Yoshimi Katayama

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Yoshimi Katayama in 1967 after winning the 50cc class at the Dutch Grand Prix for motorcycles

Yoshimi Katayama ( Japanese 片 山 義 美 , Katayama Yoshimi ; born May 15, 1940 in Hyōgo Prefecture ; † March 26, 2016 ) was a Japanese motorcycle and car racer and the half-brother of Takashi Yorino .

Career in motorsport

Motorcycle racing

Yoshimi Katayama began his motorcycle racing career and became a works rider for Suzuki in 1964 . It had its best international racing season in 1967 when he won the world championship races in France and the Netherlands in the 50 cc class . In the world championship he finished second behind his brand and team colleague Hans Georg Anscheidt . In the overall ranking of the 125 cc class this year, he came fourth and won the German Grand Prix .

He celebrated his first Grand Prix victory in 1966 at the Japanese World Championship run in Fuji in the 50 cm³ class.

Touring and sports car races

After retiring as a motorcycle racing driver in 1967, he began racing two years later. He became a works driver at Mazda and surprisingly fifth in one of his first outings in the 1969 Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race . His team mate in the Mazda R100 was the Belgian Yves Deprez . For the first time in a sports car race he was victorious in 1975 at the 500 km race in Suzuka; a race without championship status. More important, however, was the overall victory at the Fuji 1000 km race in 1977 , because this race was part of the Fuji Long Distance Series .

Katayama drove many races to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship and won 15 sports car races in his time as a sports car racer, which lasted until 1998, and finished 33 times on the podium of the top three. He celebrated his last race win in 1984 together with Vern Schuppan in a Porsche 956 at the 500-mile race at Fuji . The last race start he had in 1998 at the Special GT Cup Fuji , a race of the Japanese GT championship .

In many sports car races, including international ones, he was often part of a legendary driver trio in Japan. In 1983 he was the first time at the 24-hour race of Le Mans with the two partners Takashi Yorino and Yōjirō Terada at the start. Yorino and Katayama are brothers but have the same mother but different fathers; hence the difference in the surname. The trio finished the race in 12th place overall and became class winners.

He was involved seven times in the endurance race in western France and achieved his best overall position in the only race that he did not contest for Mazdapeed. In 1984 he finished tenth in a Lola T616 .

statistics

Le Mans results

year team vehicle Teammate Teammate placement Failure reason
1983 JapanJapan Mazdaspeed Mazda 717C JapanJapan Takashi Yorino JapanJapan Yōjirō Terada Rank 12 and class win
1984 United StatesUnited States BF Goodrich Company Lola T616 United StatesUnited States John Morton United StatesUnited States John O'Steen Rank 10
1985 JapanJapan Mazdaspeed Mazda 737C JapanJapan Takashi Yorino JapanJapan Yōjirō Terada Rank 24
1986 JapanJapan Mazdaspeed Mazda 757 JapanJapan Takashi Yorino JapanJapan Yōjirō Terada failure Power transmission
1987 JapanJapan Mazdaspeed Mazda 757 JapanJapan Takashi Yorino JapanJapan Yōjirō Terada failure Engine failure
1988 JapanJapan Mazdaspeed Co Ltd. Mazda 767 BelgiumBelgium Marc Duez United KingdomUnited Kingdom David Leslie Rank 17
1990 JapanJapan Mazdaspeed Mazda 767B JapanJapan Takashi Yorino JapanJapan Yōjirō Terada Rank 20 and class win

Web links

Commons : Yoshimi Katayama  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Japanese Nostalgic Car . Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  2. ^ 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps 1969
  3. ↑ 1000 km Fuji race in 1977
  4. ↑ Fuji 500 Mile Race in 1984
  5. ↑ Special GT Cup Fuji 1998
personal data
SURNAME Katayama, Yoshimi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 片 山 義 美 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese motorcycle and car racer
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Hyogo Prefecture
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 2016