Today in motorcycle history, April 20, 2003

  



  

       

  2001 250cc World Champion and two-time Suzuka 8 Hour winner Daijiro Kato dies from injuries he sustained after crashing during the Japanese Grand Prix. 

  In 2000 Daijiro Kato, teaming with fellow Japanese rider Tohru Ukawa, won the Suzuka 8 Hours in Japan. The 2001 season found Kato totally dominating the 250cc Class, winning 11 races on his way to being crowned World Champion. He would also set a new record for the most points in a single season in the 250cc Class with an unheard of 322 points.  The following season Kato teamed with American rider Colin Edwards to win the 2002 Suzuka 8 Hours for a second time.

  On April 6, 2003, the unthinkable would happen during the Japanese Grand Prix when Kato slams into a wall near Suzuka's Casio Triangle chicane at around 125 mph. Suffering severe head, neck and chest injuries, he would spend two weeks in coma. On April 20, Daijiro Kato would be pronounced dead. He was 26.



  After the 2003 season the FIM named him a Grand Prix "Legend", retiring Kato's bike number "74".  Satoshi Motoyama, a fellow Japanese racer and a childhood friend, would wear Daijiro's number on his helmet.

 

  Italy's Misano World Circuit honored Kato in 2006, (he lived part of the season in the area), by naming a new access road to the circuit "Via Daijiro Kato". 

  Today in motorcycle history proudly supports the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD). www.nabd.org.uk