Yojiro Terada

Summary

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 second most participations in the 24 Hours of Le Mans without an overall win (behind Bob Wollek), 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
NationalityJapan Japanese
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years1974, 19812008
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 edit

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
Sources:[8][9]

References edit

  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. ^ "Mazda Roadster by Autoexe, HDTV : Nihon Car .com". Archived from the original on September 17, 2008. Retrieved December 4, 2007. 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
  8. ^ "Yojiro Terada". Automobile Club de l'Ouest. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  9. ^ "Yojiro Terada Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 19 March 2023.

External links edit

  • Official website (in Japanese)
  • Terada's blog page (in Japanese)
  • AutoExe
  • Yojiro Terada at 24 Hours of Le Mans (in French)