Yojiro Terada

Yojiro Terada (寺田陽次郎, Terada Yōjirō, born 26 March 1947) is a Japanese racing driver from Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. He is known for holding the record for the most participations in the 24 Hours of Le Mans without an overall win, having run on 29 occasions (28 of which were consecutive) since 1974. He is also third behind Henri Pescarolo and Bob Wollek for the drivers with the most participations.[1] He scored class victories at the event in 1983, 1988, 1990 and 1996, while his best overall finish was seventh in 1995.

Yojiro Terada
Nationality Japanese
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years1974, 1981-2008
TeamsMazda Automotive, Mazdaspeed, Lotus Sport, Team Artnature, T.D.R., Courage Compétition, Autoexe, Welter Racing, Binnie Motorsports, T2M Motorsport, Terramos
Best finish7th (1995)
Class wins4 (1983, 1988, 1990, 1996)
Yojiro Terada driving the T2M Motorsport Dome-Mader during the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans.

He began his racing career in a Honda S600[2] in 1969, before he was taken on as Mazda's factory driver, a position he held through the 1990s including participating in the World Sportscar Championship and All Japan Sports Prototype Championship.

He also took class wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona on two occasions, including in the Mazda RX-7's debut race in 1979, scoring a GTU class win at fifth place overall.[3] The other occasion was a fourth place overall finish and a GTO class win in 1982.[4]

When he is not racing, he runs the Tokyo-based AutoExe (オートエクゼ) tuning business, specialising in tuning parts and accessories for Mazda.[5][6] and instructs on driving at NATS (Nihon Automobile High Technical School) [7]

He is the father of voice actress Haruhi Nanao.

24 Hours of Le Mans results
Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1974 Mazda Automotive Yasuhiro Okamoto
Harukuni Takahashi		 Sigma MC74-Mazda S
3.0		 155 NC NC
1981 Mazdaspeed Hiroshi Fushida
Win Percy		 Mazda RX-7 IMSA
GTO		 25 DNF DNF
1982 Mazdaspeed Takashi Yorino
Allan Moffat		 Mazda RX-7 IMSA
GTX		 282 14th 6th
1983 Mazdaspeed Takashi Yorino
Yoshimi Katayama		 Mazda 717C C Jr. 302 12th 1st
1984 Mazdaspeed Pierre Dieudonné
Takashi Yorino		 Mazda 727C C2 261 20th 6th
1985 Mazdaspeed Yoshimi Katayama
Takashi Yorino		 Mazda 737C C2 264 24th 6th
1986 Mazdaspeed Yoshimi Katayama
Takashi Yorino		 Mazda 757 GTP 59 DNF DNF
1987 Mazdaspeed Yoshimi Katayama
Takashi Yorino		 Mazda 757 GTP 34 DNF DNF
1988 Mazdaspeed David Kennedy
Pierre Dieudonné		 Mazda 757 GTP 337 15th 1st
1989 Mazdaspeed Marc Duez
Volker Weidler		 Mazda 767 GTP 339 12th 3rd
1990 Mazdaspeed Yoshimi Katayama
Takashi Yorino		 Mazda 767B GTP 304 20th 1st
1991 Mazdaspeed
Oreca		 Pierre Dieudonné
Takashi Yorino		 Mazda 787 C2 346 8th 8th
1992 Mazdaspeed
Oreca		 Maurizio Sandro Sala
Takashi Yorino		 Mazda MXR-01 C1 124 DNF DNF
1993 Lotus Sport
Chamberlain Engineering		 Peter Hardman
Thorkild Thyrring		 Lotus Esprit S300 GT 92 DNF DNF
1994 Team Artnature Franck Fréon
Pierre de Thoisy		 Mazda RX-7 GTO IMSA
GTS		 250 15th 2nd
1995 D.T.R.
Mazdaspeed		 Jim Downing
Franck Fréon		 Kudzu DG-3-Mazda WSC 282 7th 3rd
1996 Mazdaspeed Jim Downing
Franck Fréon		 Kudzu DLM-Mazda LMP2 251 25th 1st
1997 Team D.T.R
Mazdaspeed		 Jim Downing
Franck Fréon		 Kudzu DLM-4-Mazda LMP 263 17th 6th
1998 Courage Compétition Franck Fréon
Olivier Thévenin		 Courage C36-Porsche LMP1 300 16th 5th
1999 Autoexe Motorsport Franck Fréon
Robin Donovan		 Autoexe LMP99-Ford LMP 74 DNF DNF
2000 Rachel Welter Richard Balandras
Sylvain Boulay		 WR LMP-Peugeot LMP675 266 26th 2nd
2001 Gerard Welter Stéphane Daoudi
Jean-René de Fournoux		 WR LMP01-Peugeot LMP675 245 19th 2nd
2002 Autoexe Motorsport John Fergus
Jim Downing		 Autoexe (WR) LMP-02-Mazda LMP675 5 DNF DNF
2003 Rachel Welter Olivier Porta
Gavin Pickering		 WR LMP01-Peugeot LMP675 235 NC NC
2004 Rachel Welter Patrice Roussel
Olivier Porta		 WR LM2001-Peugeot LMP2 270 26th 2nd
2005 Rachel Welter Patrice Roussel
William Binnie		 WR LMP04-Peugeot LMP2 233 NC NC
2006 Binnie Motorsports William Binnie
Allen Timpany		 Lola B05/42-Zytek LMP2 326 13th 2nd
2007 T2M Motorsport Robin Longechal
Yutaka Yamagishi		 Dome S101.5-Mader LMP2 56 DNF DNF
2008 Terramos Hiroki Katoh
Kazuho Takahashi		 Courage LC70-Mugen LMP1 224 NC NC

References
  1. "The Most Regular Competitors". Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
  2. 寺田陽次郎公式ウェブサイト » 寺田陽次郎について Archived October 5, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  3. World Sports Racing Prototypes - IMSA 1979 Archived September 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. World Sports Racing Prototypes - IMSA 1982 Archived October 24, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  5. (in Japanese) Welcome AutoExe Page Archived November 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 17, 2008. Retrieved December 4, 2007.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Nihon Car.com:Mazda Roadster by Autoexe, HDTV
  7. (in Japanese) 学園の10大ポイント Archived November 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
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