Ukyo Katayama

Ukyo Katayama (片山右京, Katayama Ukyō, born 29 May 1963) is a Japanese former racing driver, most notable for competing for six years in Formula One. He participated in 97 Grands Prix, debuting on 1 March 1992. He scored a total of five championship points, all of them for the Tyrrell team in 1994.

He also competed in the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing 2nd overall and 1st in the GTP class.

Biography

Katayama was born in Tokyo. He first raced in Europe in 1986 in France before returning home to win the Japanese F3000 series in 1991.

Formula One

His sponsors, Japan Tobacco, arranged a Formula One seat for Katayama in 1992 with Cabin brand, with the Larrousse team. The car was unreliable and a distinct midfielder, with team-mate Bertrand Gachot getting the lion's share of the team's meagre resources. However, Katayama impressed by running in 5th at the Canadian GP until his engine blew, but was eventually left with a brace of 9th places as his best result.

Japan Tobacco managed to arrange a switch to Tyrrell for 1993, but the team were at a nadir, with the interim 020C essentially three years old, and the new 021 proving uncompetitive. 10th place at the Hungarian GP was his best result.

1994 was to see a considerable turnaround for Tyrrell and Katayama. He impressed with the new 022, with three points-scoring finishes, a number of good qualifying performances, and generally being faster than his more experienced and acclaimed team-mate Mark Blundell. He was consistently a top-6 runner, but the car proved to be unreliable, leading him to 12 retirements, including the German GP, in which he was running 3rd before his throttle stuck open. However, in the four races that he did finish, he scored two 5th places, one 6th, and one 7th, good enough for 5 World Championship points. 1994 was the only year Katayama earned World Championship points.

Katayama driving for Tyrrell at the 1995 British Grand Prix.

After his 1994 performance, he was allegedly offered a contract with a top team for the 1995 season, but in Katayama's words, "he couldn't sign it". It would later emerge that in 1994 he had been diagnosed with cancer in his back; while non-threatening, it was painful, and his Grand Prix commitments delayed treatment. Katayama did not announce this until he retired from Formula One, not wanting anyone's sympathy to make excuses for him.

He stayed on with Tyrrell for the next two seasons, but suffered a loss of form, with two 7th places in high-attrition races his best results, thus scoring no points whilst being outpaced by rookie team-mate Mika Salo. During these years he was highly disadvantaged by the regulation changes which led to higher cockpit sides, a response to the death of Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino GP.

After leaving Tyrrell, his Mild Seven (another brand of Japan Tobacco) backing landed him a seat at Minardi, but they too were at a low ebb, and two 10th places were his best result. At his home Grand Prix, he emotionally announced his retirement from Formula One.

After Formula One

As a racing driver

Katayama's Toyota GT-One for the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Still popular in his homeland, Katayama has since dabbled in sportscars and GT racing, as well as his other love of mountaineering. One of his most notable performance post F1 was at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, when during the last hour, as he was lapping traffic and closing up the leading BMW in his Toyota GT-One, sharing with compatriots Keiichi Tsuchiya and Toshio Suzuki, his car suffered a tyre blowout and, while he managed to keep the car on the track, he was forced to slowly make his way around the track to return to the pits for a new set. In the process the GT-One lost the chance to contend with the lead BMW, and thus lost the race. The lone GT-One would come home 2nd overall. As a consolation prize, the GT-One would win the GTP class, although it was the only car in the class to actually finish.

In 2008, he was one of several retired F1 drivers to compete in the new Speedcar Series.

As a team manager

In year 2000, He established TeamUKYO which participated in JGTC/Super GT (2001-2002 in GT500 and 2011 in GT300), also in Dakar Rally (2002-2005, 2007).

Katayama is currently the team manager of GOOD SMILE RACING GOODSMILE Hatsune Miku AMG GT3 in Super GT300 under the name of Team Ukyo (2011 - Present).

As a mountain climber

Katayama is a lover of mountain climbing. He has often been climbing mountains since his F1 era.

In 2001 he climbed the world's sixth-highest mountain, Cho Oyu. On December 1, 2006, it was reported that he had achieved his lifetime ambition of climbing Manaslu, the eighth-highest mountain in the world, after an unsuccessful attempt in 2004.^[1]

On December 18, 2009, it was reported that he had been missing whilst climbing Mount Fuji with two friends. Upon calling a police search and rescue team, they informed the police that one of their climbing party had died, and another was presumed to be dying. Eventually, Katayama was found alive while two fellow climbers were found dead.^[2]

As of the end of 2010, Katayama summited five of the Seven Summits: Mont Blanc (climbed in 1996), Kilimanjaro (1998), Elbrus (1998), Denali (2008), Aconcagua (2009), and Vinson Massif (2010)^[3]

Other sports

He has been participating other sporting events as an official invitee, such as Honolulu Marathon and Honolulu Century Ride. He has also started a cycling team called Team Ukyo.^[4]

Media appearances

He is now a commentator of Formula One in Japan, for Fuji TV. He also co-hosts the motoring program Samurai Wheels for NHK World. In 1996 he was a guest judge on Iron Chef.

Helmet

Katayama's helmet was blue with a red and white stripe crossing the rear area and going in the sides forming an obliquous T letter, and a vertical red and white stripe going across the top (until the visor)^[5]

Racing record

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1988	Courage Compétition	Paul Belmondo François Migault	Courage C22-Porsche	C1	66	DNF	DNF
1992	Toyota Team Tom's	Geoff Lees David Brabham	Toyota TS010	C1	192	DNF	DNF
1998	Toyota Motorsports Toyota Team Europe	Toshio Suzuki Keiichi Tsuchiya	Toyota GT-One	GT1	326	9th	8th
1999	Toyota Motorsports Toyota Team Europe	Keiichi Tsuchiya Toshio Suzuki	Toyota GT-One	LMGTP	364	2nd	1st
2002	Pescarolo Sport	Éric Hélary Stéphane Ortelli	Courage C60-Peugeot	LMP900	144	DNF	DNF
2003	Kondo Racing	Masahiko Kondo Ryo Fukuda	Dome S101-Mugen	LMP900	322	13th	8th

Complete Japanese Formula 3000 results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
1988	BA-TSU RACING TEAM	SUZ 11	FUJ Ret	MIN Ret	SUZ 7	SUG 5	FUJ 8	SUZ 12	SUZ Ret				11th	2
1989	Footwork FORMULA	SUZ 9	FUJ Ret	MIN	SUZ Ret	SUG Ret	FUJ 15	SUZ 18	SUZ 7				NC	0
1990	CABIN RACING TEAM with HEROES	SUZ Ret	FUJ 3	MIN 5	SUZ Ret	SUG 12	FUJ 5	FUJ 2	SUZ 3	FUJ Ret	SUZ DSQ		5th	18
1991	CABIN RACING TEAM with HEROES	SUZ 1	AUT 4	FUJ 9	MIN Ret	SUZ 1	SUG 6	FUJ 2	SUZ 2	FUJ C	SUZ 10	FUJ 2	1st	40

Complete International Formula 3000 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
1989	Footwork	SIL DNQ	VAL Ret	PAU DNQ	JER 18	PER	BRH	BIR	SPA	BUG	DIJ	NC	0

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1992	Central Park Venturi Larrousse	Venturi Larrousse LC92	Lamborghini V12	RSA 12	MEX 12	BRA 9	ESP DNQ	SMR Ret	MON DNPQ	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 17	ITA 9	POR Ret	JPN 11	AUS Ret		NC	0
1993	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 020C	Yamaha V10	RSA Ret	BRA Ret	EUR Ret	SMR Ret	ESP Ret	MON Ret	CAN 17	FRA Ret	GBR 13									NC	0
1993	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 021	Yamaha V10										GER Ret	HUN 10	BEL 15	ITA 14	POR Ret	JPN Ret	AUS Ret		NC	0
1994	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 022	Yamaha V10	BRA 5	PAC Ret	SMR 5	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 6	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	EUR 7	JPN Ret	AUS Ret		17th	5
1995	Nokia Tyrrell Yamaha	Tyrrell 023	Yamaha V10	BRA Ret	ARG 8	SMR Ret	ESP Ret	MON Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 7	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 10	POR Ret	EUR	PAC 14	JPN Ret	AUS Ret	NC	0
1996	Tyrrell Yamaha	Tyrrell 024	Yamaha V10	AUS 11	BRA 9	ARG Ret	EUR DSQ	SMR Ret	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 7	BEL 8	ITA 10	POR 12	JPN Ret		NC	0
1997	Minardi Team	Minardi M197	Hart V8	AUS Ret	BRA 18†	ARG Ret	SMR 11	MON 10	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA 11	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 10	BEL 14	ITA Ret	AUT 11	LUX Ret	JPN Ret	EUR 17	NC	0

† Katayama did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.

References

↑ "Katayama scales Mt. Manaslu". Autosport.com. 2006-12-01. Retrieved 2006-12-01.
↑ "Former F1 driver Katayama says fellow climbers died on Mount Fuji". Mainichi Shimbun. 2009-12-19. Retrieved 2009-12-19.
↑ "ビンソンマシフ登頂成功". Ukyo Katayama official website. 2010-12-27. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
↑ Tsuji, Kei. "Doi Yukihiro ga Chīmu Ukyo e no iseki". Cyclowired. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
↑ http://f-lap.net/_src/sc1278/ukyo05.jpg

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ukyo Katayama.

Team UKYO Official website
Ukyo Katayama career summary at DriverDB.com

Sporting positions
Preceded by Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Japanese Formula 3000 Champion 1991	Succeeded by Mauro Martini

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