My hero : Daijiro Katoh

The first Japanese rider destined to become world champion in the premier class. Katoh bursts on the Grand Prix scene as a wild card rider ( like many other Japanese riders ) in the opening round of the 1996 Grand Prix season at Suzuka. After finishing 3d, he won the race the next two years. he won his second All Japan 250cc championship title in 1999 and switched to world championship level in 2000. He managed to win 4 races in his debut season and propelled himself as a championship contender for the following season.

Well, the 2001 250cc season will go down in the history books as Katoh's season. There was simply no stopping him and he demolished and demoralised the competition. He won 11 out of 16 races and still holds the record for most wins in one season in 250's. It is very unlikely that this record will ever be broken since this category will be replaced in favour of 600cc bikes as of 2010.

2002 saw him debut in the first year of MotoGP for Fausto Gresini's team. It was the season where 500cc two strokes were allowed to ride alongside the "new" 4 stroke 990cc bikes. Daijiro started on a 500 and switched to the 990 later on that year.

 

Early on, it was too hard to fight at the front due to the sheer lack of horsepower. Yet he managed to finish 2nd in Jerez behind Rossi. At round 10, in Brno, a RCV211 990cc Honda was at his disposal and he made full use of it. A second podium finish, only Biaggi was faster. 7th in the final standings was a decent result that year for a rookie and starting of on an inferior machine. 2003 looked very promising. Katoh, being Japanese, got additional support from Honda and as such Gresini had a non-factory factory rider and ride. Rossi was well aware of Katoh's potential and tipped him to be one his biggest rivals for the 2003 season. However, that day in April 2003 in Suzuka changed it all...

What made him so special for me ? He was an atypical Japanese rider. The Oriental style is synonymous with Norick Abe's wild wild card ride in the 1994 500cc Grand Prix opening round. Most of them were very fast, but none so smooth and with hardly any mistakes as Daijiro. It almost seemed that he had grown up on European race tracks and championships. He was very likeable and had a lot of fans and it was good to see that another young guy stepped up and left his mark during his debut season. The focus was on the rivalry between Biaggi and Rossi but he impressed on ond off the track. The way he rode that NSR250 in 2001 was just awesome and seriously being tipped as a MotoGP world champion in the making does his talent and dedication justice. It is hard to say if he would have succeeded, especially with Rossi in there, but I am sure that he would have given Vale a run for his money during several seasons and I still strongly believe that he could have pulled it off... maybe only once but he would...