From Rice Paddies to Race Paddocks: The History of Suzuka Circuitland
A Brief History Of The Suzuka Circuit aka "Knife fight in a phone booth"
by Dean Adams
Sunday, October 27, 2024
(2003)
Originally called Motor Sportsland (but re-named Suzuka Circuitland shortly after it opened), the Suzuka circuit is built near Suzuka City in Japan, on land previously used by rice farmers.
Suzuka is a Honda circuit, meaning that not just the results at Suzuka have favored Honda motorcycles or that the layout favors Hondas, but that it's a Honda track. It is owned by Honda, was built by Soichiro Honda (aka Mr. Honda, founder of the company) in the 1960s and the facility is still heavily used today as a test track by Honda for prototypes and their own race machines.
Honda, under the direction of company founder Soichiro, began racing in Japan in the early 1950s and internationally by the late 1950s. Mr. Honda was a huge believer in racing as a test bed for engineering, and he also had a simmering competitive spirit from his own racing days.
Japan needed Suzuka. Japanese racetracks then, and to some degree now, (with the exception of Motegi, Sugo and Fuji) were very primitive simply because Japan lagged behind the rest of the world in terms of infrastructure, and there simply wasn't that much land available, even then. In the early 1960s, Japanese racetracks were usually mountain roads, while purpose-designed circuits were short and very dangerous. When Suzuka was built in 1960-62, many of the major roads in Japan were not yet paved.
Mr. Honda was truly fearless as both an engineer and as a businessman. He craved race results that would capture the world's attention and went after them with a vengeance. The Isle of Man TT was the biggest race in the world in the 50s and Honda poured money and materials into his team in order to win there. Eventually, Honda was victorious at the Island, but the cost was enormous: many sources of the era say that Honda returned from the Island in 1959 with a company checkbook depleted to almost nothing because of the costs of the race effort and other projects he'd initiated.
Whereas, today, shareholders would ask for his resignation or bankers would call in notes to protect their assets, like other autocratic transportation pioneers (Henry Ford, etc) Mr. Honda ran the company as he saw fit and, if it meant emptying the accounts to get what he was after, so be it. Honda Motor, obviously, rebounded.
Honda saw with his own eyes what it would take to be competitive in GP, thus he built innovative GP machines that would (eventually) win in world championship racing. He traveled with the team to Europe and the Isle of Man, always sucking in details and information along the way. His osmosis wasn't limited to machinery; Honda saw what made up a decent European GP racetrack and assuredly noted the details. When he decided to build Suzuka, he incorporated those details, making the grounds fairly expansive, the track wide and smooth, all with a very advanced circuit design. There was no way to compare other Japanese tracks with the completed Suzuka.
The often-repeated story concerning Suzuka's initial construction is that one afternoon Mr. Honda flew in a helicopter over the rice fields that would become Suzuka, purchased all of the land he'd flown over soon after and was bulldozing and filling in the low spots days later.
It was a tad longer process than that, however. Honda bought the land in October of 1959, and started building Suzuka in 1960, with original construction completed by the middle of 1962. (For reference, Road America in the US was built in 1955.) The first motorcycle "race" was held at Suzuka in November of 1962, although there were only six starters.
The perception is of a young Soichio Honda single-handedly carving out a racetrack to make his own. Actually, Honda was 54 years old when construction began at Suzuka, and he didn't do it all himself. While he did pen the original design, he hired Dutchman Jon Hugnholtz, who had designed circuits in Europe, to flesh out the original. Lore has it that from out of the blue, Hugnholtz received a telegram sent by Mr. Honda, in his typical blunt manner, that simply read, "I'm building a racetrack. Come to Japan. S. Honda."
Today the Suzuka circuit is well-regarded as one of the best racetracks in the world, and it has several unique features. It is a figure-eight design with a multitude of fast and slow corners, including the aptly named Spoon Curve, the now much slower 130R corner, and Degner corner.
The venue, as most surviving 40-year-old racetracks, is overflowing with racetrack tales. The pond in which a furious Mike Hailwood tossed his Honda's shocks in a fit of frustration is still there, and the local Log Cabin bar has seen more drunken riders than the barmaid cares to count.
The Degner section of Suzuka is named after former Communist rider Ernst Degner. Many historical sources give the reason for the official designation as 'Honda rider Degner was killed at Suzuka in the mid-1960s in a 125 race'. Degner actually survived his fiery crash and raced again, and naming the corner after him was really just a matter of Japanese graciousness. This was barely twenty years after the end of WWII. The Japanese desperately wanted to fit in with the world racing scene in the 1960s and having a "round-eye" rider maimed at your track meant, they thought, that they should do something for him. So they named a corner after him. More myths disproved: Degner wasn't even a Honda rider. When he was injured, he rode for Suzuki.
Suzuka would become a big part of the Honda R&D process almost immediately, however, epic 500 GP race wins for Honda at Suzuka—or anyone for that matter—would have to wait. Although Suzuka stood at the ready at the end of the 1962 season, and held smaller-class GP races in 1963, 64 and 65, a world-championship 500cc race at Suzuka would have to wait nearly 20 years.
Why? The Japanese Grand Prix moved to Fisco (Fuji) in 1966, then Honda dropped out of GP racing at the end of the 1967 season, either in a disagreement with the FIM on new rules, or simply to go in a new company direction. Whatever the reason, Honda was out, as was GP racing at Suzuka.
Honda's return to GP coincided—not surprisingly—with Suzuka's return to the GP schedule in 1982. In what can only be a lesson in humility, even then Honda was defeated time and again at Suzuka in the prestigious 500 class, and it wasn't until March of 1992 that Michael Doohan handed Honda their first Suzuka 500 GP win.
Today, Suzuka stands as one of the most unique racetracks in the world, and it is also still very much a Honda facility. Untold amounts of Honda R&D occur within the track's walls, and Honda proudly shows off new models at the Suzuka Eight Hours endurance race, including the RVF and its production cousins the RC45 and RC51, as well as the recent headlight-equipped RC211V. There is an adjoining amusement park, shopping mall, museum, several hotels, a motocross track and even a bowling alley within the circuit or next to it. Moriwaki and a slew of other Japanese hot-rod firms are located across the street from the main parking lot.
Soichiro Honda died at 84 in August of 1991. He never lived to see one of his 500s win at Suzuka.
Originally called Motor Sportsland (but re-named Suzuka Circuitland shortly after it opened), the Suzuka circuit is built near Suzuka City in Japan, on land previously used by rice farmers.
Suzuka is a Honda circuit, meaning that not just the results at Suzuka have favored Honda motorcycles or that the layout favors Hondas, but that it's a Honda track. It is owned by Honda, was built by Soichiro Honda (aka Mr. Honda, founder of the company) in the 1960s and the facility is still heavily used today as a test track by Honda for prototypes and their own race machines.
Honda, under the direction of company founder Soichiro, began racing in Japan in the early 1950s and internationally by the late 1950s. Mr. Honda was a huge believer in racing as a test bed for engineering, and he also had a simmering competitive spirit from his own racing days.
Japan needed Suzuka. Japanese racetracks then, and to some degree now, (with the exception of Motegi, Sugo and Fuji) were very primitive simply because Japan lagged behind the rest of the world in terms of infrastructure, and there simply wasn't that much land available, even then. In the early 1960s, Japanese racetracks were usually mountain roads, while purpose-designed circuits were short and very dangerous. When Suzuka was built in 1960-62, many of the major roads in Japan were not yet paved.
Whereas, today, shareholders would ask for his resignation or bankers would call in notes to protect their assets, like other autocratic transportation pioneers (Henry Ford, etc) Mr. Honda ran the company as he saw fit and, if it meant emptying the accounts to get what he was after, so be it. Honda Motor, obviously, rebounded.
Honda saw with his own eyes what it would take to be competitive in GP, thus he built innovative GP machines that would (eventually) win in world championship racing. He traveled with the team to Europe and the Isle of Man, always sucking in details and information along the way. His osmosis wasn't limited to machinery; Honda saw what made up a decent European GP racetrack and assuredly noted the details. When he decided to build Suzuka, he incorporated those details, making the grounds fairly expansive, the track wide and smooth, all with a very advanced circuit design. There was no way to compare other Japanese tracks with the completed Suzuka.
It was a tad longer process than that, however. Honda bought the land in October of 1959, and started building Suzuka in 1960, with original construction completed by the middle of 1962. (For reference, Road America in the US was built in 1955.) The first motorcycle "race" was held at Suzuka in November of 1962, although there were only six starters.
The perception is of a young Soichio Honda single-handedly carving out a racetrack to make his own. Actually, Honda was 54 years old when construction began at Suzuka, and he didn't do it all himself. While he did pen the original design, he hired Dutchman Jon Hugnholtz, who had designed circuits in Europe, to flesh out the original. Lore has it that from out of the blue, Hugnholtz received a telegram sent by Mr. Honda, in his typical blunt manner, that simply read, "I'm building a racetrack. Come to Japan. S. Honda."
The venue, as most surviving 40-year-old racetracks, is overflowing with racetrack tales. The pond in which a furious Mike Hailwood tossed his Honda's shocks in a fit of frustration is still there, and the local Log Cabin bar has seen more drunken riders than the barmaid cares to count.
The Degner section of Suzuka is named after former Communist rider Ernst Degner. Many historical sources give the reason for the official designation as 'Honda rider Degner was killed at Suzuka in the mid-1960s in a 125 race'. Degner actually survived his fiery crash and raced again, and naming the corner after him was really just a matter of Japanese graciousness. This was barely twenty years after the end of WWII. The Japanese desperately wanted to fit in with the world racing scene in the 1960s and having a "round-eye" rider maimed at your track meant, they thought, that they should do something for him. So they named a corner after him. More myths disproved: Degner wasn't even a Honda rider. When he was injured, he rode for Suzuki.
Suzuka would become a big part of the Honda R&D process almost immediately, however, epic 500 GP race wins for Honda at Suzuka—or anyone for that matter—would have to wait. Although Suzuka stood at the ready at the end of the 1962 season, and held smaller-class GP races in 1963, 64 and 65, a world-championship 500cc race at Suzuka would have to wait nearly 20 years.
Why? The Japanese Grand Prix moved to Fisco (Fuji) in 1966, then Honda dropped out of GP racing at the end of the 1967 season, either in a disagreement with the FIM on new rules, or simply to go in a new company direction. Whatever the reason, Honda was out, as was GP racing at Suzuka.
Honda's return to GP coincided—not surprisingly—with Suzuka's return to the GP schedule in 1982. In what can only be a lesson in humility, even then Honda was defeated time and again at Suzuka in the prestigious 500 class, and it wasn't until March of 1992 that Michael Doohan handed Honda their first Suzuka 500 GP win.
Today, Suzuka stands as one of the most unique racetracks in the world, and it is also still very much a Honda facility. Untold amounts of Honda R&D occur within the track's walls, and Honda proudly shows off new models at the Suzuka Eight Hours endurance race, including the RVF and its production cousins the RC45 and RC51, as well as the recent headlight-equipped RC211V. There is an adjoining amusement park, shopping mall, museum, several hotels, a motocross track and even a bowling alley within the circuit or next to it. Moriwaki and a slew of other Japanese hot-rod firms are located across the street from the main parking lot.
Soichiro Honda died at 84 in August of 1991. He never lived to see one of his 500s win at Suzuka.
— ends —
