Toranosuke Takagi

Toranosuke Takagi, known simply as Tora Takagi (高木 虎之介; born 12 February 1974) is a Japanese former racing driver.

Toranosuke Takagi

In 2008, as a Super GT driver
Born	(1974-02-12) 12 February 1974 Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Japanese
Active years	1998–1999
Teams	Tyrrell, Arrows
Entries	32
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1998 Australian Grand Prix
Last entry	1999 Japanese Grand Prix

Early career

Takagi was heavily influenced by his father, a touring car driver. In the early 1980s he began racing karts, competing in his first championship kart race in 1987. After winning several All Japan National Kart A2 series races, Takagi ended his kart racing career in 1991 and began racing Formula Toyota in 1992. In 1993, he began competing in All Japan Formula Three, finishing 10th in his rookie season.

Formula One

Takagi driving for Tyrrell at the 1998 Spanish Grand Prix.

During his performance in a 1994 race he drew the attention of Japanese Formula One driver Satoru Nakajima, joining the Nakajima Racing team and competing in Formula 3000. He was heavily involved in the team from 1995 until he was chosen as Tyrrell's Formula One test driver in 1997. He graduated to a race seat for 1998. Takagi later competed with the Arrows Formula One team, and his European popularity was on the rise. However, there were organizational and communication problems between Takagi and both teams, and he left Formula One at the end of the 1999 season.

Post–Formula One career

In 2000, Takagi joined Nakajima Racing's Formula Nippon team, earning eight victories in ten races, the most dominant performance ever by a driver in the series. He later competed in CART (Champ Car) for the Walker Racing team in 2001 and 2002 finishing in a career-best 4th place in Houston, Texas. He transferred to Indy Racing League and joined Mo Nunn Racing, finishing 10th in 2003. In the same year, he competed in the Indianapolis 500, starting in 7th place and finishing in 5th, earning him the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year award.

After another, largely disappointing season in the IndyCar Series, Takagi returned to Japan in 2005 to compete in Formula Nippon once again, taking part ownership of the Cerumo team and running one of their cars in his own name (Takagi Planning with CERUMO). Takagi also was one of the co-drivers of the #38 Toyota Supra Super GT car, claiming the series title along with Yuji Tachikawa. Takagi's title made him the first Super GT rookie to become champion in the GT500 class since John Nielsen and David Brabham in 1996, as well as the last until Jenson Button in 2018.

Career timeline

• 1987 – Finished 8th in Japanese A2 National Kart Series championship.
• 1988 – Finished 4th in Japanese A2 National Kart Series championship.
• 1989 – Won the Japanese A2 National Kart Series championship.
• 1990 – Won the Japanese A2 National Kart Series championship.
• 1991 – Finished 2nd in Japanese FA National Kart Series championship.
• 1992 – Won two races in Formula Toyota.
• 1993 – Finished 10th in his rookie season in Japanese Formula 3 championship.
• 1994 – Finished 6th in Japanese Formula 3 championship. Spot participation in Japanese Formula 3000 championship from Nakajima Planning, scoring three top-10 finishes.
• 1995 – Finished 2nd in Japanese Formula 3000 championship with Nakajima Planning, scoring three victories.
• 1996 – Finished 4th in Japanese Formula Nippon championship (ex Japanese F3000)with Nakajima Planning, scoring two victories.
• 1997 – Served as test driver for Tyrrell Formula One team. Takagi scored one victory en route to finishing 6th in Japanese Formula Nippon championship with Nakajima Planning.
• 1998 – Drove in Formula One in rookie year driving for Tyrrell. He finished in the top-10 twice, including ninth at Silverstone and Monza.
• 1999 – Competed in Formula One with Arrows, scoring two top-10 finishes, including a career-best seventh at Melbourne (Australian Grand Prix).
• 2000 – Won eight of 10 races en route to winning the Japanese Formula Nippon series title with Nakajima Planning .
• 2001 – Finished 21st in CART point standings in rookie year driving for Walker Racing. He finished in the top-10 three times, including a career-best fourth at Houston.
• 2002 – Finished 15th in CART point standings with Walker Racing. He finished in the top-10 seven times, including tying career-best finish with a fourth place at Chicago.
• 2003 – Finished 10th in Indy Racing League point standings in rookie year driving for Mo Nunn Racing. He scored nine top-10 finishes, including a season-best third in June at Texas. He started seventh and finished fifth in first Indianapolis 500, the highest-finishing rookie. He won the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year award.
• 2004 – Competed in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series with Mo Nunn Racing.
• 2005 – Competed in Formula Nippon as owner-driver of Takagi Planning with CERUMO.

Career results

Complete Japanese Formula 3000/Formula Nippon results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
1994	Nakajima Racing	SUZ	FUJ	MIN	SUZ	SUG	FUJ	SUZ 7	FUJ 8	FUJ	SUZ 9	NC	0
1995	Nakajima Racing	SUZ 7	FUJ C	MIN 5	SUZ Ret	SUG 1	FUJ 12	TOK 1	FUJ 1	SUZ Ret		2nd	29
1996	PIAA Nakajima Racing	SUZ Ret	MIN 3	FUJ Ret	TOK Ret	SUZ 1	SUG 1	FUJ Ret	MIN Ret	SUZ 6	FUJ Ret	4th	25
1997	PIAA Nakajima Racing	SUZ Ret	MIN DNS	FUJ 3	SUZ 1	SUG Ret	FUJ Ret	MIN 5	MOT Ret	FUJ Ret	SUZ 5	6th	18
2000	PIAA Nakajima Racing	SUZ 1	MOT 1	MIN Ret	FUJ 1	SUZ 1	SUG 1	MOT 1	FUJ 1	MIN 1	SUZ 2	1st	86
2005	Team Cerumo	MOT 9	SUZ Ret	SUG 11	FUJ 9	SUZ 10	MIN 9	FUJ 8	MOT Ret	SUZ 12		15th	0
2006	Team LeMans	FUJ 22	SUZ 16	MOT 11	SUZ 8	AUT 16	FUJ 8	SUG Ret	MOT Ret	SUZ Ret		18th	0
2007	Forum Engineering Team LeMans	FUJ Ret	SUZ 12	MOT 9	OKA 16	SUZ 8	FUJ 9	SUG 10	MOT 12	SUZ 8		16th	3

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1998	PIAA Tyrrell Ford	Tyrrell 026	Ford V10	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	ARG 12	SMR Ret	ESP 13	MON 11	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 9	AUT Ret	GER 13	HUN 14	BEL Ret	ITA 9	LUX 16	JPN Ret	NC	0
1999	Repsol Arrows F1 Team	Arrows A20	Arrows V10	AUS 7	BRA 8	SMR Ret	MON Ret	ESP 12	CAN Ret	FRA DSQ	GBR 16	AUT Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	EUR Ret	MAL Ret	JPN Ret	NC	0

Complete American Open Wheel racing results

(key)

CART

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Rank	Points
2001	Walker Racing	Reynard 01i	Toyota RV8F V8t	MTY 10	LBH Ret	TXS NH	NZR 14	MOT Ret	MIL DSQ	DET Ret	POR 18	CLE 14	TOR Ret	MIS 13	CHI 11	MDO Ret	ROA Ret	VAN 7	LSZ 6	ROC Ret	HOU 4	LS 13	SRF 16	FON 15	21st	29
2002	Walker Racing	Reynard 02i	Toyota RV8F V8t	MTY 14	LBH 6	MOT 8	MIL 14	LS 16	POR 18	CHI 4	TOR 8	CLE 7	VAN 15	MDO 12	ROA 15	MTL 14	DEN 15	ROC 6	MIA 15	SRF 18	FON 18	MXC 6			15th	53

IndyCar Series

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
2003	Mo Nunn Racing	G-Force GF09	Toyota Indy V8	HMS 12	PHX 22	MOT 8	INDY 5	TXS 3	PPIR 6	RIR 13	KAN 18	NSH 7	MIS 6			NZR 14	CHI 9	FON 18	TX2 7	10th	317
		Dallara IR-03												STL 7	KTY 18
2004	Mo Nunn Racing	Dallara IR-04	Toyota Indy V8	HMS 4	PHX 8	MOT 10	INDY 19	TXS 10	RIR 19	KAN 21	NSH 11	MIL 20	MIS 20	KTY 20	PPIR 19	NZR 17	CHI 13	FON 14	TX2 12	15th	263

Indianapolis 500

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2003	G-Force	Toyota	7	5	Mo Nunn Racing
2004	Dallara	Toyota	26	19	Mo Nunn Racing

External links

• Toranosuke Takagi official website

Sporting positions
Preceded by Tom Coronel	Formula Nippon Champion 2000	Succeeded by Satoshi Motoyama
Preceded by Satoshi Motoyama Richard Lyons	Super GT (GT500) Champion 2005 with: Yuji Tachikawa	Succeeded by Juichi Wakisaka André Lotterer
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Alex Barron Tomas Scheckter	Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year 2003	Succeeded by Kosuke Matsuura