Satoru Nakajima (中嶋 悟 Nakajima Satoru, born 23 February 1953) is a former racing driver from Japan.
He is a five-time Japanese Top Formula champion and the first full-time Japanese Formula One driver. He also became the first Japanese F1 driver to score points, at the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix, where he finished sixth in only his second F1 race. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Saturo Nakajima was born into a farming family living just outside Okazaki, Japan in 1953. He began driving cars in his early teens in the family’s garden, with his older brother giving him tips, all the time being careful that their father didn’t catch them.
Satoru began to race go-karts as a teenager before switching to saloon cars in 1973 with a Mazda RX3 and, though a rookie in the Suzuka Circuit series, he won it. In the following year he raced a rotary-engined Mazda saloon and became the Japanese touring car champion.
1977 saw him switch to single seaters, making his debut in Formula Japan and he took the title in the first attempt with a Nova-Honda. This was the start of a long association with Honda and he moved to the national Formula 2 series, finishing third in his first year in the championship then went on to dominate the series, winning five of the next six championships, in 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985 and 1986. During this time there were also overseas excursions to race in the Australian Touring Car Championship and the Macau GP (where he finished fourth).
In 1979 he raced a GRD S74 for Team Italya with Tetsu and had victories in the 300Km Fuji and 500 Mile Fuji races plus podiums in two 250Km races at Fuji.
He continued with the team the following year then switched to I&I Racing Developments and spent 1981 and 1982 racing their MCS 2 and MCS 3. In 1983 he raced an MCS 3 for Harada Racing, taking a win in a 200 Mile Fuji race while in the following year he he was with both the Tom’s and Heroes Racing teams and had four podiums at Fuji with an MCS 5 plus took third at Tsukuba alongside Masanori Sekiya with a Toyota Celica Gr5. He continued racing for the two teams in 1985 and won the Fuji 300Km plus had a podium at Suzuka and four at Fuji. The year saw him contest his first Le Mans 24 Hour race, finishing twelfth with M.Sekiya and K.Hoshino for Tom’s Team and he raced again for them there in 1986, alongside G.Lees and M.Sekiya, though did not finish. During 1986, he contested F3000 with Ralt, taking fourth at Spielberg and fifth places at Vallelunga and Mugello
Satoru would go on to compete in 80 Formula One Grands Prix and Honda had originally pushed to place him at Williams for 1986 but Frank Williams wanted to retain N.Mansell. His debut came in Brazil in 1987, racing alongside Ayrton Senna for Lotus, and after Brazil he then finished sixth in only his second F1 race, at San Marino. His best result in 1988 was sixth in the season opening Brazil race though he failed to qualify the Lotus 100T at Monaco and Detroit. Despite this, on several occasions he pushed team mate Piquet and took seventh place finishes in France, Hungary and Japan. At the Japanese GP at Suzuka, 30 minutes before the start of the Friday practice session he was told his mother had died that morning. Considering this, his qualifying time on the Saturday was exceptional, equalling Piquet’s (they were 5th and 6th) and was actually faster than him on the Friday, which won him much praise in the paddock.
Although Honda left Lotus after the 1988 season, he stayed with them and he and Nelson Piquet were now driving a Judd-powered Lotus 101. It would be a mixed season, with a low point at Spa when both did not qualify, though he would take a seventh place in Portugal plus fourth place and fastest lap in the rain-soaked Australian Grand Prix. He was last at the end of the first lap in Adelaide after a spin soon after the start but was only several seconds behind the third placed Williams-Renault V10 of Riccardo Patrese at the end.
He joined Tyrrell for 1990 and spent two seasons with them, in his first year alongside Jean Alesi. The year started with sixth in Phoenix and eighth in Interlargos but during the year he took eleventh in Canada plus sixth in both Italy and Japan. In 1991 the team were using Honda engines (and there was a new team mate, Stefano Modena) and he took fifth in the season opening race in Phoenix. However, it would be a mixed season and his best result after this was eighth at Silverstone.
Honda left Formula One to prepare their own works team and their car, the Honda RC100, was unveiled to the media in February 1993, driven by Satoru. Honda eventually built two more, the RC101 and 101B, (one intended for racing purposes and the other for crash testing) and he had the first public testing of the 101B in Suzuka in January 1994. However, the company decided against entering its own cars in F1 at that time and worked on furthering their engine development in America with CART.
He formed his own team, Nakajima Racing, which competed in Japanese F3000, Formula Nippon and Super Formula and won the Formula Nippon championship three times, with Tom Coronel in 1999, Toranosuke Takagi in 2000 and Ralph Firman in 2002. The team finished second in 2004, with André Lotterer tied on points with the champion, Richard Lyons.
Saturo’s son Kazuki raced for Williams in F1 in 2008 and 2009 and went on to compete in Super GT, Super Formula and the World Endurance Championship with Toyota (later winning at Le Mans). His younger son Daisuke also became a racing driver, competing in British F3 in 2009 and 2010 and then for Team Mugen in Super GT.
Satoru also had a video game named after himself, F1 Grand Prix-Nakajima Satoru, which was released for the Sega Genesis in Japan in 1991.
Gallery F2/F3000 F1 GC Japan Can Am Other
