Suzuka International Racing Course

The Suzuka International Racing Course in Japan was designed by the renowned circuit architect John Hugenholtz, who was responsible for the design of the original Zandvoort race track too. It wove a lazy eight pattern through a hilly landscape for about 3.7 miles.

The rather wide race trac63k hosted the Japanese Grand Prix as the first major event in May 1963, a race won by Peter War in a Lotus 22. The event was visited by approximately 100.000 visitors that enjoyed a race dominated by the European drivers that were invited for this race.

The Suzuka International Racing Course was officialy opened in 1962. Initially it served the  majority of the time as a test track for Honda, for MotoGP events and for the sports car racing events like the Suzuka 8 hours and the Suzuka 1000K.

In 1987 the Suzuka race track was used the first time for a F1 event. One of the most famous F1 incidents, the crash between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, happened at Suzuka.