Toshio Suzuki (racing driver)

Toshio Suzuki

Nation:	Japan
Formula 1 world championship
First start:	1993 Japanese Grand Prix
Last start:	1993 Australian Grand Prix
Constructors
1993  Larrousse
statistics
World Cup balance:	no World Cup placement
Starts Victories Poles SR 2 - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Toshio Suzuki ( Japanese 鈴木 利 男 , Suzuki Toshio ; born March 10, 1955 in Saitama Prefecture ) is a Japanese racing car driver .

Career

Monopostor racing

When Toshio Suzuki made his Formula 1 debut in 1993 , the Japanese was already 38 years old. At the Japanese Grand Prix and the races in Australia , he replaced the French Philippe Alliot at Larrousse . Suzuki was a very popular driver in Japan and his involvement in Formula 1 was a great satisfaction for him, even though he finished well behind in both races.

Suzuki had become Japanese Formula 3 champion as early as 1979 and in 1995 secured overall victory in the domestic Formula 3000 championship.

Sports car racing

But he celebrated great successes above all in sports cars. He was a works driver for Toyota and Nissan . As a partner of Kazuyoshi Hoshino in particular , he became a determining factor in the Japanese GT championship. With Hoshino and Masahiro Hasemi he won the 1992 24-hour race in Daytona . It was the first All-Japan crew victory in a major international sports car race.

The Japanese also drove strong races at Le Mans . In 1998 he finished ninth in the Toyota GT-One and in 1999 drove the car together with Ukyo Katayama and Keiichi Tsuchiya to second place in the overall standings.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1985	Dome team	Dome 85C	Eje Elgh	Geoff Lees	failure	Clutch damage
1986	Dome Co. Ltd.	Dome 86C-L	Eje Elgh	Beppe Gabbiani	failure	Turbo damage
1988	Italya sport	March 88S	Michel Trollé	Danny Ongais	failure	Engine failure
1989	Nissan Motorsport	Nissan R89C	Masahiro Hasemi	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	failure	Engine failure
1990	Nissan Motorsport International	Nissan R90CP	Masahiro Hasemi	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Rank 5
1995	NISMO	Nissan Skyline GT-R LM	Masahiko Kageyama	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	failure	Gearbox damage
1996	NISMO	Nissan Skyline GT-R LM	Masahiro Hasemi	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Rank 15
1998	Toyota Motorsports	Toyota GT-One	Ukyo Katayama	Keiichi Tsuchiya	Rank 9
1999	Toyota Motorsports	Toyota GT-One	Ukyo Katayama	Keiichi Tsuchiya	Rank 2 and class win
2000	TV Ashai Team Dragon	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S.	Masahiko Kageyama	Masami Kageyama	Rank 6
2008	Tokai University	Courage-Oreca LC70	Haruki Kurosawa	Masami Kageyama	failure	Gearbox damage

literature

• Steve Small: Grand Prix Who's Who. 3rd edition. Travel Publishing, Reading 2000, ISBN 1-902007-46-8 .

Web links

Commons : Toshio Suzuki (Racing Driver)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Toshio Suzuki at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nikkan Sports , Japanese Formula 1 driver: Toshio Suzuki