanese MotoGP round, when he lost control and hit the wall near the Casio Triangle chicane of the circuit at around 125 mph. He remained in a coma for the two weeks before he passed away. The cause of death was listed as brain stem infarction.
The officials were widely criticised at the time for not red flagging the race, leaving track marshalls to remove Kato from the track on a stretcher for medical attention whilst the race continued unabated. In the process of being moved by the marshalls it is possible further injury was suffered as his head, although supported was seen to "droop markedly" in the transportation to the side of the track.
There has not been a Grand Prix motorcycle race held at Suzuka following Kato's crash.
The FIM retired Kato's number, and the bike number 74 has not been used by any rider since. The FIM named him a Grand Prix "Legend"
Racing highlights
1993
All Kyushu Area Championship: SP250, GP125, GP250 classes.
Ranking: Championship winner in all 3 classes.
1994
All Japan Road Race Championship: GP250 class.
First win at round 9 at TI Circuit in Aida, Okayama.
Ranking: Seventh.
1995
All Japan Road Race Championship: GP250 class.
Ranking: Fifth.
1996
All Japan Road Race Championship: GP250 class.
Ranking: Second.
Kato participated as a wild card rider at the world grand prix championship GP250 race in Japan and finished third.
1997
All Japan Road Race Championship: GP250 class.
Ranking: Championship winner.
Kato again participated as a wild card rider at the world grand prix championship GP250 race in Japan and won the race.
Kato raced the Suzuka 8 Hours in Japan and finished ninth.
1998
All Japan Road Race Championship: GP250 class.
Ranking: Eighth.
Kato again participated as a wild card rider at the world grand prix championship GP250 race in Japan and won the race a second time.
1999
All Japan Road Race Championship: GP250 class.
Ranking: Second.
2000
Grand Prix World Championship: GP250 class.
Ranking: Third.
Kato was awarded the Rookie-of-the-Year prize in the GP250 class.
Kato, teaming with fellow Japanese rider Tohru Ukawa, won the Suzuka 8 Hours in Japan.
2001
Grand Prix World Championship: GP250 class.
Ranking: Championship winner.
Kato set a new grand prix world record by winning 11 races throughout the 2001 season. He was also recognized for his efforts to the public by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Science and Technology.
2002
Grand Prix World Championship: MotoGP/500cc class.
Ranking: Seventh.
Kato was awarded the Rookie-of-the-Year prize in the MotoGP/500cc class.
Kato, this time teaming with American rider Colin Edwards, won the Suzuka 8 Hours in Japan for a second time.
2003
Grand Prix World Championship: MotoGP class.
* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left
“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)
* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
A nice tribute to Roland here written by F1 aero guru and noted open wheeler hillclimb driver Willem Toet. Toet was with Benetton in 1994.... JJ Lehto, driving for Benetton at the time had driven to Imola with Roland. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/roland-r ... llem-toet/
Toet promises a similar tribute to Ayrton Senna today.
* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left
“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)
* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
As promised, the Willem Toet tribute to Senna, lost to us 24 years ago today. (link below)
A very moving read, and one that had snippets unknown or forgotten by me. I was unaware of the reprimand he had received for commandeering an FIA car to visit the scene of Roland's fatal crash the day before his own, as I was of his watching over the medical resuscitation of Martin Donnely on track during qualifying in Spain 1990, before, with 10 minutes of the session left, he returned to the pits, put his helmet on and went out to break the circuit record.