Toranosuke Takagi
Toranosuke " Torah " Takagi (Japanese高木 虎 之 介Takagi Toranosuke; born February 12, 1974 in Shizuoka ) is a Japanese racing driver.
Takagi came via his father, a touring car drivers to motor racing. He began in the early 1980s with kart racing. After several race wins and two Japanese championship (A2 National Kart Series ), he joined in 1992 in the Formula Toyota. About the Japanese Formula 3 Takagi finally reached the Japanese Formula 3000, which later became Formula Nippon. In 1997, he was the first test driver for the Formula 1 Team Tyrrell before regular driver was 1998.
Formula 1 career
Takagi was the sixth Japanese in Formula 1, when he was at the 1998 Grand Prix of Australia for the first time for Tyrrell at the start. However, peak results did not reach, also because his team was among the laggards of the formula 1. So he had no championship points, but managed at Silverstone and Monza least two placings in the top ten ( ninth respectively ). His teammates Ricardo Rosset he had all season grip.
After the sale of the Tyrrell team Takagi in 1999 moved to Arrows, who were also a background field team. The season began promisingly with a 7th place in Australia and ranked 8th in Brazil. Championship points, there was this, as opposed to the current regime, but no. The rest of the season was very disappointing for him with entries usually at the end of the field and serial failures. Since he did not receive a Formula 1 cockpit after the 1999 season ended the Formula 1 career Takagi and he went back to Japan for the time being.
American racing series
After his happy little Formula 1 time Takagi led initially back in Formula Nippon, where in 2000 he was immediately superior master. He then made the jump to the American CART series. He rode from 2001 for Walker Racing and was 21st in the championship. His best result was fourth place in Houston. The CART 2002 season went better with a total of seven places in the top ten and championship final rank 15 His best result was a fourth place also.
For 2004, Takagi got a cockpit in the second great American single-seater series, the IndyCar Series in the team of Mo Nunn. The IndyCar Series 2003 season was quite successful with mastery rank 10th season highlights were present rank five. Than the best rookie in the 500 miles of Indianapolis and a podium with third place at Texas Motor Speedway However, Takagi also managed in the IRL only two seasons. After the somewhat disappointing 15th place in the IndyCar Series season of 2004 he went back to Japan and to start again in the Formula Nippon.
In addition to Formula series Takagi also drove sports car racing. In the 1990s he was in the Porsche Supercup at the start, in 2005 he won together with Yuji Tachikawa on a Toyota Supra, the Japanese Super GT championship.