On this day in Motor Racing's past

[Everso Biggyballies]

Latest post of the previous page:

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.

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/jim- ... m_content=

[MonteCristo]

Ran my fingers over my Jim Clark autograph. Pretty crazy that it's been 50 years - some 52-53 years since he wrote it.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Ran my fingers over my Jim Clark autograph. Pretty crazy that it's been 50 years - some 52-53 years since he wrote it.

Many here will have read my JC autograph story posted in another thread, but it was fairly amusing and can be read HERE

[MonteCristo]

Ran my fingers over my Jim Clark autograph. Pretty crazy that it's been 50 years - some 52-53 years since he wrote it.

Many here will have read my JC autograph story posted in another thread, but it was fairly amusing and can be read HERE

Awesome, just awesome. Great to have memories like that.

[erwin greven]

[theracer120]

It's 80 years since the first race meeting at the legendary Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst.



I did a small write up on it here.
https://www.reddit.com/r/v8supercars/co ... ing_at_mt/

[Everso Biggyballies]

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.

[Everso Biggyballies]

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.

[erwin greven]

[Everso Biggyballies]

RIP Michele Alboreto.

[erwin greven]

[Everso Biggyballies]

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.

[erwin greven]

[erwin greven]

[Everso Biggyballies]

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.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ayrton-s ... card_title

I have linked the following video tribute to Senna mentioned in the article.

[Antonov]

RIP, can't believe it's already so long.