Hideki Noda

Nationality:	Japanese	Races Entered:	3
Date of Birth:	7 March, 1969	DNQ/DNPQ:	-
Team:	Larrousse (1994)	Best Result:	DNF (18 laps) Australia, 1994

BIOGRAPHY

Before Formula One

Another of the brace of pay-drivers who fleetingly graced the Grand Prix stage in the mid-1990s, the ever-smiling Hideki Noda, from Osaka in Japan, was and is certainly no mug behind the wheel. Though he may not have been the best driver the land of the rising sun has ever produced, Noda was perhaps the first Japanese pilot to show that on his day he could match it with the best in both Europe and North America, although he has rarely been given the credit for that. Hideki began his motor racing career in the tradition way, through karting. In 1982 he competed in the Kansai Kart Land J-class category, where he was champion. He then took out the Japanese National A-1 class championship the next year, and won the Japanese National A-1 West Division series in 1985. Moving up to the A-2 class for 1986, Noda was Japanese champion again, before going to Japanese Formula Junior 1600 for 1987, where he won 4 times and was the top rookie.

That was enough as far as he was concerned, and hence in 1988 he thrust himself into the highly competitive world of Japanese F3. Driving for the JAX Racing Team in a Reynard 873 with a Toyota engine, he sensationally came 5th as a 19-year-old in his very first race at Suzuka, and repeated the dose in round four, also at Suzuka. Although those were his only two points-scoring finishes, for a tally of 4 points, finishing equal 10th in the series was no mean feat. After then competing in the prestigious Macau F3 event at the end of 1988, and harbouring ambitions of F1, in 1989 Hideki was off to Europe. Adjusting quickly, he raced in both the British Vauxhall Lotus championship, where he came 5th overall with a win at Donington plus two 3rd places at Donington and Mondello Park in Ireland, and in the GM Opel Lotus Euroseries, where he was 9th in the standings with 2nd place finishes at Paul Ricard and Zandvoort.

That was impressive enough to land him a ride in British F3 for 1990 with Alan Docking Racing in a Ralt RT34 Mugen. He scored 8 points that season, placing 12th in a year dominated by Mika Hakkinen and Mika Salo, but he stayed with the same team for 1991. Upgrading to a Ralt RT35, Hideki jumped up to 7th overall, scoring 36 points, including a fine win at Silverstone. This was the first time that a Japanese driver had won an F3 race outside of his homeland. Not one for hanging around, by 1992 he was racing in F3000 for the Mike Earle's 3001 International team in a Reynard 92D Mugen, but here he found the going much harder. In ten rounds he failed to qualify once, at Hockenheim, but when he did make it onto the grid he never reached higher than 21st. His first season was also marred by two accidents at Barcelona and Enna, although he became more reliable towards the end of the year, climaxing in an 8th place finish at Magny-Cours.

1993 was somewhat better. He joined the TOM'S team in a Reynard 93D Cosworth, and although like in 1992 he failed to score any points, at least he now managed to qualify in the top 20 a few times. He also did a good job of bringing the car home, a highlight being 9th at Pau. But there was still no real reason to expect 1994, Noda's third season in F3000, to be all that much better. As it turned out, a switch to the Forti Corse team to drive a Reynard 94D Cosworth as team-mate to Pedro Diniz worked wonders. The pair stunned everyone at the Silverstone opener, Noda qualifying 4th and Diniz starting 6th, with Hideki eventually finishing 5th and scoring his first F3000 points. He then had a mid-season trot in which he qualified 5th, 6th and 5th respectively at Barcelona, Enna and Hockenheim, scoring a podium finish with 3rd place at Enna. But in truth he was still an inconsistent qualifier, which often hurt his race chances, and he ended the year in equal 9th spot with 6 points.

Formula One

By the end of 1994, though, Noda had reached the pinnacle of motorsport by landing an F1 seat. And although his results had not been unimpressive, it was more by virtue of the sponsorship money he brought that he got himself into the financially troubled Larrousse team towards the end of the season. Still a relative unknown on the world stage, though, Hideki himself was well aware of the fact that expectations of him were low. As he said himself: "People think I'm useless." You said it, Hideki! But really, he was far from useless or hopeless, despite the limitations of the Larrousse LH94 Ford HB V8 package. As team-mate to Erik Comas, at the European GP at Jerez there were fears that both he and fellow newcomer Domenico Schiattarella would be so far off the pace that they would not beat Bertrand Gachot's horrible Pacific to the last grid spot.

Such fears proved unfounded. Noda qualified within a second of Comas' time, and was the 25th fastest. But when David Brabham's best time in the Simtek was disallowed, Hideki was bumped up to 24th on the grid, alongside Comas in 23rd. But in another department, he had comprehensively thrashed his more experienced team-mate. Under braking, he was pulling 4.1g, a Larrousse record, whereas Comas often pulled less than 3g. It showed how quickly he had got the hang of powerful F1 brakes. Sadly, there was no fairytale in the race, and in fact he was lucky to get any laps under his belt at all, for he stalled on the grid, the same as his countryman Ukyo Katayama. Both were push-started on their way, but while Katayama proceeded to storm back through the field to finish a fine 7th, Noda could do no more than tour at the back. That he only did for 10 laps, before he suffered a terminal gearbox problem and began limping back to the pits.

Yet as he did so, the front-running pair of Rubens Barrichello's Jordan and the thoroughly unimpressive Nigel Mansell's Williams came up to lap him. Noda was a touch too slow in getting out of the way, and both Barrichello and Mansell had to guess which side to pass. Rubens pulled to the right and safely negotiated his way around the Larrousse, but all Nigel could do was lock his brakes and ram the back of the Japanese driver! Noda pulled in to retire, and Mansell eventually had to come in for a new nosecone, ruining his race and denting his reputation. Hideki's luck would then get no better at his home race in Japan, where he qualified 23rd, once again only one spot off Comas, although this time he was only 0.013s behind the Frenchman. His experience at Suzuka was obviously paying rich dividends, but when torrential rain drenched the circuit on race day, it would suddenly be a whole new ball game.

The opening laps saw absolute mayhem as cars slid off every which way, but Hideki would never get the choice to join the chaos, his fuel injection system having failed on the very first lap. In fact the entire Japanese contingent suffered a dreadful race, especially when both Katayama and rookie Taki Inoue then aquaplaned into the pit wall at the end of lap 3 in separate incidents. Within the first few minutes all the local heroes were out of the race! The last race in Adelaide was little better. By now Comas had gone, replaced by the ultimate pay-driver Jean-Denis Deletraz. Hideki outqualified his team-mate by two spots and almost 2.3 seconds, but that really wasn't too surprising. From 23rd on the grid, he was passed off the line by the Simteks of Brabham and Schiattarella, and he trailed around in second-last spot for 18 laps before an oil leak brought his race to a premature end once again.

Still, in his three outings he had done a respectable enough job, and he was thought to have been in the frame for a few F1 seats come 1995. As it turned out, Larrousse folded, and the only deal that came his way was to drive the Simtek in the second half of 1995 as Jos Verstappen's team-mate, with Schiattarella racing in the first half of the year. Even so, the deposit Noda paid for the seat and the money he was going to bring to the team was of massive importance to the cash-strapped operation. However, things quickly turned sour. Although he watched the first few races of the 1995 season with envy as Verstappen and Schiattarella demonstrated the promise of the new car, the truth was that his funds had taken a battering after the devastating Kobe earthquake. It contributed to Simtek's mounting financial problems, resulting in the team's closure after Monaco. Noda never even got to drive the car, but to add insult to injury, he was forced to forfeit his deposit and the rest of his 1995 went up in smoke.

After Formula One

With that, Noda was out of the picture as far as F1 was concerned, so for 1996 he went across the Atlantic to try his luck in Indy Lights in America. Adapting quickly, he finished 3rd on the streets of Toronto in his first year, and in 1997 continued in the same category, driving a Lola T97/20 for the Indy Regency team as team-mate to Mexican driver Rodolfo Lavin. 1997 was actually a very competitive year in Indy Lights, with future CART stars Cristiano da Matta, Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves all racing for leading teams. Noda was also not the only Japanese driver in the entry lists, with F1 reject Naoki Hattori and the unrelated Shigeaki Hattori also in the field. In the end Castroneves and da Matta took three wins each, but despite only taking one victory Kanaan's consistency won him the series. Noda was 9th with 51 points, but he did have his shining moments.

Though he was usually a midfield runner, he did qualify 2nd and finish 3rd on the streets of Vancouver, but it was at Portland where he had his fifteen minutes of fame. There he also started from 2nd on the grid, but come race day it rained, and Hideki could put his European experience to good use. After dicing with Castroneves for most of the race, he passed the Brazilian on lap 22 for the lead, and when the race was stopped after 29 laps, Noda was declared the winner. It was the first, and to this point, only time a Japanese driver has won a CART-sanctioned event. In fact it may arguably be the best victory by a Japanese driver in open wheelers on the international stage yet, although it's a result which is, sadly, largely forgotten. Those seven laps in front were the only ones Noda led all year, but they were the ones that mattered. But unfortunately he was never on the Champ Car shopping lists, and by 1998 the American adventure was looking a bit like a dead end.

Thus in 1998 he returned to Japan, and in the four seasons since has had parallel careers in Formula Nippon and the Japanese GT Championship. In the latter he drove a Team Cerumo Toyota Supra in 1998 with Hironori Takeuchi, finishing 5th at Motegi and 3rd at Sugo, scoring 22 points for equal 21st overall. The season was marred, though, by the abandonment of the Fuji round due to fog, and in the annual non-championship All-Star event at Aida, Noda and Takeuchi were forced out with mechanical problems. In 1999 he joined the Esso Tiger Team Le Mans under Koichiro Mori, again to drive a Toyota Supra, this time alongside ex-500cc motorcycle World Champion and Australian V8 Supercar driver Wayne Gardner. In truth it was an inconsistent season, with several rather average results offset by fastest lap at Sugo (despite a retirement), 5th at both Mine and the non-championship Fuji 1000kms, and, in the highlight of their season, a fine win plus fastest lap for Noda at Fuji. With 33 points they were equal 17th in the series.

The combination of Noda, Gardner and the Esso Le Mans team remained the same for 2000, and this time consistency was their key, finishing 6 of the 7 races in the top 10, with an 8th at Motegi, 7th places at Sugo and Aida, 6th at Suzuka, 5th at Mine and 4th at Fuji. However, they were unable to make it onto the podium, and with 35 points they could only rank equal 14th overall. Also, at the All-Star event held at Sepang, Noda and Gardner took 9th place, albeit a lap down. Hideki remained for a 3rd season with the Esso Le Mans team for 2001, but got a new co-driver in the form of Juichi Wakisaka. Together, they formed a potent combination, taking victory in one of two Fuji rounds and finishing 3rd at the other. They also came 5th at Sugo, and won the All-Star race, once again at Sepang in Malaysia. It was enough for the pair to finish the year in 7th place, with 40 points on the board.

In similar fashion, Noda's Formula Nippon exploits from 1998 to 2001 have been good but not great, which would have come as a disappointment considering his experience in F3000, F1 and Indy Lights. In 1998 he drove for the Cosmo Oil Racing Team in the standard Lola T98/51 chassis with the obligatory Mugen engine, but apart from a 3rd at Sugo and a smattering of 5ths and 6ths, there were also three spin-outs at Mine (twice) and Suzuka. With 9 points he could only manage 10th overall. 1999 was even worse as he switched to the Be Brides Impul team. Starting the season in a Lola B99/51 Mugen, he couldn't even break into the top ten in either qualifying or races, and in midstream the team changed to a Reynard 99L chassis. This brought about an upturn in fortunes, and towards the end of the year Noda recorded a 6th at Suzuka, 2nd at Mine and 9th at Motegi, and with 7 points ended up in 11th position.

A full season in a Reynard 99L Mugen for the Le Mans team in 2000 saw Hideki jump up to 5th place with 15 points, with a 6th at Fuji, 5ths at Suzuka and Motegi, 3rd at Mine and 2nd at Suzuka. But this was a pittance compared to another ex-F1 driver, Toranosuke Takagi, who won eight of the ten rounds for the Nakajima team, scoring a mammoth 86 points to second-placed Michael Krumm's 34. After the improvement of 2000, though, in 2001 Noda joined the DoCoMo Dandelion Racing team, piloting a Reynard 2KL Mugen. In an ambitious operation, the team also ran an older Reynard 99L for one-time Benetton test driver Hidetoshi Mitsusada and Polish racer Jaroslav Wierczuk. It was probably too much for the outfit, and it showed as Noda failed to score any points at all, retiring from 6 of the 10 rounds, despite a best qualifying effort of 3rd at Motegi.

For 2002 it looks as though Noda may be heading back to America, to race in the now-blossoming Indy Racing League, possibly for Convergent Racing. In the meantime, on a personal note, Hideki is 1.7 metres tall, and weighs 63kg. He enjoys weight-training, running and swimming, and looks as though he has a penchant for dyeing his hair! Not surprising seeing as though he states fashion as a hobby, as well as squash and mountain-biking. He likes Japanese music, 'The Alfee' in particular, while his favourite drink is a milkshake, and he particularly enjoys pasta and spaghetti pomodoro with lots of parmeggiano. He says that one of his favourite moments in his motorsport career is when he diced with David Coulthard in only his second F3 race at Donington, before being punted off by a backmarker. Though he says that his ambition is to win in Formula One, it would seem as though that dream will never be fulfilled.

CAREER SUMMARY

Before Formula One
1982	• Kansai Kart Land J-Class championship, 1st overall.
1983	• Japanese National A-1 class championship, 1st overall.
1985	• Japanese National A-1 class West Division championship, 1st overall.
1986	• Japanese National A-2 class championship, 1st overall.
1987	• Japanese Formula Junior 1600, rookie of the year, 4 wins.
1988	• Japanese F3, =10th overall, 4 points in a JAX Racing Reynard 873 Toyota. • Competed in the Macau F3 event.
1989	• British Vauxhall Lotus championship, 5th overall, 1 win. • GM Opel Lotus Euroseries, 9th overall.
1990	• British F3, 12th overall, 8 points in an Alan Docking Racing Ralt RT34 Mugen.
1991	• British F3, 7th overall, 36 points, 1 win in an Alan Docking Racing Ralt RT35 Mugen.
1992	• F3000, 10 entries, 1 DNQ in a 3001 International Reynard 92D Mugen.
1993	• F3000 in a TOM'S Reynard 93D Cosworth.
1994	• F3000, =9th overall, 6 points in a Forti Corse Reynard 94D Cosworth.
Formula One
1994	• Larrousse LH94 Ford HB V8, 3 entries.
1995	• Originally signed for the Simtek team.
After Formula One
1996	• Competed in Indy Lights.
1997	• Indy Lights, 9th overall, 51 points, 1 win in an Indy Regency Lola T97/20.
1998	• Japanese GT Championship, =21st overall, 22 points in a Cerumo Toyota Supra with Takeuchi. • All-Japan All-Star event, retired in a Cerumo Toyota Supra with Takeuchi. • Formula Nippon, 10th overall, 9 points in a Cosmo Oil Racing Lola T98/51 Mugen.
1999	• Japanese GT Championship, =17th overall, 33 points, 1 win in an Esso Tiger Team Le Mans Toyota Supra with Gardner. • Formula Nippon, 11th overall, 7 points in a Be Brides Impul Lola T99/51 and Reynard 99L Mugen.
2000	• Japanese GT Championship, =14th overall, 35 points in an Esso Tiger Team Le Mans Toyota Supra with Gardner. • All-Japan All-Star event, 9th place in an Esso Tiger Team Le Mans Toyota Supra with Gardner. • Formula Nippon, 5th overall, 15 points in a Le Mans Reynard 99L Mugen.
2001	• Japanese GT Championship, =7th overall, 40 points, 1 win in an Esso Le Mans Toyota Supra with Wakisaka. • All-Japan All-Star event, 1st place in an Esso Le Mans Toyota Supra with Wakisaka. • Formula Nippon in a DoCoMo Dandelion Racing Reynard 2KL Mugen.
2002	• Intention to race in the Indy Racing League.

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