Sur le site du team Gresini,
WWW.GRESINIRACING.COM on trouve une fiche en hommage à Daijiro Kato.
Number 74
Date of birth 4/7/1976
Place of birth Saitama
Nationality Japanese
GP debut 1996, wild card in the Japanese Gp 250
First Gp victory 1997, wild card in the Japanese Gp 250
World Titles 1 (2001, world champion 250)
Daijiro Kato's records
1979 First racing experience on pocket-bikes.
1981 First race in a pocket-bike championship.
1985 Japanese Pocket-bike Champion.
1987 First racing experience on minibikes.
1988/1991 Japanese Minibike Champion
1992 Started road racing
1994 Seventh classified in the Japanese Championship, 250cc class, one victory.
1996 Second classified in the Japanese Championship, 250cc class, four victories; debut in the Japanese Gp race, Suzuka, as a wild card in the 250cc class, third classified.
1997 First classified in the Japanese Championship as an official HRC Team rider, 250cc class; winner of the Japanese Gp race, Suzuka, as a wild card in the 250cc class.
1998 Eighth classified in the Japanese Championship as an official HRC Team rider, 250cc class; winner of the Japanese Gp race, Suzuka, as a wild card in the 250cc class.
1999 Second classified in the Japanese Championship, 250cc class.
2000 Third classified in the MotoGp World Championship, 250cc class, Team Axo Honda (Fausto Gresini); winner of the "8 Hours of Suzuka".
2001 250cc World Champion, Team Telefonica Movistar (Fausto Gresini).
2002 Seventh classified in the MotoGp class, Team Fortuna Honda Gresini, and "Rookie of the Year"; winner of the "8 Hours of Suzuka".
Tableau récapitulatif de ses résultats en GP
Biographie
In 1996 Daijiro Kato astonished everyone at Suzuka, when he ran his first Gp race as a wild card in the 250cc class and ended up third behind Biaggi and Numata.
Then, for two consecutive years, in 1997 and 1998, on that same racetrack, again as a wildcard, he easily won the 250cc races and consequently managed to gain Honda's interest: in year 2000, the Japanese factory offered him the registration to the FIM World Championship and a 250 NSR Honda bike. The young Japanese rider started his adventure as one of Fausto Gresini's riders in the Axo Honda Team; Kato managed to adapt himself with great ease to almost every circuit and at the end of the season he finished third in the Championship, just a few points behind World Champion Olivier Jacque and fellow countryman Shinya Nakano.
After his fantastic debut in the 250cc class, the following year, with the support of Telefonica Movistar, Kato managed to do even better: his total supremacy enabled him to win his first World Title, with the greatest number of victories and number of points ever scored in the same season in the 250cc class.
In year 2002, Daijiro Kato and his team continued to attain successes: he moved up to the new top class, the MotoGp, first riding the 500 NSR Honda, then, from the Czech Republic GP to the end of the season, riding the latest Japanese technological jewel, the RC 211V. In the end he finished in seventh position, was proudly nominated "Rookie of the Year".
On April 19th 2003, Daijiro dies due to the fatal consequences of the tragic accident occurred on April 6th during the third lap of the Suzuka GP, the first round of the 2003 MotoGP World Championship.
Pour ceux qui ne lisent pas l'anglais,
=> ICI <= le lien de la page Google pour traduire ( traduction trés approximative )
VIDEOS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyOpTEhtHFs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXJu2XKaGHs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4jYnKErWXw
Daijiro Kato -
10/11/2005, 17h24
Mode hybride
