History Of The Suzuka Circuit

The often-repeated story concerning Suzuka's initial construction is that one afternoon Mr. Honda flew in a helicopter over the rice fields that would become Suzuka, purchased all of the land he'd flown over soon after and was bulldozing and filling in the low spots days later.It was a tad longer process than that, however. Honda bought the land in October of 1959, and started building Suzuka in 1960, with original construction completed by the middle of 1962.

The perception is of a young Soichio Honda single-handedly carving out a racetrack to make his own. Actually, Honda was 54 years old when construction began at Suzuka, and he didn't do it all himself. While he did pen the original design, he hired Dutchman Jon Hugnholtz, who had designed circuits in Europe, to flesh out the original. Lore has it that from out of the blue, Hugnholtz received a telegram sent by Mr. Honda, in his typical blunt manner, that simply read, "I'm building a racetrack. Come to Japan. S. Honda." 

Today the Suzuka circuit is well-regarded as one of the best racetracks in the world, and it has several unique features. It is a figure-eight design with a multitude of fast and slow corners, including the aptly named Spoon Curve, the now much slower 130R corner, and Degner corner.

The venue, as most surviving 40-year-old racetracks, is overflowing with racetrack tales. The pond in which a furious Mike Hailwood tossed his Honda's shocks in a fit of frustration is still there, and the local Log Cabin bar has seen more drunken riders than the barmaid cares to count. 

The Degner section of Suzuka is named after former Communist rider Ernst Degner. Many historical sources give the reason for the official designation as 'Honda rider Degner was killed at Suzuka in the mid-1960s in a 125 race'. Degner actually survived his fiery crash and raced again, and naming the corner after him was really just a matter of Japanese graciousness. This was barely twenty years after the end of WWII. The Japanese desperately wanted to fit in with the world racing scene in the 1960s and having a "round-eye" rider maimed at your track meant, they thought, that they should do something for him. So they named a corner after him. More myths disproved: Degner wasn't even a Honda rider. When he was injured, he rode for Suzuki.

Today, Suzuka stands as one of the most unique racetracks in the world, and it is also still very much a Honda facility. Untold amounts of Honda R&D occur within the track's walls.  There is an adjoining amusement park, shopping mall, museum, several hotels, a motocross track and even a bowling alley within the circuit or next to it. Moriwaki and a slew of other Japanese hot-rod firms are located across the street from the main parking lot.

Article in full here - Superbike Planet

Circuit type	Track
First Race Held	1963
Time zone	GMT +9
Designer	John Hugenholtz
Circuit length	5.807 km (3.608 mi))
Race length	307.573 km (191.117 mi)
Number of laps	53
Circuit Turns	17
Circuit Direction	Clockwise
Number of races held	37
Lap record	1:31.540 - (K. Raikkonen, 2005)