page_title: Hideki Noda
section_title: Back To Japan (1998–2001)
hierarchical_section_title: Hideki Noda / Career / After Formula One / Back To Japan (1998–2001)
caption_attribution_description: Hideki Noda driving the Kruse Schiller Motorsports Lola B05/40-Mazda at the 2008 1000km of Silverstone.
context_page_description: Hideki Noda is a Japanese professional racing driver. He participated in three Formula One Grands Prix, debuting in the 1994 European Grand Prix, but did not score any championship points. He replaced Yannick Dalmas in the Larrousse car for the last three Grands Prix of the season, but failed to finish in any of the three races. In 1995, he joined Simtek as a test driver, hoping to get some races in. However, the Kobe earthquake and the folding of the Simtek team ended his brief career.
  A year later, Noda went to America and raced in the Indy Lights and became the only Japanese driver to win a CART-sanctioned event. After a few years in America, Noda moved back to Japan, where he drove a Team Cerumo Toyota Supra with Hironori Takeuchi. In the annual non-championship All-Star event at Aida, Noda and Takeuchi were forced out with mechanical problems. In 1999, he joined the Esso Tiger Team Le Mans under Koichiro Mori, again to drive a Toyota Supra, ex-Australian V8 Supercar driver Wayne Gardner. The highlight of their season was a win at Fuji. With 33 points they were equal 17th in the series.
context_section_description: In 1998 he returned to Japan, and in the four seasons since has had parallel careers in Formula Nippon and the Japanese GT Championship. In the latter he drove a Team Cerumo Toyota Supra in 1998 with Hironori Takeuchi, finishing fifth at Motegi and third at Sugo, scoring 22 points for equal 21st overall. The season was marred, though, by the abandonment of the Fuji round due to fog, and in the annual non-championship All-Star event at Aida, Noda and Takeuchi were forced out with mechanical problems.
  In 1999 he joined the Esso Tiger Team Le Mans under Koichiro Mori, again to drive a Toyota Supra, this time alongside ex-500 cc motorcycle World Champion and Australian V8 Supercar driver Wayne Gardner. In truth it was an inconsistent season, with several rather average results offset by fastest lap at Sugo (despite a retirement), fifth at both Mine and the non-championship Fuji 1000 km, and, in the highlight of their season, a fine win plus fastest lap for Noda at Fuji. With 33 points they were equal 17th in the series.
  The combination of Noda, Gardner and the Esso Le Mans am remained the same for 2000, and this time consistency was their key, finishing six of the seven races in the top 10, with an eighth at Motegi, seventh places at Sugo and Aida, sixth at Suzuka, fifth at Mine and fourth at Fuji. However, they were unable to make it onto the podium, and with 35 points they could only rank equal 14th overall. Also, at the All-Star event held at Sepang, Noda and Gardner took ninth place, albeit a lap down.
  Noda also competed in the Formula Nippon series from 1998 to 2001. In 1998 he drove for the Cosmo Oil Racing Team in the standard Lola T98/51 chassis with the obligatory Mugen engine, but apart from a third at Sugo and a smattering of fifths and sixths, there were also three spin-outs at Mine and Suzuka, the first of which Noda crashed twice. With nine points he could only manage 10th overall.
  In 1999 he switched to the Be Brides Impul team. Starting the season in a Lola B99/51 Mugen, he could not break into the top ten in either qualifying or races, and in midstream the team changed to a Reynard 99L chassis. This brought about an upturn in fortunes, and towards the end of the year Noda recorded a sixth at Suzuka, second at Mine and ninth at Motegi, and with seven points ended up in 11th position.
  A full season in a Reynard 99L Mugen for the Le Mans team in 2000 saw Noda jump up to fifth place with 15 points, with a sixth at Fuji, fifths at Suzuka and Motegi, third at Mine and second at Suzuka. But this was very little compared to another ex-Formula One driver, Toranosuke Takagi, who won eight of the ten rounds for the Nakajima team, scoring a mammoth 86 points to second-placed Michael Krumm's 34.
  After the improvement of 2000, though, in 2001 Noda joined the DoCoMo Dandelion Racing team, piloting a Reynard 2KL Mugen. In an ambitious operation, the team also ran an older Reynard 99L for one-time Benetton test driver Hidetoshi Mitsusada and Polish racer Jaroslav Wierczuk. It was probably too much for the outfit, and it showed as Noda failed to score any points at all, retiring from six of the 10 rounds, despite a best qualifying effort of 3rd at Motegi.
  Noda returned to the United States in 2002 and drove in six Indy Racing League races for Convergent Racing and Indy Regency Racing (whom Noda drove for in Indy Lights) with a best finish of 10th at Phoenix International Raceway while with Convergent.
caption: Noda driving the Lola B05/40-Mazda of Kruse Schiller Motorsports in the 2008 Le Mans Series season
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