There seems to be some unrest over Japanese racer Takuma Sato’s installation at KV Racing Technology this season, in lieu of the apparent lack of Yanks contesting the Indy Car Series…
Yet I find Taku-san to be quite refreshing, as no less then Team Co-Owner JV had the following to say during last week’s Open Test.
Jimmy Vasser
"He's polite, he's smart and he's really fast"
(Source: Robin Miller; speedtv.com)
And I’ve always enjoyed Taku’s On track performances, with my most favourite moment being when upon making a Banzai pass upon an aging DC, (David Coulthard) as the Square-jawed Scot exasperatingly told the upstart Japanese Piloto afterwards: “I would have NEVER made that pass…” (In that situation) Sato eagerly snapped back: “I KNOW!” As I believe this was during Taku’s BAR-Honda days?
Then Takuma also had the nerve to overtake his ex-Teammate and future F1 World Champion ‘JENSE at no less the mighty Spa Francorchamps in his lowly ‘B-Team “Super Best Friends” (Super Aguri) racecar, which at the time was outperforming the lowly “Works” Honda racecar Button was driving…
And imagine the fact that upon Taku’s being replaced by ‘Rubino in the Honda F1 Team, that local Japanese dissent was so vocal that Honda decided to help Aguri Suzuki set-up a satellite Grand Prix Organization provided with Factory lumps just in order to keep the overly popular Sato in Formula 1!
I mean imagine if there was such a similar groundswell for Ed Carpenter? Nah, too many DAMN people only wanna know what DannaCar’s doing now.
So I for one am looking very forward to seeing Taku-san kick some ARSE On track this season, along with winning Rookie of the Year Honours! Now does anybody know if Taku likes Snakes?
KV Racing Technology Barber Open Test notes
