Success at home and a world of experience - Rising Star: Roger Yasukawa

Auto Racing Digest, June-July, 2003 by J.J. O'Malley

BORN INTO FORMULA ONE, Roger Yasukawa has found himself a place in Indy car racing. The native Californian and son of a veteran Formula One marketing executive, Yasukawa has traveled--and raced--around the world, only to find there's no place like home.

Yasukawa was the top point scorer on oval tracks during his rookie season in the Toyota Atlantic series in 2002. One year later, he's behind the wheel of the Super Aguri/Adrian Fernandez Racing Panasonic Honda Dallara in the IRL IndyCar Series.

Following his 1995 retirement, Aguri Suzuki--Japan's most successful F1 driver--founded the Autobacs Racing Team Aguri Project (ARTA) in order to promote young Japanese drivers. Developing programs in Japan, Germany, and France, Suzuki entered American competition for the first time in 2002, when Japanese-American Yasukawa represented ARTA in the Toyota Atlantic Series. At the end of the year, Suzuki teamed with CART veteran Adrian Fernandez to form a full-time IRL team, with Yasukawa as the driver.

"It's difficult because it's my first season and everything is so new," says Yasukawa. "The car is new, the engine is new and, in a way, the team is new. We didn't have any data and it was hard to judge anything, because we didn't have any baseline with which to start."

It may be a new team, but Fernandez and Suzuki quickly surrounded the young driver with experience. The team's managing director is Tom Anderson, whose 30-year career included six CART championships for drivers ranging from Johnny Rutherford to Juan Pablo Montoya. John Dick, a winner in IMSA GTP and Trans-Am before moving to the Indy car ranks, is the race engineer. Dick also has IRL experience, guiding Alex Barron to a fifth-place finish in the 2002 championship. "We have a lot of experienced people, and our communication is good," says Yasukawa. "I have a lot to learn, but they've certainly been teaching me quite a bit."

Yasukawa quickly got up to speed. He was among the quickest cars in preseason testing at Phoenix, Fontana, and Homestead. In the season-opening Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he was fast in practice but opted to be cautious in his first IndyCar Series race, finishing 14th. "I wanted to finish in the top 10, but my main aim was to finish the race," he said after the event.

Prior to 2002, Yasukawa's racing career seemed headed in another direction. Even if Yasukawa wouldn't remember it, he was exposed to the sport at an early age, attending his first race--the Long Beach United States Grand Prix West--when he was only 10 months old. His father, Minoru, traveled with the Layton House Formula One team, and has been in the marketing department for the McLaren team for the past 10 years. The younger Yasukawa grew up looking to follow his hero, Ayrton Senna, into the Grand Prix ranks. He began racing karts at 12, and moved to Milan, Italy to further his development. As soon he was old enough, he began driving formula cars on road courses, spending his summers competing in England and his winters racing in the United States.

Yasukawa's breakthrough year was 1998, when the then 20-year-old won 10 of 11 races in the Skip Barber Series. The following year, he won co-rookie of the year honors in the Barber Dodge Pro Series. After a disappointing 2000, he ran a third season in the Barber Dodge Pro Series in 2001, winning his first race (Vancouver), and claiming three additional podiums.

Barber Dodge also exposed Yasukawa to oval track competition, which he enjoyed. He ran some Toyota Atlantic races in 2002--preferring a partial season with a top team to a full-time ride with an under-funded team--and scored three podiums, including a victory on the Milwaukee Mile.

"I had enough confidence in myself to gamble that if I had the best car, I could win, and I was able to win at Milwaukee in my second Atlantic series race," he says. "I think I learned a lot about oval racing in Barber Dodge, but [learned] even more in the Atlantic series last year. The Barber Dodge cars are primarily for road courses, while you could change a lot to make the Atlantic series cars balance well. The two series have different approaches, and together they prepared me for the IRL."

For now, Grand Prix racing has fallen off of Yasukawa's radar screen. He's focused on IndyCar Series racing, and that's where he wants to stay. "I think oval racing and motor sports in the U.S. are is a lot more fun than [in Europe]," he says. "Really, my ultimate goal is to win the Indy 500. That's why I'm here."