Toranosuke
Takagi

Toranosuke Takagi was born on 12 February 1974 in Shizuoka, Japan. His father was a touring car driver. Takagi began karting in the early 1980s and contested his first championship race in 1987. He won the Japanese A2 National Kart Series in 1989 and 1990. In 1992 he moved to Formula Toyota, and in 1993 to Japanese Formula 3, finishing tenth in his first year and sixth in 1994. A race in 1994 caught the eye of Satoru Nakajima, a Japanese Formula One driver. Takagi joined Nakajima's team, Nakajima Racing, in Japanese Formula 3000 and finished second in the 1995 championship with three wins.

Takagi was Tyrrell's test driver in 1997 and was given a race seat with the team for 1998. In his debut season he started all 16 races and finished ninth at both Silverstone and Monza. In 1999 he drove for Arrows, again started all 16 races and took seventh place in the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, his best result in Formula One. He made 32 Grand Prix starts in total and left Formula One after the 1999 season.

In 2000 Takagi drove for Nakajima Racing and won the Formula Nippon title, taking eight victories in ten races. In 2001 and 2002 he raced in CART for Walker Racing, finishing fourth at Houston in 2001 and at Chicago in 2002. In 2003 he moved to the Indy Racing League with Mo Nunn Racing and finished tenth in the standings. At the Indianapolis 500 he started seventh and finished fifth, which earned him the Rookie of the Year award. He stayed with Mo Nunn Racing in the IndyCar Series in 2004. In 2005 he went back to Japan and won the GT500 title in Super GT with Yuji Tachikawa, sharing the number 38 Toyota Supra.

Source: Wikipedia, “Toranosuke Takagi”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.