Hideo Kanaya

was a Japanese professional motorcycle racer and motorcycle racing team manager. He competed in the Grand Prix motorcycle road racing world championships from 1967 to 1975. He dominated Japanese road racing in the early 1970s and was the first Japanese rider to win a world championship 500cc Grand Prix race. Although Kanaya was a competitive racer, he was never allowed to compete in a full season in the world championships as, his main responsibility was as a test rider in Japan. In 1969 he won the 250cc class of the All Japan Road Race Championship riding a Kawasaki. Kanaya became a member of the Yamaha factory racing team in 1970 and, in 1971 he won the 90cc class as well as the open class of the All Japan Road Race Championship. At the third round of the world championship held at the fast Salzburgring circuit, he scored an impressive double victory by winning the 350cc and 500cc classes of the Austrian Grand Prix, becoming the first Japanese rider to win either class. After a third place finish at the fifth race of the season in Italy, Yamaha ordered Kanaya to return to Japan to continue his test riding duties. He finished the race in 7th place after his motorcycle developed tire wear problems which, forced him to make a pit stop for a tire change. Kanaya retired from racing in 1982 after competing in the TBC Big Road Race.

In Japan, Kanaya continued to perform development work on Yamaha Grand Prix and production class race bikes. He died on December 19, 2013, at the age of 68.

Grand Prix motorcycle racing results

Source:

Points system from 1950 to 1968: Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 Points 8 6 4 3 2 1

Points system from 1969 onwards: Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Points 15 12 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Class Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Points Rank Wins 1967 125cc Kawasaki ESP- GER- FRA- IOM- NED- BEL- DDR- CZE- FIN- ULS- NAT- CAN- JPN3 4 12th 01972 250cc Yamaha GER1 FRA3 AUT- NAT- IOM- YUG- NED10 BEL- DDR- CZE- SWE- FIN- ESP- 26 11th 1 350cc Yamaha GER3 FRA- AUT2 NAT5 IOM- YUG4 NED6 DDR- CZE- SWE- FIN- ESP- 41 8th 0 500cc Yamaha GER- FRA- AUT- NAT- IOM- YUG- NED- BEL4 DDR- CZE- SWE- FIN- ESP- 8 22nd 01973 250cc Yamaha FRA2 AUT2 GER2 IOM- YUG- NED- BEL- CZE- SWE- FIN- ESP- 36 7th 0 500cc Yamaha FRA3 AUT2 GER- IOM- YUG- NED- BEL- CZE- SWE- FIN- ESP- 22 8th 01975 350cc Yamaha FRA- ESP3 AUT1 GER- NAT- IOM- NED- FIN- CZE- YUG- 25 10th 1 500cc Yamaha FRA2 AUT1 GER4 NAT3 IOM- NED- BEL- SWE- FIN- CZE- 45 3rd 1