IN
THE
WIND
P32
Vale Mitsuo Ito
M
itsuo Ito, an important
history man of the
Japanese entry to motor-
cycle racing, passed away
last week at the age of 82.
He was the only one of his
countrymen ever to win an
Isle of Man TT, but he was
far more than a successful
pioneering rider.
In a lifelong career with
Suzuki that eventually
led him to the top of the
factory-racing depart-
ment, he shepherded the
marque to classic world
championship wins with
Barry Sheene and Kevin
Schwantz, and influenced
later success with Kenny
Roberts Jr.
As a racer between 1961
and 1967, Ito took one
other GP win at the 1967 Japa-
nese GP in the 50cc class. He
added another 11 podium finishes
in 50cc and 125cc.
He remained with Suzuki after
the factory withdrew from direct
involvement after 1968, but he
was involved the development
of the forthcoming square-four
RG500, which would come to
dominate the premier class, win-
ning every constructor champi-
onship from 1976 to 1982, and
championships for Sheene,
Marco Lucchinelli, and Franco
Uncini.
Ito was a familiarly avuncular
figure to denizens of the GP
paddock from the 1970s to the
1990s. Behind the scenes,
he was the key influence that
returned the once dominant
factory in the 500cc class to a
second competitive era in the
1990s, against the much bigger
racing departments of Honda
and Yamaha.
Rider Kevin Schwantz, who
won 25 GPs and the 1993
championship at the van of
Suzuki's second coming, paid
tribute: "He was by far the most
important person at Suzuki dur-
ing my grand prix career, and
the driving force at Suzuki at the
time… completely focused on
how to make their grand prix bike
better."
Unlike the typical Japanese
factory man, he also had a hu-
man side. "Such a nice, laid-
back easy-going guy," Schwantz
said. "With Mr. Ito, you could go
and have a beer and talk about
what happened in the last race.
I think that jovial way he had
comes from having been a racer.
I think he realized about racing—
that it's a pretty high-stress job,
but you also need to have fun."
Michael Scott
Mitsuo Ito was a
career-long Suzuki
man, pictured here
in 2010 on his
Suzuki RK67 at the
Japanese Grand Prix.