The Japanese may dominate motorcycling and Grand Prix racing now, but it wasn't always the case. In the early 1960s, they were the outsiders in more ways than one.

First Japanese Grand Prix Winner Dies aged 82

News has come through that the first Japanese motorcycle World Championship Grand Prix winner, Kunimitsu Takahashi, has died, aged 82.

We are so used to the dominance of Japanese motorcycles and Grand Prix teams nowadays that it is hard to conceive of a time when nobody was aware that they even had a motorcycle industry, let alone were going to take over the world.

The first incursions onto the European racing scene were made by a small Honda team in 1959, competing in the 125cc class at the Isle of Man TT. This appearance completely boggled the minds of the Europeans; no-one knew anything about the growing Japanese motorcycle industry which, with the benefit of hindsight seems incredible, so powerful has that industry become.

New they might have been, but the machines were beautifully made; the engines had shaft-driven double overhead cams and produced 18.5bhp at 14,000rpm. Unknown Japanese riders were employed and, if the Hondas were outclassed by the contemporary MV Agustas, Ducatis and MZs, they were to show that they weren’t slow to learn.

The team returned in 1960 for a full GP season, this time with a new 125cc twin and a 250cc four, which shows an incredible work rate for such a young company. Not only that, but this time Honda had signed European riders Jim Redman, Tom Phillis and Bob Brown to ride the 250s.

However, it would be a Japanese rider who would take Honda's - and Japan's - first Grand Prix victory, thus setting the scene for sixty years of dominance that no-one foresaw.

That first victory was taken by Kunimitsu Takahashi. Takahashi joined Honda in 1960 as a factory motorcycle racer, and debuted for them in the Motorcycle World Championship later that year.

In 1961, Takahashi won the 250cc West German Grand Prix, becoming the first rider from Japan to win a World Championship Grand Prix. It was also Honda’s first 250cc GP win, and the first Grand Prix win by a Japanese pilot.

He had an incredibly long career, from 1958 to 1999. He competed on motorcycles between 1958 and 1963, taking four world-level wins in total. Injuries sustained in a crash in 1962 led to him switching to four-wheels in 1965. He won the GT2 class at the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hour race as part of an all-Japanese team competing in a Honda NSX and was a four-time All-Japan Sports Prototype Champion and won in Japanese Top Formula, JTC and JGTC. His final victory as a driver in 1999 came at the age of 59.

After retiring from driving, he owned and managed Team Kunimitsu in Japan’s Super GT car racing championship. In 2018, Team Kunimitsu won the GT500 championship in Super GT - with 2009 F1 World Champion Jenson Button as one of the drivers - and it reclaimed the GT500 crown in 2020.

Honda's official statement said it “is forever grateful, and is deeply sorrowful for the passing of a motor sports legend who has brought the company much triumph and glory.”

Honda President, CEO and Representative Director, Toshihiro Mibe, said, "I am deeply sorrowful on the passing of Kunimitsu Takahashi. He played a major role as a rider on the world championship stage at the dawn of Honda’s motor sports activities, and his four wheel endeavours, he competed with Honda racing cars for over a quarter of a century, bringing many victories to the company.”

In 1961, no-one could know the deep and lasting impact the Japanese would have on racing, even if it was the teams and not the riders or drivers who would have the most success.

We salute a Japanese motorsport hero.